I take issue with your claim that the majority of the populace knows how to drive. My experience differs strongly.<p>All kidding aside, the numbers are a big issue. How many cars are on the road versus how many planes in the sky? Add to it the fact that in the sky you have three dimensions of completely free travel ability to evade accidents, where in a car, you typically have at most two and more commonly one completely safe area to &quot;duck into&quot; to avoid an accident.<p>Plus, no one (at least in my mind) is advocating that anyone gets to FLY the plane, they&#x27;re saying anyone should be able to fly IN a plane. You don&#x27;t need to know shit about driving a car to know whether or not a car you&#x27;re getting into is safe, and same goes for a plane. If the exhaust is dragging on the ground and a rear door is missing, you don&#x27;t need to know anything about cars to know that&#x27;s probably not the safest car ever.