Q: When I fly to a city and need transportation once I get there, is it safer to rent a car and drive myself, or should I trust a taxi or rideshare driver?
A: The parents reading this question probably recognize it as a false binary. What’s that? It’s when you present two options as if they’re the only choices, even though there are plenty of other alternatives. It’s also a handy tool for managing kids. For example, you might ask, “Do you want to clean your room, or do you want to do the dishes?” You pretend that riding bike to a friend’s house or playing video games in the basement don’t exist, putting your kid in the position of having to pick between two less-than-optimal choices.
Well, I’m not falling for it. If you’re looking for the safest mode of transportation, take a train (including light rail). Of the nearly 43,000 people killed across the US in transportation incidents in 2023, one was a passenger on a train. That’s not a typo. One. There were over 900 railroad fatalities that year, but almost all of them were from people trespassing on tracks or in the wrong place at the wrong time at a railroad crossing. In a train versus anything else crash, the train wins.
If you can’t take a train, your next safest bet is the bus, with only 32 occupant fatalities in 2023. Not to give away the ending, but it’s amazing that even though riding a bus is 32 times more dangerous than riding a train, it’s still over 1000 times safer than being in a car.
This next part isn’t a fair comparison because we travel so many more miles by car than we do on foot or on bike, but still, there were a bit under 1200 cycling deaths and a bit over 7300 pedestrian deaths. Those numbers dwarf the data on trains and buses, but still don’t come close to highway vehicle occupant deaths, at over 31,000.
And here’s something else to consider; while pedestrian deaths account for 17 percent of transportation fatalities, eight percent of deaths in the US are because of a sedentary lifestyle. Much of the risk of choosing active transportation is offset by the heath benefits of moving around.
But sometimes you just need a car. If your flight lands at midnight and it’s five miles to your hotel, it might be your only option. Whether you’re safer driving yourself or hiring a driver depends a lot on your driving behaviors. Professional drivers need to maintain a reasonably clean driving record. How’s yours?
The top driver behaviors that lead to fatal crashes are impairment, speed, and distraction. I’ve never ridden in a cab with an impaired driver, but I can’t say the same for speeding and distraction. In an industry where your next job gets delivered by phone and the faster you complete this job the sooner you’re getting paid for the next one, the temptation is real. Fatality rates for rideshare drivers are lower than the average, but if you always drive sober, stay focused, and respect speed limits, you can do even better.
I’ll note that the rental car works against you. Drivers crash more often in unfamiliar vehicles. You can offset the risk by getting familiar with the car before you start driving. On a rainy day, you don’t want to try to figure out where the rear wiper switch is while you’re checking your rear-view mirror and making a lane change.
Are you safer than a cab or a rideshare? That’s up to you.
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