The U.S. Needs To Solve The Fundamental Driver Of Climbing Road Deaths – CleanTechnica

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A recent YouTube video from CBS shares some data that explains the rise of traffic fatalities since the pandemic. In a nutshell, Americans aren’t doing too hot. We’re angry, stressed, and distracted, and it’s killing us. But, instead of trying to tackle the real problems identified, the experts want to throw a band-aid on it.

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In short, many Americans aren’t doing very well emotionally right now. Traffic deaths were going down for decades, but suddenly started a sharp uptick during the pandemic. Now, people are struggling hard with all sorts of things.

For one, the economy is a challenge for people. Government figures say that inflation is down, but that doesn’t mean that prices have come back down. Like people in other countries, Americans like to have meals every day (we’re picky like that) and it’s not cheap to do that. Then, add the rising price of housing, high interest rates, and stagnant or even lowered wages, and many people are feeling the squeeze.

For many people, working remote during the pandemic was great. They usually still got their work done, but without the stress of a commute (and often times even getting dressed). With all of the extra time on their hands (hours in some cases), people were able to do things like spend time with family, pursue hobbies, or just get a normal and healthy amount of sleep. For many workers, that’s now getting taken away and replaced with a soul-crushing commute and toxic office environment again.

On top of all that, people are struggling with an increasingly insane political environment in the United States.

Just a few years ago, people would argue over the normal political issues and things obviously weren’t perfect, but overall, things were improving for many Americans. Progress continued to be made for marginalized groups, while even issues that affected mainstream people were slowly easing up.

But, after the pandemic lockdowns, things went insane. Police murders, riots, an autonomous zone, consulate closures, burnt police stations, a disputed election, a riot/insurrection, and many other nasty things all happened in short order. Roe v Wade got overturned, followed by insane bans in many states. LGBT rights are under attack.

Now, years later, we’re watching states defy the Supreme Court (including but not limited to the border) and even serious thinkers and analysts are talking about worse political violence. We now have two major presidential candidates who both fear legal consequences and maybe even prison if they lose, so all bets are off and normal rules might not apply.

In other words, Americans are stressed out and scared. All of this bad stuff happening isn’t great for our driving. Aggressive driving is up. Distracted driving is up. Speeding is up. Crashes are up. Deaths are up.

The Solutions Aren’t Easy

Like anybody, I’d like to see road deaths go down, but I’m not confident at all that the experts CBS spoke to have great ideas. Instead of suggesting that we need to make life better and help people be less angry and/or distracted, the experts are saying that we need automated speed and red light cameras, harsh penalties, and roads designed to inconvenience and slow people down.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think an angry and distracted public will respond well to that. The added financial pressure of photo tickets, adding in more stop signs, and making people’s commutes take longer isn’t going to help at all with that. If anything, we’d be turning up the heat under that toxic brew of emotions and hoping that it somehow all gets solved.

Instead, we really need to be seeing experts who give a crap about people. The core problem isn’t that Americans aren’t being pestered and controlled enough. It’s that quality of life and standards of living are on the downswing. Any proposed solutions that don’t address those problems first in a substantive way aren’t going to solve the problem. If anything, they’ll make it worse.

Featured image by Jennifer Sensiba.