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It sounds like the rash of recent high-profile aviation incidents is scaring people into booking bus travel instead of taking to the skies.
According to the New York Post, “Google Trends search results for the phrase ‘Is it safe to fly?’ surged in the month of February alone.”
The Post’s post (redundancy mine) added, “Kai Boysan, a resident of Dallas and Flix North America CEO, the parent company of FlixBus and Greyhound, told Fox News Digital that the company has seen an increase in riders… A spokesperson for FlixBus told Fox News Digital that ‘ridership across the Greyhound and FlixBus network grew by a double-digit percentage year-over-year’ (in 2024)… compared to 2023, continuing an upward trend.”
The article goes on to cite someone who admittedly suffers from a fear of flying.
But here’s the thing: flying is still way safer than bus travel.
The International Air Transport Association recently released its annual safety report. For 2024, there were seven fatal incidents across 40.6 million flights.
Traveling by bus, meanwhile, is apparently the second most dangerous form of transportation after riding motorcycles, injury-wise. (Though bus travel’s fatality rate is very low.) I wonder how many of those incidents were violent crimes committed on Los Angeles Metro lines…
I live in Southern California. It seems like once every year or so, there’s a horrific bus crash that kills a couple of dozen people going to or from a casino in Las Vegas or on tribal land.
And that’s more preferable to air travel?
I’ve driven between Los Angeles and Las Vegas three times. The first two times, hundreds of my fellow Vegas-goers and I were stuck in the desert for hours on a Friday night because of car wrecks. (Spoiler alert: there aren’t many emergency services in the desert.) Since then, I’ve flown — even if it means the trip takes the same time as the average drive. (Except for once, I needed to get to work and flights couldn’t get me there on time.) I’d rather not be the car accident on the 15 freeway.
As I wrote last month, aviation accidents get so much coverage because they are not only so dramatic but also so rare. Car accidents — unless especially gruesome and/or that occur on slow news days — rarely make the headlines. That’s because there are thousands of them every day.
If you’re that afraid of flying, do what’s best for you. But it’s more dangerous that taking to the skies.
Do you agree? Please tell us in the below Comments section.
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There’s nothing to add, you said it all regarding airline vs bus travel, but I’m saying it anyway!
I’ll fly! There is hardly a day that goes by that I don’t encounter at least one auto accident while driving on the freeways or around town on surface streets. Here in the Phoenix area (AZ), drivers are very aggressive & often texting on their phones
I passed no fewer than five car accidents this morning on my way to ATL from the northern burbs. I’ll always fly given the choice.