> If you don't do a thing for 6-8mo you're gonna get measurably worse at it. Just how it is. No amount of smug remembering is gonna replace muscle memory and feel.
It's not the muscle memory and feel that matter so much. The second paragraph of your comment seems to agree ("Better to train people to just not get into those situations in the first place."). What matters is the training, such as remembering to slow down in poor conditions (smugly or not) and stay out of those situations.
I think redesign is the way to go, but there are places that are only separated from the U.S. in terms of education and enforcement, and compliance is excellent there. Really we can do both.
It’s also a cultural problem in addition to an engineering challenge, many Americans are notoriously “independent” (aka selfish) and that is evident by watching them drive.
We should be happy "AI" came around after the downfall of their* "Would you like to super-size that?" scheme[1]. Multiple sociopathic fast-food marketing breakthroughs may have been too much for America to survive.
> People don't like that idea because it's highly exclusionary.
I disagree with you here- you have it backwards. It's cars that are exclusionary. Kids can't be around car traffic unsupervised, because car traffic is very dangerous. Old people become fat and frail only because they're robbed of exercise by a car-centric lifestyle. Blind people can't drive. Kids can't drive. Old people can't drive. By shaping cities around cars we doom the vast majority for the sake of a very small number of people, and many of them would probably be healthier and safer getting a little exercise and enjoying the excellent public transport that results from shifting a massive budget for car infrastructure to public transport.
It's a tough sell after decades of propaganda. According to the CDC, over 75% of Americans are seriously out of shape[1], and 40% are obese[2]. They typically spend an hour a day commuting by car, which robs them of an easy opportunity to get a little exercise (and which is also physically dangerous in an immediate sense and a form of long-term psychological torture as evidenced by driving behavior at rush hour).
100% correct. Also, with 40,000 deaths due to car crashes each year in the U.S. (and 2 million+ severe injuries not resulting in death), I'd consider it drop in the bucket.
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