Space Shuttle Experimental after 30 Years???

“The good news is that the shuttle is still a relatively safe experimental space vehicle with a 1-in-60 to 1-in-100 chance of a category one failure—loss of vehicle, loss of crew. The bad news is that after $2 billion in expenditures for the reflight effort—and now many years after the Columbia failure—critical objectives set by the CAIB have not been accomplished,”
— Joseph Pelton, a research professor with the Institute for Applied Space Research at George Washington University.

Here’s my question: Why is the space shuttle program considered experimental after 30 years of operations and missions. Shouldn’t it be considered a refined project? And the if plan is to do more than 16 missions over the next 4 years to complete the International Space Station, shouldn’t that be taken into consideration? It sure seems that with all the dissent going on between parties INSIDE NASA that some external observer needs to step in and mitigate the potential losses. I’m not convinced enough in the program to put my life on the line for a 1-60 or even 1-100 chance of failure (read: DEATH!).