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Comments on: Car safety choices http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/ The Visible Hand in Economics Tue, 05 Sep 2023 14:34:57 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: John Hunter http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-313 Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:21:19 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-313 The risks are in fact not greater for smaller cars. The risks, if you get in an accident are, but you are less likely to be in the accident in the smaller car. Aggressive driving may play a role in the increased risks of driving a large SUV to your safety, but I have always thought the main reason was that big SUVs are less able to maneuver to avoid accidents (and people do a very poor job of compensating – by doing the opposite of aggressive driving – which is the proper strategy if you chose a risky vehicle and want to avoid the consequences of accidents).

I think a significant part of the dilemma is that people falsely believe that large SUVs are safer. Based on this false believe they buy them and make everyone less safe (including themselves). This is not the only reason people buy large SUVs so large SUVs would not be eliminated if people could just understand the fact they were increasing risk to themselves and their family by driving large SUVs.

]]> By: Matt Nolan http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-312 Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:31:31 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-312 I agree that banning is a huge over-reaction, and since SUV’s consume more fuel than Civics we could include it in an externality tax. Or even more directly, a registration fee based on the safety risk of the car. Two things I appeal to in defense are:

1) Ceteris Paribus, I was assuming that all other things about everything in the world were constant and only the safety effect mattered (thats what I was doing when I said “in this case, all other things equal”).

2) My prescriptive statement (the last paragraph) was a throw away line, I do not actually endorse that regulation, I just had to write something to close up the article.

I’ll admit it, I just really wanted to talk about a prisoners dilemma 😉 .

]]> By: rauparaha http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-311 Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:18:26 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-311 I don’t see why we have to ban SUVs. As harsh as it may sound, this is an externality effect of owning an SUV: maybe licensing fees or petrol taxes could make it more expensive to own an SUV. I’ve no idea what the social cost of owning an SUV is, but I don’t imagine it is astronomical. Wouldn’t banning them be a gross overreaction? After all, there are people (eg. farmers) who might find it immensely practical to own one. The cost of enforcing some scheme by which you apply for a license to own a large vehicle may well be greater than the benefit of reducing the number of SUVs on the road.

]]> By: Matt Nolan http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-310 Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:08:51 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-310 I agree, it is also quite a restriction on people liberty’s. But if it will save lives, the government might be sellable 😉

]]> By: Kimble http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-309 Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:03:04 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/car-safety-choices/#comment-309 How would that look for the government? Forcing people to buy smaller cars KNOWING that it poses a greater risk because of the other SUVs already on the road.

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