147. The Most Dangerous Machine

Freakonomics Radio

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Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 32K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2013

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

More than 1 million people die worldwide each year from traffic accidents. But there's never been a safer time to drive.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Steve Levitt is my free economics friend and co-author. He teaches economics at the University of Chicago.
0:10.0	So Levitt, how good are bad a driver? Are you? Scale of 1 to 10?
0:15.0	I am one of the worst drivers on the planet. I'm terrible driver.
0:21.0	Awful. Give me a number 1 to 10? 1. 2. 1. 1. So what does it say about driving in the United States in the year 2013, however, that you're one of the worst drivers who ever lived and yet you're still alive?
0:37.0	Well, we have great technology. So when I bang into things, neither I nor the things I hit could hurt very badly.
0:47.0	And we have great developments like people have very loud horns that they blow at me and they have really vivid brake lights and other things that flash in front of me telling me I have to stop.
1:00.0	And they have built technology in the sides of road so that when I'm veering off my lane and towards the grass it goes,
1:08.0	so I think we have a lot of safeguards in there to keep me from killing myself in a car.
1:17.0	Why do you think you're such a bad driver, Levitt? You're relatively good at some other things.
1:21.0	I'm very distracted as a driver. I don't pay very much attention.
1:24.0	What distracts you? Is it stuff in your head or are you reaching for the hamburger or the music? What is it?
1:30.0	Partly it's in my head and I'm thinking about other things, but I am an incessant channel changer on the radio.
1:39.0	I'm always in search of a better song than the one that's currently playing.
1:46.0	Is there any song that you'll stay till the end like a Kelly Clarkson? I know you like the girl pop.
1:51.0	Lately we've been staying to the end of when I'm with the kids to the end of wrecking ball with Miley Cyrus.
2:00.0	I came in like a wrecking ball.
2:03.0	And I talk on the phone and I text. I do all the things I'm not supposed to do.
2:06.0	I'm pretty much a walking time bomb when it comes to driving.
2:24.0	From WNYC, this is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything.
2:32.0	Here's your host, Steven Dubner.
2:39.0	Hello there. What are you doing while you listen to this podcast?
2:45.0	Maybe you're on the computer pretending to work? Maybe you're taking a walk in the park or you're out for a run?
	...

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