Example: Traffic Speed. Everyone always exceed the speed limit on highways. Why do we still have the limit? Like, either enforce it, or remove it. This stuff doesn’t make sense at all.
When minor things are against the rules which are selectively enforced, it means the authorities get to pick and choose who to punish based on whatever criteria they feel like, which gives them power.
Which shines some light on how the black population (at least here in the US) gets charged with disproportionately more crimes.
It’s very effective in keeping slavery via our private prison system running
Everyone always exceed the speed limit on highways.
Is this some kind of American thing?
Canada too. Sometimes it seems like the speed “limit” is actually the minimum most people are expected to go (if possible) on Ontario’s highways, especially the busiest ones. Enforcement is almost entirely done manually and barely exists, if it’s being done at all.
A lot of roads and highways are very over-engineered here with wide & forgiving lanes, with broad shoulders at the side. The actual speeds that can be accommodated in the design are far greater than the posted limit.
the hell
To expand on what Grappling said, I’ll give you an example. A few years ago the city repaved a decrepit section of road into a smooth and wide open road that is wide enough for 4 lanes but made into 2 wide ones with massive shoulders. There are no pedestrians on this road and you can comfortably go 80-100km/h. The speed limit they set? 50. While it’s not every road, it is definitely a lot of roads that get treated like this. It results in getting very comfortable with breaking the speed limits because the speed limits are
stupidnot matched to the designs of the roads.That is a stupid speed limit tbh
North American driving culture sucks. For the past 70 years cars have dominated at the expense of all other modes of travel. They’re deeply embedded into our culture, infrastructure, planning processes, transportation engineering, and daily lives. They have become synonymous with freedom of movement for a lot of people who can’t imagine any different way to get around. Speed limits and enforcement in their minds are seen as an infringement on their rights. It will be a long and uncertain process to enact change, ripe for disruption and setbacks, but the status quo isn’t working, we’ve hit the limits of cars’ ability to scale, and with the internet showing how things are in the rest of the world, some people are waking up to what’s possible when you aren’t dependent on cars to get around safely and reliably.
In Canada, the speed limits are kind of designed for bad conditions. Because somehow, in the cities, many people are too stupid or stubborn to go below the speed limit in the snow.
So in clear conditions, the speed limit should be higher than it is.
Also, at least around where I live, the roads are designed to support higher speeds than the speed limits indicate. So we have roads designed for 50km/h, but the speed limit is 30km/h. 50km/h feels nore comfortable to drive.
Why don’t we just redesign the roads to make them less comfortable to speed in? Well, how else are we going to issue tickets where officers can choose who gets fined, and sometimes even get to search a car out of the deal??
no idea where you’re from, but it’s true in many European countries too
Not sure if it’s an “American” thing…
This is the Interstate-95 on the PA-NJ Turnpike section, a two-hour long drive by car (at 60 Miles Per Hour speed, that is)
So you can selectively punish.
It’s so the police always have something they can stop you for.
expected … traffic speed
You’re not supposed to be speeding you know?
I’ll never forget my first time driving in Southern California.
I was doing 85mph in a 70mph zone and a prius flew past me.
Where I live, if you’re driving the speed limit on the highway, you’d best be in the slow lane…and you’d still have people passing you.
You should be in the slow lane I’d you aren’t overtaking anyway right? I presume most places have fairly similar rules but here in Australia it’s keep left unless overtaking, always. I guess keep right unless overtaking for US.
Yeah, but we’ve got like 4 lanes in a single direction sometimes, so there’s not just a slow lane and a passing lane.
Guess what, all three extra lanes are still passing lanes. This misunderstanding is the biggest cause of traffic.
Call them what you want, it means that the majority of the people on the highway are “speeding” at any given time
Tell that to like 99% of drivers on the Interstate-95 around the PA-NJ Turnpike section (USA btw).
Bwahahaha!
People do enforce the law. Just occasionally, but that’s enough to scare 90% into submission
Bureaucracy is a nightmare. There’s national laws, local laws, technical laws, practical laws, petty laws, incompetent laws, minority laws, old laws nobody bothered to get rid of, potential laws for possible situations that might happen at some point in an imaginary future… and so on.
Basically, it depends on who writes the law and why. All laws are subjective to humans, by humans and against anything that annoys the specific humans in charge at any given point in time.
True, but traffic not following “the algorithm” is more dangerous than moderate speeding.
People exceed the speed limit on highways, but usually not by a lot. If they exceed it by a lot, it is usually enforced, e.g. by speed cameras; but of course some people still sometimes get away with it, no enforcement of any law is perfect.
I don’t think everyone always breaks the speed limit, but probably they do at some point during every journey. They knew this went they introduced the 20mph speed limit but they introduced it anyway because they thought it would reduce the average speed by a few mph.
Traffic speed? If you know where all the speed cameras are, you could dodge them and hope there are no other police checking you.
That’s the whole fucking point. Speed traps are only there to decrease the number of people killed, and we still have idiots complaining about it.
Speed traps don’t stop or prevent crime/accidents, they generate money. In fact, one could argue a police speed traps causes accidents when a group of cars in the front suddenly slam on their brakes.
a group of cars in the front suddenly slam on their brakes.
A group of speeding cars in the front suddenly slam on their brakes.
You are the problem. That’s why I would enjoy if all those fucking morons had their license removed for life and they had to take the bus. I have to avoid accidents every fucking day because of them and I don’t see why I have to suffer for that.
Oh, about that: China also randomly flies drones that patrols the highways. Of couse, that’s getting into the Authoritarian territory, and people in Democracies don’t like it, but it is an option.
IMHO it’s not authoritarian. Your speed in public space should be public. I struggle every day with fucking idiots in BMW or VW who almost hit my car because they can’t drive properly. I wouldn’t mind seeing them in jail if it meant some kind of control on my own speed.
Ehh, for a bit Virginia tried enforcing them with aircraft.
It stopped because it was expensive, not because it was too authoritarian.
Manned Aircraft is much more expensive than drones, especially fuel cost. You can get like a DJI drone for like around $2000 (there are cheaper ones, but then you have to fly closer, since the cameras sucks on the cheaper ones) with good enough cameras to see the license plates by flying just hovering outside of the edge of the highway (so that, if it fails for some reason, it falls outside of the highway and doesn’t affect the traffic), and angle it towards the highway, and you’ll see all the license plates clearly, and with the help of the distance markers on the side of the road, determine their speed. As long as they don’t crash the drones, they are gonna last a long time, and if batteries are worn out, they can just get new ones. It’s not exactly “cheap”, but the government has a lot of budget. Getting like 20 of these can cover a lot of area. You don’t have to catch every one, just enough to make people think again before trying to speed. And randomly change the locations of patrol so there is no way to predict where they are being watched.
Also, they can get like some expensive ones, some cheap ones, mix and match. The cheaper ones will have trouble getting a clear license plate if it also have to keep a safe distance, but the people don’t know which drones are the expensive ones, get like 20 DJI Mavics, 40 DJI Mini 2 SE, mix them up. Think of like having real cameras mixed in with fake cameras.
I know it looks expensive, but just look at the police budget and it’s barely a dent. Cut out all of those “riot suppression” (aka: protest suppression) stuff from the budget and you got a lot of budget to work with.
As for manpower, redirect those writing tickets in the city, and teach them how to fly these drones. Parking violations have basically zero harm, fuck that shit, speeding has more potential to cause harm than parking violations.
just magically “enforce” it with no unintended consequences, please
Because it can be enforced selectively, and if everyone is guilty of something, anyone in particular can be harassed under the cover of a legal justification.
Yep. And in some places, one can see the enforcement is against minoritites and other scape goats at a disproportionate level. This also has the “bonus” of being able to make one group look like they break the law much more often and are dangerous
Yep. In Switzerland not having your ID on you is an arrest-able offence. Of course, the police never check the ID of anyone white or who blends in.
But if you look brown / disabled, then they will check you…
Aside from selective enforcement, some laws (like traffic laws) are there for your protection AND to establish liability if something goes wrong.
If the government sets the limit at 30 and everyone goes 50, when an incident occurs, nobody can sue the city for bad roads because everyone was going faster than the intended speed.
Also establishes expectations. Every on the highway knows what the expected speed is. Going 30 in a 65 is way more dangerous than doing 75 when conditions allow.
But doing 55 in a 65 isn’t unreasonable, and 95 is pretty fast and at that speed handling can become difficult on cheap or poorly maintained cars.
There are also conditions where 30 is what you’ll do on a highway if its a blizzard and you’re stuck behind a plow truck.
You are referring to the basic speed law…
Drive as fast as the road conditions allow or some shit.
They exist just in case they need to crack down on you.
I always think of dog leash laws this way. In many places they aren’t enforced and the majority of dog owners let their dogs off leash. However, if the owner loses control of their dog and it gets into trouble, like biting someone or another dog, then the law can always say, you’re liable because your dog was supposed to be on leash.
I think the same goes for speeding and other laws. It basically puts liability on the lawbreaker if they take a certain risk. If nothing bad happens, fine. But, if something does, then it’s your fault.
This has the unintended consequence of people not knowing about the law if it goes unenforced for a long time.
Not knowing the law isn’t an excuse before the law in most circumstances.
Name every law.
Which makes this an issue since no one will go read the whole list of laws
