Bad Drivers

[FreeThinker]

I believe that over time all the bad drivers will slowly disappear. We have a selection process (Car accidents) and anyone who is better at driving has less of a chance in being killed in car accident. Over time we should expect to see less and less bad drivers. Any thoughts?

[Dak]

'twould depend largely on bad driving being a genetic trait, and the ability of the bad drivers to get themselves killed before procreating.

 

Also, bad drivers tend to take a lot of innocent bystanders out with them, evening the selective score a bit.

 

So probably no.

[FreeThinker]

Surely things like bad vision, slow response and bad hearing are genetically inherited. Since most bad drivers die in their youth, it would stop them from reproducing. Majority of deaths in the world are caused by car accidents. If we compare it to natural selection: we have the predator, the fight for food, the fight for mates. A gene that gives the animals and advantage in any of these fields will survive. Surely, in the present society, driving plays a role in human deaths. Good drivers will not die as much as bad drivers.

 

Even though it is true that bad drivers take a lot of innocent bystanders with them, it is still a fact that bad drivers are involved in accidents more than other drivers/people.

[gcol]

I fear you may have overlooked two other, competing evolutionary factors:

 

1. The evolution of the motor vehicle, which tends to provide a safer and safer cocoon for the (bad) driver.

 

2. The evolution of the road system, which also tries to minimise the harmful effects of bad driving.

 

Thus bad drivers tend to be spared the consequences of their actions, making it just as likely that thei bad traits will be propagated.

[Sayonara]

I believe that over time all the bad drivers will slowly disappear. We have a selection process (Car accidents) and anyone who is better at driving has less of a chance in being killed in car accident. Over time we should expect to see less and less bad drivers. Any thoughts?

The first problem is that new drivers are constantly being added to the pool, and some of them will be bad.

 

The second problem is that more drivers deteriorate over time rather than improve, once they have been on the roads for a while.

 

The third and biggest problem is that -- for the most part -- driving skills rely on learned procedures and responses, which are not passed on genetically and therefore selection does not operate on them. While poor eyesight, slow responses etc do play a part, they can be compensated for with various driving practices, and legislated against (i.e. drivers outside certain vision limits cannot get a license), and do not play as big a role in safe driving as the quality of the methods used.

 

Majority of deaths in the world are caused by car accidents.

This is simply not true. The biggest killers are heart disease and cancer. Car accidents are way down the list.

[Yggdrasil]

There is also the problem that evolution and natural selection act on a fairly large time scale. Given that cars have only been available for the public for about eighty years (~4 human generations) and that our fossil fuel supply will run out sometime within the next 50-100 years (which will drastically change the way our society operates, hopefully eliminating the concept of the private motor vehicle for more widespread mass transit), I doubt cars will be around for enough time to exert enought of a selective pressure to affect the human gene pool.