driving

[hurb]

I just genuinely don't understand how driving is normalized or how the act of driving by itself is necessary to be a functioning adult. let me explain:

I feel as if by choosing to go from point A to point B , we take a huge risk everyday. the possibilities are endless on how it can go wrong , from injuring someone to killing , to just simply hitting someone car. the concept of finding myself in an altercation with someone while i alrdy lack the will to live drains me down so much.
like how many times do we hear bout someone dying in an accident everyday, how do people just pretend it's not happening.
I really wanna understand , why am i the broken one for thinking bout it...

 

[LastNite]

It ain't that serious. People die from car accidents because some dumbasses decide to jump in a car and go past the speed limit.


People who drive normally, follow the law, drive without drinking, pay attention, and keep their phones out of their hands never get in accidents.
Even if they did, the accident itself would likely be so minor that there will be no harm done.

Nowadays everything is so spread out that driving is necessary to meet needs. For example let's say you landed a job at some law firm. I bet you my life that it's not going to be in some suburban place. Imagine you living outside of the city having to walk 3-4 hours everyday to get to your job. It's unbearable. A car drive would get you there in under 30 minutes.

 

[DeathByBananabread]

There is currently a giant push in different political & social groups across the world towards going carless & building better infrastructure/cities so that we don't need to drive so much. You'd like the Youtube channel Not Just Bikes.

I've, frankly, been told before that I shouldn't even be driving with some of the issues I have, & I agree, but I have a license & have to do it sometimes.

It annoys the hell out of me too, before modern times the only thing we could do on a regular basis that ran the risk of killing so many people unintentionally was just cooking. Now we're all expected to fuck about in our giant fucking death shells, no matter how ill-equipped we feel to use it. & it costs more than a meal to have someone else drive you. It's so fucked.

 

[Forveleth]

Have you really looked at the numbers?:

• In 2024, an estimated 45,000 people died in traffic accidents. That sounds like a lot! https://www.nsc.org/newsroom/nsc-estimates-over-44,000-traffic-deaths-in-2024
• But in 2024, the population of the US was 340 MILLION people. That means only 0.0001% of the population died in a car crash in 2024. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/12/population-estimates.html
• In 2024, 600,000 people died from cancer. https://www.cancer.org/research/can...-facts-figures/2024-cancer-facts-figures.html In 2021, nearly 1M people died from heart disease. https://www.heart.org/-/media/PHD-F...te/2024-Statistics-At-A-Glance-final_2024.pdf In 2023, 49,000 died by suicide! More people killed themselves than died in a car accident! https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html
• You are more likely to fall off a ladder and die than you are to die in a car crash https://usafacts.org/answers/what-are-the-leading-causes-of-death-in-the-us/country/united-states/

Yes, people die in car crashes every day. Yes, being on the road can be dangerous. However, there are far more risky behaviors that we partake in every single day than being on the road. Cars are big and heavy and have the potential to go very, very fast. However, they are also incredibly safe. People have gone through crashes that look like something out of an action movie and have gotten out and walked away with only minor injuries. Just because you may hear about accidents on the news does not mean that they are happening to everyone all the time. Remember, we only hear about the bad ones that are sensational and will contract attention. We never hear about the hundreds of minor accidents where people walk away just fine and we certainly don't hear about the hundreds of thousands of people that make the trip with no incident at all.

 

[hurb]

this isnt rly about numbers tho; what I struggle with is the concept of leaving my comfort zone to do an action that holds a lot of risk.
it just doesnt sound right to me that going from sleeping and chilling in ur bed to finding urself driving a car where if u lose a bit of focus etc u run the risk of harming someone or having to tank some sort altercation with someone. logically speaking , driving simply doesn't make sense specially with how we pretend to care about human life etc
lets take climbing a ladder for example something @Forveleth mentionned , sure it's risky but it only put my life at risk rather than people around me , also i if i feel overwhelmed i can just opt out climb back if i feel like it , and there is a lot less avriables to worry about; when it comes to driving lets say u r overwhelmed but u r in some sorta of a busy road , u got no choice u have to keep going.

 

[noname223]

Driving scares the shit out of me. I am not stable enough for that and never got my driving licence. And I think I could accidentally kill someone with a car and end up in jail. I am overburdened even by my thoughts let alone a vehicle that could accidentially kill people. I am so glad I can use the public transport.