{"id":268772739,"date":"2013-07-08T19:05:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T19:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=268772739"},"modified":"2013-07-08T19:05:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T19:05:39","slug":"do-we-want-to-save-lives-on-our-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=268772739","title":{"rendered":"Do we want to save lives on our roads?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By David Alpert, Washington Post<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nThese are indeed the main criticisms. Let\u2019s tackle them.<br \/>\nWhile most of us break traffic laws some, or even much, of the time, it\u2019s not a good thing. I do it, too, sometimes. I shouldn\u2019t. In some places, nearly everyone is exceeding the speed limit, which creates peer pressure. Most of us also think we\u2019re above-average drivers. Unlike the children in Lake Wobegon, everyone can\u2019t be above-average. Research shows that most drivers believe they are more skilled than they are.<br \/>\nWe need to break this cycle. We need to find a way to change a culture in which otherwise law-abiding people consider posted maximum speeds to be suggestions or, at best, assume that the \u201creal\u201d limit is 10 mph above what\u2019s posted. In a residential neighborhood where the limit is 25 mph, 36 is quite fast. Every 10 mph faster a car is moving equates to a 40 percent greater chance that a pedestrian who is hit will die.<br \/>\nThose who watch \u201cMad Men\u201d know that at one time our society considered drinking and driving perfectly reasonable. It took many years and concerted public information campaigns to persuade people otherwise.<br \/>\nUnfortunately, our discourse about this issue has veered far, far away from safety.<br \/>\nThat\u2019s in part because our leaders have gotten used to using cameras to plug holes in government budgets. As taxes go, this is like a \u201csin tax,\u201d similar to high taxes on cigarettes. But it\u2019s not ideal public policy. Anne McCartt of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently pointed out to The Post\u2019s Ashley Halsey III that if people stop speeding, the revenue will vanish, as it should, since the goal is to stop speeding.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/complacency-in-the-face-of-a-rising-dc-death-toll\/2013\/05\/31\/5ff9ff14-c953-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html\">https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/complacency-in-the-face-of-a-rising-dc-death-toll\/2013\/05\/31\/5ff9ff14-c953-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_story.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Alpert, Washington Post &#8230; These are indeed the main criticisms. Let\u2019s tackle them. While most of us break traffic laws some, or even much, of the time, it\u2019s not a good thing. I do it, too, sometimes. I shouldn\u2019t. In some places, nearly everyone is exceeding the speed limit, which creates peer pressure. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=268772739\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Do we want to save lives on our roads?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268772739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268772739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268772739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268772739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268772739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268772739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268772739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}