Is My Safety Your Priority?

I just heard a piece on NPR about how people who are fed up with commercial air travel and the TSA are going to drive instead of fly for Thanksgiving this year.

This somehow seems to say that the TSA is not doing that well at living up to its alleged "priority." All throughout the security area are these stupid signs that say, "Your safety is our priority."

It is well established that commercial air travel -- even when you include terrorist attacks that have actually happened in the past -- is way safer than driving. If my safety was really their priority, the TSA should be doing everything it can to make air travel easier and more convenient and to get me to fly everywhere and to drive as little as possible. My students who are crossing state lines to buy up all the remaining caffeinated Four Loko? They probably should not be driving. I'm more worried about over-worked truck drivers delivering holiday merchandise causing an accident that kills me on the highway than I am about a terrorist on an airplane. If we're going to be throwing big money around at making transportation more secure, maybe they should devote some attention to the forms of transportation that kill tens of thousands of people each and every year.

I really hope that someone does a study and calculates the extra highway deaths this year as a result of the "enhanced security" procedures that are pushing people to drive instead of fly.