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charley1957
Hazard to Others
Posts: 166
Registered: 18-2-2012
Location: Texas
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Mood: Beginning to cool off
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Hey, y’all are preaching to the choir. I remember in the Navy washing engine parts and cleaning up engine blocks aboard ship using trichlorethane
and carbon tetrachloride. I’m just lamenting the fact that the government just always seems to be in everybody’s business. Yeah, i get that it
probably has to be that way sometimes. It’s just that it seems more and more to be intrusive into every facet of our lives. Maybe I just yearn for
a much simpler time in life when things weren’t so regulated, so many rules. I do remember such a time. I just see our way of life becoming more
like a European state with more restrictions and regulations than we have. And where does it end? But we still have tens of thousands of deaths and
many more than that horrible injuries on our public roads. But those are the sacrifices we make as a society for all the good that transportation
does for us. And that goes on for years unending. Just ranting, that's all.
You can’t claim you drank all day if you didn’t start early in the morning.
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Texium
Administrator
Posts: 4618
Registered: 11-1-2014
Location: Salt Lake City
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Mood: PhD candidate!
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Quote: Originally posted by charley1957  | | But we still have tens of thousands of deaths and many more than that horrible injuries on our public roads. But those are the sacrifices we make as
a society for all the good that transportation does for us. And that goes on for years unending. Just ranting, that's all. |
Sorry, but your rant touched on a topic I’m passionate about and now I have to rant too.
I’m not going to argue that European countries are perfect, but the rate of automotive injuries and deaths in the US isn’t an inevitable sacrifice
that we just have to accept. Europe and Japan have clearly demonstrated that access to fast, affordable, and efficient public transportation reduces
traffic, and by association, traffic accidents. The US has 12.9 traffic fatalities per 100,000 people each year. The UK has 2.9. France, 5.0. Sweden,
2.2. Spain, 3.7. Germany, 3.7. Italy, 5.2. Japan, 4.1. You get the picture. You can’t look at those numbers and say we’re not doing something
wrong.
If we would invest in a high speed rail network for cross-country travel and expand commuter and light rail networks within urban and suburban areas,
we could take hundreds of thousands of cars off the road, and correspondingly save 20,000+ lives each year. And if you like driving, or have no choice
but to drive, it benefits you too! You’ll have less traffic to deal with and be less likely to get into an accident.
Edit- my source for those above numbers: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic...
[Edited on 7-27-2023 by Texium]
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Dr.Bob
International Hazard
Posts: 2750
Registered: 26-1-2011
Location: USA - NC
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The challenge is that most European and Asian countries have much denser populations, thus mass transit works better, they also regulated building
much tighter (most have been doing that for centuries, whereas the US is still an infant compared to them.) So the people live in small
communities, close together, and most jobs are near the centers of towns. Whereas in the US, many towns separate residential and industrial areas,
and many people live in suburbs that are spread out (see LA, Dallas, or now even RTP, NC) for towns that are 50 miles across, have multiple roads in
every direction, and many people choose to live far from work.
There is almost no way to make mass transit work here, as no two people have the same commute, and few people live close to a major road. I used to
ride the bus to work some, but then the bus stops further from home, changes downtown, and now does not stop by my work place, I would need to change
yet again to get there. So a 15 min drive would then be a 1+ hour ride. And I live close to work, but the bright people here decided to have a
research park with no residential spaces nearby (on purpose). Now they are finally changing that, and maybe in 20 years we will have more
residential places near where people work, but it is only starting to happen now.
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Tsjerk
International Hazard
Posts: 3032
Registered: 20-4-2005
Location: Netherlands
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I'm sure you can't only account the difference in deaths per capita to the use of public transport. I had a quick look at the numbers and found the
average kilometers traveled by car differs approximately a factor two between European countries and the USA. That wouldn't explain the difference in
numbers Texium is stating.
What also accounts I think is the safety of the roads in Europe compared to those in the USA. For example in the Netherlands we have cameras
everywhere monitoring traffic jams, and warning incoming traffic for those jams. When there is a car standing still on a highway, the lane and the
next are closed immediately.
I already see a difference when driving into Belgium, the roads are worse as is the safety. Driving into Wallonie makes the difference even more
pronounced. Deaths per 100.000: 3.1 vs. 5.4 Netherlands vs. Belgium. The differences I see are mostly about how clear it is for me where I'm supposed
to drive and how much overview I have over traffic.
Edit: I just had a look at the numbers for Germany, as I also regularly drive over there. Around 4, as Texium stated. Sounds in order with my gut
feeling; not as save as the Netherlands, but a lot better than Belgium.
I just remember a video I once saw from the USA. Minutes and minutes of high speed collisions on a highway because of one silly accident. That would
never happen in the Netherlands.
[Edited on 27-7-2023 by Tsjerk]
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charley1957
Hazard to Others
Posts: 166
Registered: 18-2-2012
Location: Texas
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Mood: Beginning to cool off
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So back to DCM. Yes, you are still able to get it, albeit at a higher price than before, and there’s no law against having it. Iodine was once
easy to get and have, now we’re limited to purchase 250g per year. And the prices are much higher than they were. Some veterinarians were caught
selling thousands of pounds of the stuff to meth cooks, so now all the rules. I just wonder when we will get limitations in the US on things like
nitric and sulfuric acid, as there are in some European countries. After reading some posts in this forum about that, I bought a keg (about 25 gal.)
of 98% sulfuric acid, hopefully enough to last the rest of my life. About $68. I’ve found myself buying other chemicals in much larger volumes
than I really need also. I hate to think of myself as a chemical hoarder, but here I am. There is just no telling which chemical(s) are next on the
list of things that will be restricted and subsequently higher priced. Rant over.
You can’t claim you drank all day if you didn’t start early in the morning.
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