Lloyd from Treehugger hates all kinds of vehicles – especially pickups. He keeps complaining that they have grown too big, too powerful – and in his estimation, you need a special license in order to use it just for work.
Remember, this guy is a New Urbanist – we ALL should live in “walkable” cities in which we are dependent on Government transit to go further or to someplace “away.” Small apartments with small fridges and kitchens so that you have to walk to the local bodega to get your daily food – you know, so you HAVE to talk to your neighbors!
Utopia. His. Not mine. But I don’t matter.
Anyways, this time, he’s out to eliminate ALL traffic deaths and guess who he thinks can make it happen? Ayup – failed Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and now Sec Transportation, Petey Buttigieg. Once again, turning to Government for a solution as I pointed out above (reformatted, emphasis mine).
Traffic Deaths Rose 18.4% in First Half of 2021
Might Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg actually try and do something about it?The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released data showing that more people died in car crashes in the first six months of 2021 than any year since 2006 and the increase over the previous year, 18.4%, is the largest since they started collecting the data.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement:“This is a crisis. More than 20,000 people died on U.S. roads in the first six months of 2021, leaving countless loved ones behind. We cannot and should not accept these fatalities as simply a part of everyday life in America. Today we are announcing that we will produce the Department’s first ever National Roadway Safety Strategy to identify action steps for everyone working to save lives on the road. No one will accomplish this alone. It will take all levels of government, industries, advocates, engineers, and communities across the country working together toward the day when family members no longer have to say goodbye to loved ones because of a traffic crash.”
And Lloyd goes on to cite a bunch of stats as well as doing the fanboy “what a wonderful change from the previous Administration” as this “Eat the Rich” dude opines from Toronto and mopes:
Perhaps that manual might finally get revised. Who knows, perhaps Buttigieg might do something about vehicle design and make trucks and SUVs as safe for pedestrians as cars, or even bring in speed limiters! We can dream.
Frankly, he’d be happier in replacing safety and speed limiters with more car crushers, but that’s just my observation of him, and so I made another one back to Lloyd:
Yeah, that failed upward small city mayor will get right on this after he solves the Logistics crisis that “unexpectedly” appeared (thanks, in part, to governmental COVID “guidance” taken as absolute law).
Will this mean, like Mayor Petey, we’ll all get an SUV to stash our “marketing bike” to ride after unloading it from said SUV behind a bush so as to not break the Narrative?
Yeah, a bit harsher than I normally put things on TH but I thought it was warranted. However, he was not impressed – or just acknowledging that his “foil” had returned:
you have not been around for a while! I see nothing has changed.
Ayup – bringing facts to the fight in return:
I’ve been here – just not seeing much to comment on. Today there was some and this was one.
But you deflect, Lloyd. Why would a mayor of a city of 100,000, who didn’t do well in the Presidential Primary, has absolutely NO experience in Logistics or Transportation, be appointed to be ANY Cabinet level Secretary (and I’ve said similar about Republican nominees as well).
I duly note that you failed to mention the assessment of risk in regular life. Life is DEFINED as risk and only those that believe that they are the King Canutes (as you are doing here) of statistics believe they can make Life be without any bad outcomes at all.
You said 20K in the first half of 2021 – double it for the sake of argument to 40K. In a country of 340,000,000 people. That risk statistic, simply put, a ratio of 0.0117%.
That’s not even in “rounding error” territory.
Just saying SLOWER and NO CARS will never drive that to absolute zero because Stupidity can’t be driven out of the equation.
Along with risk is the cost (and spare us the “If it only saves one life!” because it doesn’t from a practical standpoint). OK Lloyd, you’re a smart guy:
1) how MUCH will it cost to actually drive that risk to zero?
2) are YOU willing to pay that price on your own?
3) will taxpayers vote to take on that burden?After all, isn’t the 80/20 Rule in play here?
And yes, if you are going to appoint a shallow politician to such a position, shouldn’t qualifications play a role in it? After all, he wasn’t all that great of a Mayor – my entire point. Even if he had an R after his name, I’d be saying the same thing (because I bash Republicans more than I do Democrats )
Heh! And of course, the obligatory “whose payroll?”:
Troy Ozarowicz GraniteGrok • 2 days ago
Who pays you? Does it pay better than my job?
I only wish I got paid:
I’m retired – I am on no one’s payroll. Which means I have a lot of spare time.
