CARFREE TOKYO

- a collection of notes and reflections on urban living from the perspective of a family of five in Tokyo. My epiphany was many years ago, but being hit by a motorbike and seeing my life flash before my eyes caused a sudden change that slowly made me reflect on whether American style auto-centric urban transportation of the Roosevelt era really is a capital G "Good Idea" for civilized modern cities in the 21st Century. This blog explores the good and the bad in urban planning and design, here and elsewhere. The goal is simple - not "death to all cars," just more walkable communities, quiet tree-lined streets, good public transport, traffic calming, Velib style bicycle sharing and a bit of common sense. The bolg is mostly theraputic, so I don't go wanting to throttle every dangerous driver I come across, but partly also out of a real desire to see positive change. This blog explores how it can be done, the people who do it, and how, in many small ways, this very old idea may at last have found its zeitgeist. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Fire chief drinks, drives, causes accident, flees scene and crashes into ambulance

http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=46&id=53423

Sometimes I wonder if men should be allowed to drive cars at all. Anyone who has raised boys will know that there is something in us (men) that causes us actively seek out danger. If we have a choice of doing things safely or doing things dangerously, we will often choose the dangerous option just to see what happens. Perhaps it is the challenge - a test of our skill that to refuse would be to acknowledge defeat.

There must be statistics on this kind of thing, but I would wager that the vast majority of reckless driving and drunk driving cases are caused by men. Folklore has it that "women drivers" cause accidents and terrorize the roads, but I wonder.
at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)