We will never change auto insurance rates alone
Remember a few weeks ago when we touched on the absurd auto insurance premiums the portable diagnostics industry is grappling with, along with other mobile healthcare segments like home health? I’ve linked here an editorial from Scientific American that lists every single way in which we as a society can indirectly attack the systemic problem affecting all drivers and citizens, far beyond what we can do individually. The science and data are clear. Our nation has a higher death rate on roads than countries like Bolivia. Wow! I remember landing in that country's capital to find that IF a busy thoroughfare had lines (a very strong if), it was a soft suggestion at best, never mind mountain roads that lacked space for two vehicles, guardrails, terrible vehicle conditions, etc. We're in a more dangerous position than that.
Our current zoning laws in cities across the US only encourage urban sprawl; mixed-use zoning is exotic. Who is walking to the grocery or bank two miles away while cars zoom past at 50mph? And then we widen roads, in direct contradiction with established science that has shown time and again that this can actually encourage more driving and more usage of the road. Additionally, this car-centricity and its effect of urban sprawl thereby increases our very US-problem of supremely sedentary living. How is that working out for us?
It seems the farther west you go, the more pitiful the public transit options. Any running vehicle will do in order to safely secure and maintain employment, because it's not as if public transit will help. And I know you've seen such vehicles on the road, wonders of the modern world that they are somehow still running against all odds and physics. With vehicle prices higher, auto insurance higher, vehicle repairs higher, this means more of an individual's paycheck goes to transportation repair and maintenance costs. The Broken Window Fallacy echoes here. This is an economic loss for all; we do not gain by having large swaths of our citizenry trapped in an auto repair spiral when that money could go to other things...like shrinkflated-groceries.
So let's review and add a couple more. Many more vehicles on the road, larger roads with higher speed limits encouraging more usage and discouraging alternative transport (like bikes), lack of public transit options, lack of enforcement (e.g. no red-light cameras in Oklahoma), higher vehicle repair costs, larger vehicles with many drivers distracted by technology, and let's toss in what seems to be residual anger with more aggressive drivers all around. Lest we forget, the additional carbon dioxide pumped out when the single-occupant Tahoe drives a mile to an ATM, or an early-2000s vehicle is the single mode of transportation for a worker driving 20 minutes to and from work.
All of this is calculated in auto insurance premium rates (in addition to insurance CEO bonuses). I guarantee the increased pollution, with its health consequences, is factored into our ever-rising health insurance premiums too.
Whether it is a portable x-ray team member, home health nurse, or any other mobile healthcare provider, our drivers are on the receiving end because our drivers spend twice as long in these conditions as the average driver.
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This is why change must occur beyond half-hearted recommendations given by insurers to individual companies with no follow-up on the actual impact of investing even more money. We can and do monitor our drivers, educate them, require ongoing training, monitor their MVRs, and that is a matter of ethics, if not legality. We’re happy to act on the responsibilities we hold, always.
But the point here is that the measures we put in place individually as companies will not seriously affect our exorbitant insurance costs. We delude ourselves into thinking we’re affecting systemic change. It will never happen. The best we can do individually is ensure others are safe with our drivers on the road, meanwhile those same roads grow more dangerous for our drivers by the day.
This is where I could see associations banding together to construct a megaphone for states and municipalities. This is not a federal endeavor; it comes down to your local town.
Whether this could ever happen, with multiple associations working together and coordinating, is more a question of willpower. We can all suffer separately by our lonesome or plan for a multi-year effort where we share the burden of what it takes to create real change that the science and data both show is necessary.