3 ms·
> > So my friends and I riding motocycles through the mountains on a sunny afternoon are reckless endangerment? > If you're breaking the law then yes, you're re
by terryf 11y ago
> > So my friends and I riding motocycles through the mountains on a sunny afternoon are reckless endangerment?
> If you're breaking the law then yes, you're reckless, period. If not, then enjoy it all you want.
The speed limit (and various other laws) are very much all or nothing. Riddle me this, which of the following is safer to do on the same road with a speed limit of 50:
a) Driving a brand new porche with brand new tyres on a sunny day, doing 55
b) Driving a car from the 70s with tyres that are almost worn out (but still in the legal range), at night, in heavy rain, doing 48
now consider that a) is illegal and b) is legal.
Breaking a law should not be a binary decision, making it a 0/1 choice makes the world worse for everyone, because to be completely safe, the restriction has to account for the worst case and that means that the vast majority will be artificially limited and feel like the law is needlessly overreaching. This is not a good situation to be in.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoWe can barely handle a binary law. Humans don't have enough cognitive power to have fuzzy laws. If cars in both a) and b) were self-driving, we could consider flexible traffic laws, because the cars would be accurately aware exactly how dangerous the situation is. Humans are not smart enough.
- scrollaway 11y agoHis point was that you can't just say "they're reckless if they're breaking the law", and you certainly can't say "they're only reckless if they're breaking the law". There is a lot of nuance to it and in some situations, breaking the law is even required to prevent a catastrophy and it's reckless not to.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoFair enough.