i was asked a few days ago about whether i would skydive or not, and if i would be scared of dying from it, and i instinctually assumed that driving was an appreciable amount more dangerous than skydiving per Unit Action (driving 10000 miles vs skydiving once) and it turns out the driving 10k miles (the rough average per year in the US) is 2 orders of magnitude more risky. it's 1 in 10⁴ (10,000) for driving 10k miles and 1 in 10⁶ (1,000,000) for skydiving once

There's a common saying in skydiving apparently, which is something along the lines of "your drive to the airport was the most dangerous part of your day", and i thought I'd assess that too :3 so how far do you have to drive before skydiving once is less dangerous than your drive to the airport??? it's about 70 miles. driving 70 miles in the US carries about the same probability of dying as skydiving once in the US.

i propose a new system to convince people to stop driving so much

...the Skydive System. every 70 miles you drive is one skydive you could have done instead with the same risk of death. For Example every show i go to in los angeles is 2 skydives since its 70+ miles both ways

sources: US Parachute Association & US Department of Transportation