[Note that this article is a transcript of the video embedded above.] September 2025 was an unusually bad month for runway overruns in the US. On the night of September 24th, an Embraer 145 with 53 people on board landed long at the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport in Virginia, overshooting the
It still sort of baffles me we haven’t designed a better braking system for the heaviest and most dangerous vehicles on the road. I’m sure it’s not easy but it seems to me like society is taking the “eh, it’s dangerous but a good truck driver will prevent it” stance instead of “the breaks shouldn’t fail”.
Nah, it is a matter of weight. Roads are engineered specifically for the weight of these trucks. If these trucks are regulated stupidly, the cost of goods goes up very quickly, the cost of road infrastructure skyrockets, or both. Making cars obese to protect the dumbest humans is one thing, but the constraints are different here. A commercial driver’s license is supposed to be a real license with real qualifications. That is your only protection. In a society where driving is required, the regular license is a joke with superficial qualifications. It is just a tax on the populous.
It still sort of baffles me we haven’t designed a better braking system for the heaviest and most dangerous vehicles on the road. I’m sure it’s not easy but it seems to me like society is taking the “eh, it’s dangerous but a good truck driver will prevent it” stance instead of “the breaks shouldn’t fail”.
Nah, it is a matter of weight. Roads are engineered specifically for the weight of these trucks. If these trucks are regulated stupidly, the cost of goods goes up very quickly, the cost of road infrastructure skyrockets, or both. Making cars obese to protect the dumbest humans is one thing, but the constraints are different here. A commercial driver’s license is supposed to be a real license with real qualifications. That is your only protection. In a society where driving is required, the regular license is a joke with superficial qualifications. It is just a tax on the populous.