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No, police don't enforce traffic laws because they all drive in from Long Island and spend their whole day in a car, so they view cars and their drivers as belo
by bobbylarrybobby 7y ago
No, police don't enforce traffic laws because they all drive in from Long Island and spend their whole day in a car, so they view cars and their drivers as belonging to the same tribe as police, which puts them above the law. Pedestrians and cyclists are "the other" that is capable of actually breaking laws.
Put cops on bikes and see how enforcement changes.
- paulgb 7y agoAs a general concept, I agree, more police would benefit from the perspective of riding a bike. But the problem I'm describing is not that cops don't care to ticket, it's that enforcing the rule incentivizes the wrong behavior. Traffic is so choked and sporadic that it's hard to know whether you will end up in an intersection, so people would be afraid to enter the intersection entirely, further slowing down traffic. If you actually enforced the law and ticketed it would just effectively be a stochastic congestion tax. Far better and fairer, in my opinion, to just do the real thing.