doesnt that seem even less safe?!?

 

DUI and red light runners account for 3/4 of traffic fatalities. Direct the "prizes" towards those infractions and I might not have so much of a problem with the policy.

 

well there's an easy way to reduce red light runners: standardize the length of yellow light time. There is absolutely no good reason for there to be different timing of yellow lights. One of the magazines (dont remember which) exposed this.

 

well, i always thought that the less tickets, the better, because it will show that people are going by the rules!

but yeah its bullshit, my brother in law got a warning tonight for a yellow light.

he was driving normal, doing the speed limit(30 mph) with a cop behind him. as he's getting ready to go under the light it turns yellow, leaving him no time at all to stop.
the damn pig had the nerve to pull him over and write him a warning for that.


me personally i prefer to slam on my brakes on a yellow light when a cop is behind me, ive done it a few times, and got one to screech tires once.


all i know the system is so fucked up that all we gotta do is deal with it, they can do what they want, and will keep doing it.

 

I don't think that's an issue at all. 99% of them are very close and very reasonable, but regardless, yellow light gunners aren't red light runners that cause accidents. From my experience, if a car is going the speed limit through a red light, and the light turns red just as the car is at the normal stopping point for that light, the car will end up being about twice the width of the intersection (assuming a busy, 4-lane intersection) from where they should be stopped by the time the cross-traffic gets the green light. I hope this makes sense, but essentially, the cars that run red lights and cause accidents were no where near a yellow light.

I think drunk driving could be taken care of pretty well with a hell of a task force or some really severe punishments. I honestly think a first DUI should be minimum 6 months in prison, second offense closer to 5 years (I'm in favor of stricter punishments for just about everything, though). It would be nice if there were a system set up with bars or clubs that had cops breath-testing everyone leaving the parking lot. There's WAY too many people that get away with drunk driving daily, and think that just because they've done it before, they'll be fine to do it agian.

 

Seems like a big misdirection of resources for something that is a miniscule problem in society.

 

That's fine, but I don't think standardizing time length will do much to reduce the runners. Maybe some, but not enough to change from being the second leading cause of traffic fatalities.

 

I don't have it in me tonight to go on one of my usual half-page rants about the injustices of traffic law enforcement. Nothing posted here will do anything to change the situation, so it's enough to simply voice my displeasure. Fact is, this ticket writing scam and its dubious justification are just a tiny, tiny part of the colossal fuck-up that is our entire system of law and government. To make it even more depressing, as shitty as our system is, it's still better than what most of the rest of the world has come up with.

No single person can effect any real change, so unless any of you feel like devoting your life to gathering support to run for public office or to start an anti-ticket-writing coalition just hire a good traffic lawyer and move on with life. "Pick your battles" as they say.

 

I ran a red today. Yellow light was at least 1.5 seconds shorter than the rest of the yellows on that road. Admittedly I probably should have stopped but I was driving a fully loaded SUV at about 5 MPH over the speed limit and I prefer to avoid full-on panic stops when I think I can make it through a yellow. Well, my judgment didn't serve me well with this light because it was dangerously short.

 

That happens to me sometimes. Usually though... its the other way around, the yellow light is LONGER than expected.