Murder Machines: Why Cars Will Kill 30,000 Americans This Year

「殺人機械：車」

We are not anti-automobile.

However, the true cost of an automobile, its true cost to society, has yet to be passed onto the consumer.

From pollution, to road-building, to injury and death, society picks up the tab for much of car-related mayhem. Automobile taxes do not come close to covering this cost.

An thought-provoking article caught our eye. If you want to kill someone in the United States, you can get away with it in a car - as long as you are sober.

Read on:

There’s an open secret in America: If you want to kill someone, do it with a car. As long as you’re sober, chances are you’ll never be charged with any crime, much less manslaughter. Over the past hundred years, as automobiles have been woven into the fabric of our daily lives, our legal system has undermined public safety, and we’ve been collectively trained to think of these deaths as unavoidable “accidents” or acts of God. Today, despite the efforts of major public-health agencies and grassroots safety campaigns, few are aware that car crashes are the number one cause of death for Americans under 35. But it wasn’t always this way.

Read the entire article.

Garmin Forerunner 910XT GPS Sports Watch (Tri Bundle)
LIST PRICE £399.99
SAVE 19% = £76.00
£323.99

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags Japan Touring Kyoto Cycle Japanese

Traffic Fatalities Japan 2011 Bicycle

二輪車の死亡事故統計自転車

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police has compiled traffic fatalities for 2011.

Two wheel vehicles include all type of motorcycles and scooters. Four wheel covers cars and trucks.

Bicycle fatalities totaled 658 last year, or 13.5% of the total of all traffic fatalities.

Data is for 2012　or（2011）
	Tokyo		Japan
	Fatalities	Percentage	Fatalities	Percentage
Two Wheel	72（58）	33.5%（28.3）	871（886）	17.9%（18.0）
Four Wheel	16（25）	7.4%（12.2）	1,602（1,600）	32.9%（32.6）
Bicycle	41（45）	19.1%（22.0）	658（695）	13.5%（14.1）
Pedestrian	85（77）	39.5%（37.6）	1,714（1,717）	35.2%（34.9）
Other	1（0）	0.5%（0.0）	18（16）	0.4%（0.3）
Total	215（205）	100%（100）	4,863（4,914）	100%（100）

© CycleKyoto.com

  CycleKyoto Home Page


Tags
Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Traffic Fatalities

Tokyo Cyclists Unaware of Rules

交通ルールを知らない東京人

In 2010, according to the Universal Traffic Management Society (UTMS) of Japan, 4,863 were killed in traffic accidents in Japan.

This is half of the number killed in 1995, in which 10,679 perished on the nation's roads.

Yet, aside from the occasional story pertaining to a dramatic accident - bus driver falls asleep, plows into barrier killing many onboard; young unlicensed kid, also drowsy, piles into a group of children and parents walking to school, killing several - this rarely makes the news.

Simple math: more than 13 people died every day in traffic accidents in 2010.

Though the share of the total fatalities involving cars and trucks is decreasing - and accidents involving cyclists increasing - the vast majority of those deaths involved cars.

Still the story emanating from the police and their handmaidens in the media is that cyclists are terrorizing Japanese road ways.

The latest from the right-wing, pro-nuclear, pro Liberal Democratic Party Yomiuri Shinbun - the newspaper with the highest daily circulation in the world -  is that Tokyo cyclists are not aware of the rules of the road.

In a shocking scoop, the Yomiuri recently reported that only "65% of people know children under 13 are required to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle."

Stop the presses.

© CycleKyoto.com

CycleKyoto Home Page

Tags

Japan
Touring
Kyoto
Cycle
Traffic Accidents