What is it with people thinking we should compare the virus to road deaths through speed limits or now crossing the road? Ok a bit of a thread: https://twitter.com/Adam_Creighton/status/1252349627795271680

Let's start with the things on the road that kill - the cars. They are subject to volumes and volumes of safety laws in construction and maintanence. If one thing is off, we can have massive recalls of entire makes; 1/10

Add to that the advances in design and safety which are part of the selling point of those vehicles - anyone want to swap the brakes of cars now with those made in 1990? How about things like reverse cameras? (people get run over by reversing cars as well) 2/10

Then there is the maintanence - roadworthy is a thing. Your car needs to be registered, you can be fined for having bald tires, a broken indicator light. All things that only care about safety 3/10

Then there are those driving - age restictions are in place, they are of a certain level of ability, they must be licenced, their eyesight and health has to be of a certain level. That's just to be able to drive. Then there are the laws about driving 4/10

How much alcohol and drugs you have consumed, using a phone, when to have lights on, how fast, how slow(!), how to turn, how to proceed through traffic lights etc etc are all covered by laws - and we have police dedicated to enforcing them 5/10

Speed limits? They *vary* based on pedestrian traffic. We've also had *decades* of ongoign advocacy campaigns.

40yrs ago speeding & even drink driving were frowned upon or even bragged about. Not now. But it took time

So please stop talking about micromorts & speed limits 6/10

Ok now pedestrians. First the education campaign - as a child you know you must hold an adult's hand, then you *learn* to cross the road (look right, left, then right again).

Then the laws - where, when, how are all enforceable 7/10

Add in things like public money spent on road conditions, traffic lights, pedestrian crossings, education campaigns, enforcement, double demerits on public holidays, speed cameras, red light cameras... 8/10

And crucially - crossing the road is a choice - you can choose when, where and how to do it. Do you cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge like you would a school crossing? What about the M5?

Even then you get to manage your own risk. You can *see* the danger and assess 9/10

Then add in 100 years or so of research and data on road safety and you start to get an idea why crossing the road is generally pretty safe, and why suggesting it has any connection with the cornavirus is pretty dumb.

Stop it. *ends*

Oh and dying while crossing the road is not contagious (kind of the key point, tbh)