Safety
US-based research on traffic safety shows that public transport is safer than private motor vehicles, and that transportation systems which have their own infrastructure are safer than these means which don’t.
- Regional Passenger Rail (RPR) is the safest way to travel. Its casualty rate – average number of injuries and fatalities per billion passenger miles – is little more than one-quarter the rate for motor vehicles.
- Rail Rapid Transit (RRT) is somewhat safer than Light Rail Transit (LRT). RRT is almost twice as safe as motor vehicles, and LRT is more than one-and-a-half times safer than motor vehicles.
- Traveling by bus is the least safe form of public transport. Buses use the same infrastructure as motor vehicles, and so buses also suffer from traffic congestion and accidents on the roads.
- Private motor vehicles are the most dangerous form of at-grade motorized travel, with motorcycles the most dangerous of all.
There are reasons why public transport is safer than private transport. One is that since public transit's capacity is greater than that of private vehicles, public transport use can reduce the number of distinct vehicles on the road, and this in turn decreases the potential for accidents.
Read more about this topic: Light Rail
Famous quotes containing the word safety:
“The safety of the republic being the supreme law, and Texas having offered us the key to the safety of our country from all foreign intrigues and diplomacy, I say accept the key ... and bolt the door at once.”
—Andrew Jackson (17671845)
“The Declaration [of Independence] was not a protest against government, but against the excess of government. It prescribed the proper role of government, to secure the rights of individuals and to effect their safety and happiness. In modern society, no individual can do this alone. So government is not a necessary evil but a necessary good.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“Perhaps in a book review it is not out of place to note that the safety of the state depends on cultivating the imagination.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)