Dive 89: Why a "safer" society is more dangerous
Hey, it’s Alvin!
The other day, I was nearly struck by a cyclist while crossing an intersection in downtown Toronto. Both of us could have been horribly injured if my own instincts didn’t kick in.
One of the less intuitive lessons I took away was that safety measures don’t necessarily make you safer. But to understand why, we have to return to the streets of Toronto…
I was at the “top” of a T-intersection waiting to cross the street. I had the green light for 1 or 2 seconds and there were cars across from me inching into the intersection from a left-turn lane waiting for me to cross because I had the right-of-way being the pedestrian.
But I’ve always been a cautious fellow. So, I always look both ways before crossing a street. That might sound silly to different people for different reasons. But I’ll address that later.
Just in front of the sidewalk I was standing on, along the top of the T-intersection, was a protected bicycle lane. As I glanced to my left, I could see a row of stopped cars. But in the bicycle lane was a cyclist barrelling down at full speed.
So, my first thought was, “I’m not crossing until he slows down.” Because a quick analysis told me he wasn’t likely to stop. He was riding along the top of the “T,” so he had no conflicting traffic except people crossing the street.
So, he blasted through his red signal right in front of me with no hesitation.
He never slowed down once.
When I said earlier that I always look both ways before crossing a street, I’m sure there are people who think that’s so obvious it doesn’t need to be said. And yet, I’ve seen too many people cross streets without looking for traffic at all because their phones stole their attention. I’ve seen cars brake hard, stopping just a foot away from a pedestrian crossing a driveway with their head down, and the pedestrian doesn’t even flinch.
I’ve seen people crossing active driveways who had no idea they were a meter away from their own funeral.
And I’m bewildered because I’m like, “where’s the sense of self-preservation?”
Or is it that despite what the news tells us, modern society is so safe that people trained themselves to ignore their basic survival instincts in favour of whatever drama is playing on their phones?
Is our safer environment making us less safe?
Some recent news suggests that might be the case…
The actress who fried her kitchen
Recently, a live streamer nearly burned down her apartment, frying pickles in her lingerie.
The live streamer was wearing the lingerie. Not the pickles. Which raises the first safety concern because you want to cover up to avoid injury from potential oil splatter and spills. But clearly her priority was on servicing her viewers more than cooking. Because she never fries a single pickle before the ensuing chaos.
Not long after she starts, she sees her smoking pan of oil and asks, “wait, should it be steaming like that?” No. Generally, frying oil shouldn’t smoke because it ruins the taste of food and releases chemicals that can ruin your health in the long run. But forget the future. She has a more pressing problem flaring up…
Because then she comments, “I hate the smell of burning,” but fails to make the logical connection between the burning odour with the smoking oil behind her.
I feel like anyone old enough to live stream in their lingerie should have developed a survival instinct related to burning odours. If you smell something burning, you want to find the source of the odour fast. Because if something is burning, you want to stop it from burning ASAP.
Shortly after, the smoke from her pan billows thicker and thicker until it inevitably flashes over into a roaring fire. Shocked, she stood staring at the raging flames. Unsure what to do, she calls her off-screen partner for help.
This isn’t the first time a live streamer set a kitchen on fire, either. And it likely won’t be the last because of what psychologists call risk compensation.
The consequences of risk compensation
There are 2 ways that feeling safe puts us in more danger:
It encourages people to take bigger, dumber risks.
It discourages people from taking precautions.
The risks
The Peltzman Effect suggests that safety measures make people feel more safe, leading them to feel like they can make riskier decisions. And they do. But the effect of people taking bigger risks offsets the effects of the safety measures. So, the net effect is that people are no safer than before the safety measures were implemented.
Maybe the cyclist would have been less inclined to run the red light if there was a risk that left-turning cross street traffic might enter his lane.
Maybe the live streamer would have researched how to fry pickles before hitting the record button if there wasn’t someone nearby to extinguish fires.
People don’t just take bigger risks; people take dumber risks, ignoring basic human survival instincts because people feel safer to do so. I’m sure there are pedestrians who think they don’t need to check for traffic because they believe they always have the right-of-way.
Why is that dumb?
Because safety features are designed around what should happen, not what actually happens. There’s one lesson from driving school I never forgot…
Right-of-way is given, not taken.
The law might say you have the right-of-way. But if the other person doesn’t give it to you, you don’t have it.
The precautions
Despite the news, many cities are so safe that looking both ways before crossing a street is laughed off as silly because “our streets are so safe, why bother?”
For a cautious person like me, the answer is simple. It’s because a driver can see you and try to avoid you, but still lose control of their vehicle for several reasons. Maintaining awareness gives you a chance of avoiding a premature trip to the cemetery.
Or crematorium, if you’d rather set your pickles on fire.
Feeling safe does not mean you’re actually safe because of what psychologists call, “illusion of safety.” People who feel safer take fewer precautions because… why not? They’re safe, right? If you think you’re safe from cyber attacks, then why would you not use simpler, more memorable passwords? But by being less careful, they leave themselves more vulnerable to dangers. Paradoxically, that means people who feel safer are more vulnerable.
Does all this mean we have to live in fear for our safety?
No. And here’s why…
The power of augmentation
Safety measures can improve safety when they’re used to augment our safety skills rather than replace them. This is a nuance the Peltzman Effect does not capture. Let’s take a fire extinguisher as an example.
A responsible adult would do whatever they can to prevent fires. For a mature adult, a fire extinguisher is a tool to augment our ability to put out a fire, just in case there’s a fire. This is where a safety measure improves safety.
There are other people who are more like, “I don’t care about fire safety because I have a fire extinguisher here to put out any fires that start.” For those people, a fire extinguisher is a tool to replace fire safety skills. But because they don’t care about fire prevention, they’re more likely to start fires to begin with. They’re more vulnerable to fires. This is where a safety measure is more dangerous.
For this same reason, we’re more vulnerable when we rely too much on others to keep us safe. Because then we’re abdicating our safety skills to others.
You could cross the street with your head down. You could assume the driver in the car heading straight for you will swerve or stop in time. But what if that driver is inexperienced? That’s why you don’t want to rely too much on others to keep you safe. But that also means that if you truly value being safe, it’s up to you to take responsibility for your own safety. It’s about taking control of your own life. Because why not? It’s your life. And it’s also rewarding in ways easy to overlook…
Vigilant Peace
Your mileage may vary. But when I took responsibility for my safety, I discovered what it means to be composed. Because you need to plan and think ahead about:
What can go wrong?
How to prevent things from going wrong?
How to recover from something gone wrong?
When you practice answering these questions enough, it becomes second nature. And when this thought process becomes a habit, you develop a harmonious interplay of vigilance (alertness) and inner peace.
I’ll just call this mental state Vigilant Peace.
The inner peace comes from confidence that you know how you’d respond when certain things go wrong.
The vigilance comes from the desire to observe your environment so you know when to respond with your plan of action.
The inner peace dissolves the stress that usually goes with constant vigilance.
While the vigilance stops you from becoming complacent.
Done correctly, Vigilant Peace empowers you to respond well to surprises, too. The vigilance lets you respond quickly. While the inner peace lets you respond smartly.
You probably do this to some extent already.
Looking both ways before crossing the street takes vigilance. And you can do it without stressing out. That’s Vigilant Peace.
Augment. Don’t abdicate.
Despite modern obsessions over making workplaces, cities and other communities “feel safer,” we might not actually be safer. It’s worth thinking about that the next time a company sells you a new product feature to “keep you (and your children) safe,” or a politician sells you a new law to make your country “feel safer.”
Would it really?
A safety feature could be dangerous if we use it to replace or abdicate our safety skills. Because it encourages reckless risk-taking while discouraging precautions. It also means handing control of our lives to others, which is not always in our best interests.
A safety feature is only safe if we use it to augment our safety skills. That means taking responsibility for our own safety, which means taking care of ourselves while building confidence and composure through the practice of Vigilant Peace. The most rewarding result is the cultivation of inner calm, no matter where you are.
After all, when we talk about “feeling safe,” what we’re really seeking is inner peace. Shaping an external environment might create outer peace. But taking responsibility for your own safety lets you create inner peace, which you can take with you everywhere you go. You can’t get more freedom than that!
Augment. Don’t abdicate.
I had a lot more to say about this than I thought! Thanks for reading to the end. Feel free to email me at belowthesurfacetop@gmail.com or click “Message Alvin” below if you have questions or comments. I’d love the hear from you.
Thank you for reading. Augment; don’t abdicate. And I’ll see you in the next one.
Wise words Alvin! I too look both ways when crossing the street and taught my children to do so, too. When they asked why, I responded, “Are you ok with only being killed by stupid people?”
Glad you’re safe!
Although I love cycling myself, a lot of road cyclists are not very nice people.