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0 pointsbluefirebrand3y ago0 comments

> Leaving hazy judgement calls up to the police for enforcement, at least in the US, has not fared particularly well for non-white people. See, for example, the history of enforcement of "jaywalking", a "crime" which was recently decriminalized in California for precisely that reason

You will notice that this wasn't solved by setting up enforcement cameras on every street that ticket all jaywalkers equally.

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brenns103y ago· 1 in thread

Yeah, it was decriminalized because jaywalking was a crime invented by the auto industry and there's no real harm in it, provided that a person crosses a street when it is safe to do so (this is part of the new law, it's still illegal to cross when you cause a risk of crash).

On the other hand, traffic rules protect public safety. Even and automated enforcement (provided that there's no entrapment for revenue, something that is dangerous and does happen with, e.g. red light cameras) causes people to have safer driving habits. After all, driving is not a right, it's a privilege to operate heavy, dangerous machinery in public. Drivers should be held to a high standard of safety.

bluefirebrandOP3y ago

> On the other hand, traffic rules protect public safety

The stats show that society is the safest it's ever been.

At some point we are going to realize that allowing more and more surveillance and automated enforcement into our lives in the interest of public safety is really giving diminishing returns on actual safety, but tons of returns on authoritarianism.

Yes, I'm aware that car crashes are still one of the leading causes of death, and therefore one of the least safe activities you can do.

Personally I think the solution is better public transit and such. Fewer cars on the road means fewer low skilled or wildly reckless drivers too.

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