Comment on Car crashes have killed and seriously injured roughly the same number of people as shootings in Chicago this year. Only one of these things is treated as a safety crisis in the media

maxwells_daemon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Driving is orders of magnitude more likely to kill you at any second you’re in a car, than flying is at any second you’re in a plane.

  This is an oft-repeated factoid that comes straight from the airlines bending statistics to meet their desires. It’s true that on a per mile basis, planes are safer. But on a per trip basis, cars actually win on safety.

  And this makes some sense once you think about it. A car ride is typically going to be a frequent, short distance. Whereas air trips are infrequent and cover huge distances. So the accident-per-trip stat is watered down with cars having lots of trips, while the accident-per-mile stat is watered down with planes covering a lot of miles per trip.

  And airlines conveniently only ever quote the accident-per-mile number when comparing safety statistics, because they have a vested interest in making airplanes seem statistically safer. If anything, seeing this factoid repeated is just a reminder that even math can be intentionally biased to fit a certain agenda.

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  • threeganzi@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Per trip is a completely useless metric as you say, that’s the reason.

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  • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    So the point you’re making is that going far away is dangerous? No shit.

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    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      My point is that the “planes are safer” stat is, at best, disingenuous. Any single trip is going to be more dangerous in a plane. But people tend to fly less than they drive, so cars are cited as being more dangerous.

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      • LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        Any single trip is going to be more dangerous in a plane

        So you’re saying driving from London to Shanghai is safer than flying there?

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• Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Phobias are, by definition, irrational.

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