This is a rant about the evils of cars and driving.
There
are multiple reasons that driving is an immoral way to travel, and at least two
of them would each be sufficient reason on their own to never get behind the
wheel. The first is the environmental cost, and the second is the risk to life.
The environmental cost is pretty well documented; everybody knows it, but
no-one appears to care, so I’ll focus on the risk to life.
By
risk to life, I mean the chances of killing or seriously injuring someone when
you are on the road. The risk of this may be tiny as long as you are not a
particularly reckless driver, but killing someone is such a huge cost, that
even a tiny risk is well worth avoiding if you reasonably can. And most people
reasonably can. In most locations, public transport, walking and cycling are
all realistic options for most journeys. It is not about having no other
option, but about what is more convenient.
Doesn't
that sit awkwardly with anyone? More convenience,
versus the risk of someone being killed. And the chances are highest that that
someone would be one of the people you drive around most regularly, and so one
of the people you care about most. I would think that, however small the
chances are, provided they are not infinitesimal (and they are not), there is
no way it’s ok to choose convenience over safety.
But
you’re a good driver, you think. Even if you’re right (and almost everyone
vastly overestimates themselves), so what? Let’s try an analogy:
Say
you are a really good typist, and you know it. You’re known for miles around
for your fast and accurate typing. Then one day, someone kidnaps your family,
and sends you a ransom demand. Actually, more of a ransom challenge, if that’s
a thing. They offer a chauffeur-driven car direct to their secret lair, where they
will challenge you to a typing test. If you pass the test, your family are
released unharmed, and you are all driven straight home.
Fantastic,
you think! The thing I'm best at is all I have to do. But then you start to
think about having to test your skill under this immense pressure, with your
family’s lives depending on your abilities, nerve and concentration. You’re not
superhuman; you could always make a mistake. You've made mistakes occasionally
before, although fortunately they've never really had any consequences. You are
a really really good typist, but it’s a complex skill. If anything went wrong,
you would feel that you had killed your own family, and would have to live with
that for the rest of your life.
But
what’s this? There’s a P.S. to the ransom note. There’s an alternative.
You
could get the bus to the secret lair, then your family will be released
unharmed, and you can all get the bus home. Buses are only once an hour, so you’re
a bit restricted in when you can travel, and it takes about ten minutes longer
to get there, and the bus stop is a five minute walk from your house. A
chauffeur-driven car does seem more convenient. Is it worth it, if that
convenience carries with it the requirement that you wager the lives of the
people you care most about on your skill at typing?
Surely,
even if you’re an amazing typist, you just get on the bus? If you don’t, how
dare you?! How dare you be arrogant enough to wager the lives of others on just
how great you think you are at some practical skill at which everyone is necessarily fallible?! But
that is just what drivers do every day: wager the lives of others on just how
great they think they are at a practical skill at which everyone is necessarily
fallible.
You’ll
say this is a false analogy, and you’re right. For one thing, most people are
not great at driving; they are merely ok, and many are worse than that. For another
thing, this analogy doesn't even begin to capture all the innocent passers-by
whose lives you potentially endanger when you drive. It’s your loved-ones you
are most likely to harm, but it could
be practically anyone. All of them with lives and loves and friends and
families and plans.
The
thing about death (and certain types of injury) is that there’s no going back
and making it right, no healing, no recovery. One tiny slip of concentration
(and we all have hundreds of those every day) and the worst could happen. You
might die yourself of course. Or you might have to live with the consequences
of your actions for many decades to come. But it was worth it. Because of convenience. Tell that to the bereaved.
