Are We Willing to Pay the Price?

By Moshe Feiglin

Click here for Moshe Feiglin's television interview (English transcript) on MVAs

8 Elul, 5770
August 18, '10

Translated from the article on the NRG website

The family from Beitar Ilit that was crushed by a train last week and my son who is still unconscious in the rehabilitation ward after an MVA are just two tragic examples of a national blight that robs us of our lives and health.

We tend to relate to traffic accidents on an emotional level and to say that we have done all we can. Just like with Gilad Shalit or Jonathan Pollard. We assume that the powers that be are doing everything possible. But the truth is that they are doing everything possible within the framework of what we are willing to pay. Pollard and Shalit are not home because we, as a society, are not willing to pay the real price that must be paid for their release. Instead, we pay lip service - and our captives remain in captivity.

If thousands of jailed Hamas terrorists are still receiving visits and luxury conditions, that means that we really want Gilad home, but that we are not willing to pay the price. And if in the past twenty five years not one official Israeli request for the release of Jonathan Pollard has been served, that means that we don't really want him and that we are certainly not willing to pay the price.

The same is true for MVAs. Everyone knows what the solution is, but nobody is willing to pay the price. I have been driving for 30 years. I think that I am a very careful and courteous driver. My children always joke that on the day that I will honk the horn, a plume of dust will rise over the hood of our car. Nevertheless, I sometimes find myself speeding. Not seriously, but going over the speed limit. It is an expression of the gap between reality, in which traffic is flowing at a certain speed -and what the signs say.

Are we willing to pay the price to close the gap between the law and reality? That entails two things: One, to adjust the law to modern highways and automobiles and two, to make the drivers responsible for their driving.

After the small legal adjustment, laws that remain on the books must be enforced without exception. Even the smallest traffic offense should bring about an unequivocal reaction: Driver's license revoked and vehicle put in storage at the owner's expense until the verdict in court. In the meantime, the driver will have to make do with public transportation.

The State must regard investment in bike paths that run parallel to all the highways in the country and serious improvements in the bus and train infrastructure as national priorities that take precedence over new interchanges or traffic lights. When we will be able to ride our bicycles to the nearest city or inter-city train station, when the train will arrive on time and we will know that we will be able to board the train or bus with our bicycles (there are simple apparatuses that serve this purpose), many of us will do so. By the way, air pollution kills more people than MVAs. Most of it comes from auto exhaust, which means that the use of mass public transportation will save many lives on the health front, as well.

If our work places will be equipped with showers and suitable storage for bicycles, how many able-bodied people will want to drive to work in their cars?

Are we willing to pay the price? I don't think so. It is a matter of culture. And sadly, in our culture, there are things that take precedence over human life.

Another example: I have no doubt that cell phone conversations while driving - even hands-free - cost lives. There is nothing that distracts a driver's attention more than his cell phone; dialing, text messages, the second that he must look away from the road to answer his call and of course - the actual conversation. Are we willing to pay the price and to decide that in Israel it is prohibited to talk on the cell phone while driving?

Today, I am willing to pay the price. Why wait?