[PRCo] Re: (no subject)

[Joshua Dunfield]

2009/9/20 Phillip Clark Campbell <pcc_sr at yahoo.com>:
> Transit designers are not responsible for the death of those
> who choose other forms of transportation;  I heartily disagree
> this is part of the equation.

Suppose that (perhaps after a genuinely horrible transit accident) the
folks in charge decided to cease all transit service in a city.

Are you saying that the people responsible for that decision would not
be (indirectly) responsible for the likely increase in traffic deaths,
because none of the deaths involved transit?  Indirect responsibility
is still responsibility, isn't it?

What if it was a 25% service cut instead of a 100% service cut?  Does
that make the decisionmakers not responsible, because the public
should have accepted the inconvenience and continued riding?

What if it was a well-intentioned attempt to increase safety that,
unintentionally, inconvenienced riders, leading some to drive instead?

It would be nice if transportation safety was simple and didn't
require weighing one set of dangers against another (always
imperfectly), but that's not how it works.

-j.