The cellphone paradox - where are all the accidents?

I got to ride a Norton once, long ago. I think there was some odd critter with an actual hand gear shift.

Which is what every older generation says. If this continual degradation of the 'young' were true we'd be back in the stone age. Don't take my next comment personally, it could apply to me too, but have you considered that all that bad stuff you see that causes you problems is because when you were younger it simply didn't bother you and/or your defensive driving skills and ability to "see ahead" and avoid those situations was better. So what you think of as everyone else getting worse is at least partly due to you getting worse at avoiding those positions?

Like you, I see bad drivers all around but I"m not convinced that on average it's any worse particularly when the accident rates keep going down.

It greatly reduces the risk of brake failure. I can't use that method with my car because they're no hole in the floor.

I have one single memory from when I was perhaps 18 months old and it's having to climb up a tall curb step in Albany NY in the winter. It seemed VERY tall and someone holding my hand helped me levitate up to the top.

None that you know of, anyway. ;-)

The fire engine color is based on the same faulty logic of DRL's. Studies have shown that you can see a Chartreuse colored fire engine from farther away then a red painted one. Therefore, as the logic goes, Chartreuse must be a better color to paint a fire engine. That fallacy of that, as well as of DRL's, is that there is no need to see a fire engine that is so far away that if it were red you would not notice it. When it's that far away it's just not of any significance to you. The same is true of DRL's. It's true that a DRL car can be seen farther away. But no one needs to see a car that's a mile away, they only need to see the ones within perhaps a quarter mile of them and the worst drive is more then able to see a car without any DRL's at that distance. That's why the studies of DRL's show that there is no net safety benefit. Some types of accidents go down and other types of accidents go up because while people look at the DRL's they fail to see other cars coming crossways toward them, cars that they would have normally noticed if those bright lights up ahead of them hadn't distracted them from the actual danger that was just off to their right or left.

The gvt doesn't want to pay for the electric to turn them on nor to maintain them, it's strictly to save costs. There are better sign materials that would make it so you don't need to use your high beams as much but that stuff costs more so the gvt will either simply not use it cuz they don't want to pay for it, or they will use it but not before the old stuff is completely worn out. Since the sign sheeting is expected to last around 10 to 20 years don't expect to see it replaced any time soon.

Most of those workers have no idea about safety to the public, they just stick em wherever it's convenient for themselves and a light that shines ALL AROUND works a lot better, and you need less of them, then a light that is directional and shines mostly downward so it won't blind people. As you should know by now, gvt isn't there to serve you, you are there to serve it. Pay your taxes and shut up.

In a panic situation, do left-foot brakers tend to mash down both pedals (brake and throttle) at the same time?

The communists and liberals have infested gvt everywhere. They have just scrwed up the street near me. It worked perfectly fine for years. Now it's missing a lane of traffic so they can have a buffered bike lane for the occasional bike. And ride the bike on the sidewalk, oh dear, that's simply not allowed because of, well I don't know, there are very few pedestrians. But apparently the same bicyclists who can manage to not run into cars when out on the street can't mange to not run into pedestrians if on the sidewalk.

Some definitely do. Left foot braking is generally hard on brakes, One car I drove for a few months pretty well REQUIRED left foot braking, or the car would stall at intersections. Replacing the dash-pot solved that problem.

I was on vacation in some strange town in CA on a two lane each way street, at a stop light that was red, in the dedicated left turn lane with a median on the left, all the lanes to the right full of cars. Cop comes up behind turns on his lights, siren, starts honking. This goes on for many many seconds. What's he want me to do? It's a frigging red light, there is cross traffic. I finally saw a chance to move out without getting killed and did and he went zooming thru. Pissed me off. Had I gotten into an accident due to this dumb ass essentially forcing me into the intersection you know the city would NOT have paid for a thing and most likely would have disclaimed they were even involved. Typical gvt situation. I'd like to drown them all.

Depends. Is the person left foot braking skilled at it? However, knowing that would only let us speculate since there is zero data. Speculatively, a skilled left foot braker will have less accidents because they have, on average, shorter perception-reaction-braking times then a right foot braker.

A driver that ALWAYS uses the right foot to Brake and Accelerate is the one most likely to use that right foot on the wrong pedal. Someone who is skilled at left foot braking is far less likely to try to push the accelerator with the right foot with the intention of braking. I'm sure there are always exceptions.

What if you have hand controls?

Didn't Toyota make some claims about that? There was a recall for driver side carpets if I remember correctly.

And then there was the Harley suicide clutch...

For a while I rode a 1960 Ducati street bike and a 196x Honda dirtbike. Even if I think about it now I can't decide which is the 'correct' Japanese side to shift on, I have to find a picture. At the time, dirt triggered one shift method and street triggered theother one. I still can't remember which is 1 up four down or 1 down 4 up.

Not me. I learned on a clutch car.

Some people get the Go pedal and the Stop pedal mixed up. That happens around here too often.

If you've got a clutch pedal, left-foot braking is a non-starter -- er, stopper.

And the left foot break idiot(s) who rests his/her foot on the brake pedal and thus drives around all day with their brake lights on? Not to mention wearing out the brake pads or (even worse) overheating the brakes so they fail at an inopportune time...

I see that a lot, so I vote no to left foot braking. Unless you can't use your right foot, but we are talking about folks without any sort of handicap (cast, missing foot, etc.).

John :-#)#