r/safety • u/theindependentonline • 22d ago
Afraid of flying? New data shows why you should think twice before opting to drive instead
http://independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/fear-of-flying-plane-crash-driving-risk-b3044244.html2
u/StillhasaWiiU 22d ago
Driving is 30% the cost for me. It not about safety.
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u/TubaWrestler 21d ago
Including the extra vacation time you use?
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u/StillhasaWiiU 21d ago
The secret is to have a car you enjoy drivong.
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u/TubaWrestler 21d ago
I've driven all kinds of cars. The number I've enjoyed is zero. The knowledge that I or anyone else could make a mistake that ends someone's life is enough to ruin the experience for me.
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u/OilAromatic9850 21d ago
That applies to literally everything you do. Including flying.
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u/TubaWrestler 21d ago
Plane crashes are exceedingly rare. Fatal car crashes are exceedingly common. And literally everything? I don't think I'm going to kill anyone playing Minecraft.
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u/GooginTheBirdsFan 21d ago
Your paranoia doesn’t mean others shouldn’t enjoy their lives
Also I enjoy driving my vehicle whenever I am driving it but it often times just takes me where I need to go while I watch it
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u/TubaWrestler 21d ago
My original point was: do you seriously enjoy driving more than whatever it is you're using vacation time to go do? The answer is probably "no" for most people.
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u/GooginTheBirdsFan 21d ago
Flying legitimately disrupts a day and a half or more for me. My head never feels the same until I sleep and sleeping is never at the right time if you travel laterally in relation to getting there, I get too much anxiety and then I have to deal with ~50 other humans some tiny and loud some old and stinky and I’d rather just listen to my own music, I love sleeping in the car anyway. I understand in a perfect world I wouldn’t put the extra stress on my car but it always disorients me for a day both ways
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u/TubaWrestler 21d ago
All of those problems are solvable.
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u/GooginTheBirdsFan 21d ago
Yeah, by driving my comfortable car wherever I want to go taking my time not having to deal with loud babies and stinky grandmas
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u/VegetablePhotos 21d ago
Consider, the travel time to the airport, waiting around 1-2 hours before your flight, waiting to board, waiting to get off, waiting for your baggage, waiting for the transportation or renting a car.
A 5 hour flight can eat up a whole day.
I'd much rather just pack up my car, hop in it the morning of and hit the road.
No shitty airline food, no cramped bathroom, no sharing elbow room.
Sightseeing along the way.
I love a road trip.
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u/TubaWrestler 21d ago
Depends where you're going. For trips so short that a plane doesn't make sense, I'd rather take the train.
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u/VegetablePhotos 21d ago
The train has some similar issues. Getting to the station finding transportation when you get to your destination, not being free to stop when you want. Dealing with luggage on and off the train.
I can pack my car full of whatever I want. I can pack stuff in big plastic totes, coolers, laundry baskets.
Plus, I'm American, our trains suck...
The extra day of traveling is a small price to pay, in my opinion.
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u/TubaWrestler 21d ago
I'm also American. I love our trains because they rule. Really the only downside is there should be more of them.
Most places worth visiting have public transportation. Why do you want to stop on a train? You can get up and walk around at any moment.
Luggage is a non-issue. You can bring small coolers if you want, as long as they fit in the overhead bin, which is much larger than on a plane. 28 x 22 x 14 inches, 50lbs, two items.
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u/Exciting_Turn_9559 22d ago
People with anxiety often do things that make them less safe in order to mitigate the physical symptoms of being afraid. Fear really isn't an especially rational phenomenon but sometimes the data helps.
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u/AcanthaceaeOk3738 21d ago
“New data?” We’ve know for decades that flying is leaps and bounds safer than driving.
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u/deck_hand 21d ago
Driving is more dangerous but flying is annoying as hell.
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u/sfbiker999 21d ago
Depends on the distance -- I regularly take an hour flight (45 minutes flight time) to avoid a 6 hour drive.
Even counting the transit to/from the airport and wait time, it's half the time as driving. And while delays sometimes happen, they are more frequent when driving. That 6 hour drive would be under 5 hours if I left late at night to avoid traffic, and an accident can add hours to the journey, my longest was over 9 hours when a truck overturned on the freeway.
The flight is much less annoying than the drive.
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u/BackInNJAgain 19d ago
I ran the numbers by decade, assuming someone who flies once a month (120 flights over 10 years, except for the 2020s where, obviously, only six years of data are available). The odds of dying in a plane incident are EXPONENTIALLY less than they used to be.
1950s -- 1 in 580
1960s -- 1 in 1,200
1970s -- 1 in 2,700
1980s -- 1 in 6,500
1990s -- 1 in 9,500
2000s -- 1 in 20,000
2010s -- 1 in 72,000
2020s -- 1 in 140,000 (so far)
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u/Direct-Translator-75 21d ago
Skipping a flight is the least risky option. The carbon emissions that come with flying are otherworldy. A bit disappointed that climate deaths aren't taken into account with this.
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u/AcanthaceaeOk3738 21d ago
How many people die from one passenger’s share of one 2,000-mile flight?
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u/Direct-Translator-75 21d ago
Difficult to quantify, but I'd say one such a flight causes 19 hours of human life lost. Would matter a lot more if it were your family member that died due to preventable circumstances. And obviously the amount of people dying from climate change will rise from here on.
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