Friday, April 25, 2008

External airbags for better cycling

The Dutch (well, some of them) want external airbags on cars to protect bicyclists. From a cost benefit perspective, I think this is probably too expensive a fix since a lot of people buy cars and drive where there aren't many (if any) cyclists. I worry about moral hazard here, too, since the costs of injury are borne exclusively by the cyclist and not the driver. (Not to mention the notion that even wearing a helmet potentially makes a cyclist more likely to get hit because it alters driver behavior.) Would drivers be more likely to drive aggressively around bikes if they weren't worried about killing someone? Judging by the general attitudes of drivers towards cyclists as it is, I don't want to chance it.

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