Looking at the history of car recalls, Gladwell recognizes a tension between the way engineers see malfunctions and how the public sees them. It's easy to blame the machine, but that doesn't always solve the problem.
With news of this week's fatal Amtrak crash still fresh, perhaps it would be wise to keep this in mind: "To the engineer, a car sits somewhere on the gradient of acceptability. To the public, a car's status is binary: it is either broken or working, flawed or functional."
Gladwell's statement could apply equally to trains, planes, and automobiles. His piece in the New Yorker explores the roots of this engineer-public tension through the career of Denny Gioia, who worked in the recall department at Ford Motor Company.
As point man during the 1970s Ford Pinto recall crisis, Gioia walked a tightrope between the sociological imperative to reduce deaths, and the engineer's knowledge that out of millions of cars, some will malfunction.
Gladwell points out that driver error dwarfs mechanical failure as a cause of car accidents: "the variables that really matter have to do with the driver, not the car. The public approach to auto safety is preoccupied with what might go wrong mechanically with the vehicles we drive. But the chief factor is not what we drive; it is how we drive."
FULL STORY: The Engineer’s Lament
NHTSA Could Expand Safety Requirements to Include Pedestrians
In a radical shift from prior policy that singled out passenger safety, new cars could be required to include more features that protect people outside the vehicle.
For Transportation Justice, Auto Safety Must Protect People Outside the Car
Light trucks are killing more pedestrians than ever while keeping their drivers and passengers safer. Is it time to reframe safety regulations?
Despite Reports, Federal Safety Officials Didn't Act on Danger of SUVs to Pedestrians
A 2015 NHTSA report showed that pedestrians were multiple times more likely to die if struck by SUVs, but that information was neither shared nor acted upon.
Depopulation Patterns Get Weird
A recent ranking of “declining” cities heavily features some of the most expensive cities in the country — including New York City and a half-dozen in the San Francisco Bay Area.
California Exodus: Population Drops Below 39 Million
Never mind the 40 million that demographers predicted the Golden State would reach by 2018. The state's population dipped below 39 million to 38.965 million last July, according to Census data released in March, the lowest since 2015.
Chicago to Turn High-Rise Offices into Housing
Four commercial buildings in the Chicago Loop have been approved for redevelopment into housing in a bid to revitalize the city’s downtown post-pandemic.
How California Transit Agencies are Addressing Rider Harassment
Safety and harassment are commonly cited reasons passengers, particularly women and girls, avoid public transit.
Significant Investments Needed to Protect LA County Residents From Climate Hazards
A new study estimates that LA County must invest billions of dollars before 2040 to protect residents from extreme heat, increasing precipitation, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels, and climate-induced public health threats.
Federal Rule Raises Cost for Oil and Gas Extraction on Public Lands
An update to federal regulations raises minimum bonding to limit orphaned wells and ensure cleanup costs are covered — but it still may not be enough to mitigate the damages caused by oil and gas drilling.
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