The ratio of those two values shows, in my experience, that a lot of people are not very good at things they spend a lot of time doing, and are generally unaware of their own shortcomings
The average American spends 4.2 hours a week in the car. A typical 40 year old american has driven around 50,000 miles. For someone to continue to be bad at driving after that much experience, it must be a fundamental limitation on their capabilities for learning, thinking, or understanding. Drive to work any given day in Denver and you will see that a large number of people suffer from those fundamental limitations.
This article seems to present a world where most people the author interacts with can think critically about a complex topic, and are interested in learning or improving themselves. I wish I lived where the author lives, because I have had multiple jobs across multiple countries and never encountered an average population like the author describes.
You don't see your own here? Are you honestly sitting on the side of the road and intentionally evaluating drivers according to some criteria? Or are you just allowing yourself to notice that which inconveniences you?
Do you ever take time to notice how _convenienced_ you are? How cooperative other drivers can be? How often the rules get followed even though there is no one around to enforce them?
> the author interacts with can think critically about a complex topic
People can. They let their emotions get in the way and they simply choose not to. Frustratingly they never seem to notice when this happens. They remember that they _can_ make rational decisions so they assume _all_ their decisions are rational.
> I wish I lived where the author lives
Your experiences would likely not change.