Just when you thought the Biden administration had reached the lowest possible level of stupidity, they just started digging toward a whole new level. Few people remotely familiar with the pathetic record of Mayor Pete Buttigieg expected him to do much as Secretary of Transportation. His major contribution, up until now, was to ignore the nationwide supply shortage. Actually, having Buttigieg ignore something is the best approach to managing any problem because he is consistently wrong about everything.
Well, Buttigieg has a great new plan for you. He has produced a brilliant new program designed to totally eliminate traffic fatalities. Here is his plan, as reported by the AP:
Transportation Sec. Buttigieg unveils new strategy to combat rise in traffic fatalities | KTLA
Buttigieg said his department is embracing a new “safe system” approach urged by auto safety advocates to bolster initiatives, underway in several cities, that seek to eliminate fatalities by taking into account more than just driver behavior.
Over the next two years, he said, his department will provide guidance as well as $5 billion in grants to states to spur lower speed limits and embrace safer road design such as dedicated bike and bus lanes, better lighting and crosswalks. When roads become safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, that opens up transit options overall and can lead to fewer dangerous cars on the road, he said.
Money for the grants is included in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law, which has an additional $4 billion in funding through the Highway Safety Improvement Program.
I don’t even need to comment on this, other than to point out that when the national speed limit went away, in 1995, there was no increase in fatalities. You can see this yourself in the data produced by the NHTA. So, if raising the speed limit did not increase fatalities, lowering the speed limit is not likely to reduce them.
But there is hope. A recent study, authored by Dr. Fauci, demonstrates that people who wear face masks while driving a car with no other occupants, not only are less likely to catch COVID, but they also have far fewer fatal accidents. There is no data to support this, of course, but since we all know how well masks have worked to stop the spread of COVID, this must be true.
TDM