6 ms·

Based on the headline, I was guessing it was any amount of positivity, and may be close to the population level, but it's actually impairment levels of THC: >

Based on the headline, I was guessing it was any amount of positivity, and may be close to the population level, but it's actually impairment levels of THC: > In a review of 246 deceased drivers, 41.9% tested positive for active THC in their blood, with an average level of 30.7 ng/mL — far exceeding most state impairment limits. Since COVID in CA, it feels like driving has become far more dangerous with much more lawlessness regarding excessive speeding and running red lights, going into the left lane to turn right in front of stopped cars, all sorts of weird things. But I can't tell if my anecdotes are significant. It seems that Ohio's impaired drivers have been consistent through the past six years though.

QuadmasterXLII 11mo ago
reading the paper, I’d say this is a case of hoofbeats meaning horses- people are just getting high and crashing.. Although, this seems like a case where the average is very vulnerable to a ‘spiders georg’ type distortion, especially because of the tolerances people build.
- iLoveOncall 11mo ago
  Wow, this is amazing, you managed to read a paper that is not published? Impressive!
- Y_Y 11mo ago
  > "average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
Benjammer 11mo ago
>Since COVID in CA, it feels like driving has become far more dangerous with much more lawlessness regarding excessive speeding and running red lights, going into the left lane to turn right in front of stopped cars, all sorts of weird things NYC has had the same effect since COVID, and over the last year or two it's gotten to the point where every single light at every busy intersection in Manhattan you get 2-3 cars speeding through the red light right after it turns. I bike ride a lot so I'm looking around at drivers a lot, and for the most part the crazy drivers seem to be private citizens in personal cars, not Uber or commercial/industrial drivers.
- SecretDreams 11mo ago
  Could we verify this against data? Surely if people are trying way worse post covid, that would show up compared to pre covid data by way of accident, fatality, and ticket issuances, e.g.? To the OP, I'm not sure I buy into it being tied to THC which seems to be the implication. Canada isn't seeing this trend, afaik.
  - epistasis 11mo ago
    Those who are autopsied due to traffic deaths clearly show a massive amount of THC impairment. But the data here also show that it's a consistent level before and after legalization of cannabis in Ohio. So legalization of cannabis in Ohio did not cause a big increase in impairment-levels of THC in those who died in traffic.
- nothrabannosir 11mo ago
  Funny I ride a bike in Manhattan & BK (but only post COVID) and I very rarely experience cars going through reds. IME cars here respect traffic lights and stop signs. I try and count cars actually running a red ("speeding" through it) and it's rare, say 1/mo tops. Ymv I guess :) They do not, though, give an owl's hoot about yielding to straight traffic when turning. I suspect NY drivers are on a big group chat encouraging each other to cut off cyclists and pedestrians, by turning into their lane whenever they see one, and promptly parking there for an hour. And there's the "squeeze", and "crowding the box". Almost like no car here is truly allowed to ever really stop so they're always gently rolling, just a little, juuuuust a little, just, maybe, I know it's red but maybe just a lil squeeze into the intersection, maybe, squeeze, ... I don't know how to explain it but if you've been here you'll recognize it I'm sure.
  - VerifiedReports 11mo ago
    The worst are assholes "blocking the box" while there is space to pull forward along the curb or even the neighboring lane. This should be a tripled fine, simply for the monumental level of douchebaggery displayed.
  - 11mo ago
swimorsinka 11mo ago
We've seen the same uptick in reckless driving in CO since Covid. Reddit Denver complains about it all the time. I think it's happening everywhere, and it's not clear why.
- assimpleaspossi 11mo ago
  Cause there are fewer police watching and there are no consequences for these people's actions.
- chasing0entropy 11mo ago
  One of the lesser known dictatorship plays: the ostensible increase of police presence with a proportionate and perceptible increase in crime lead the public and local governance to embrace harsher rule of law and violations of their rights under the auspices therin.
  - asdff 11mo ago
    I think the truth is more boring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeaHOe7eviQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeaHOe7eviQ
gretch 11mo ago
The running red lights thing is crazy. I think at it's height, I would maybe see 3 people do this in a single 20 minute drive. And not like running a late yellow, but a full on my-light-is-green-and-there's-a-guy-in-front-of-me-sideways It has dropped a bit now though.
- dawnerd 11mo ago
  I was tboned by someone that swore their light was green. I had a dedicated turn. Thank goodness for cameras. The trend I’ve noticed this year is turning right from the middle lane cutting off people in the turn lane.
  - VerifiedReports 11mo ago
    Are they cutting them off, though? If the street you're turning onto has two lanes, it shouldn't be a problem for two cars to turn at once. The car on the inside is required to turn into the nearest lane (according to any state law I know), so why can't the car on its left turn into its own lane?
    - 1123581321 11mo ago
      You’re not allowed to double right turn unless it’s explicitly marked, at least in the US.
    - dragonwriter 11mo ago
      > Are they cutting them off, though? Its possible for multiple lanes to turn without anyone cutting anyone off, but its also possible for people to turn right from the middle lane of the source street into the rightmost lane of the target street, cutting off people in the rightmost lane of the source street attempting to turn, or to make a right turn from a middle lane that is not allowed to turn, cutting of a legal right-into-any-lane from the rightmost lane when it is the only turning lane, so if someone explicitly says that's what they see and there is no available counterevidence that they are misreporting their observation, questioning it accompanied by a description of how it is possible for people to turn from multiple lanes into distinct lanes in harmony without anyone being cutoff is not particularly useful. > the car on the inside is required to turn into the nearest lane (according to any state law I know) That's the base rule in most jurisdictions, but there are places where it doesn't apply. See, e.g., for California: https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-veh/division-11/chapter-6/section-22100/ https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-veh/division-11...
y-c-o-m-b 11mo ago
Before this year I had only seen 1 wrong way driver in 30 years. In the last year alone I've seen 6! I saw one person going the wrong direction in a round-about. Another person going over the inner portion of a round-about. People stopping in the road for no reason. It's insane. The strange driving patterns is indeed a major issue. I thought it was maybe a Gen Z thing, but often times these people seem to be between 30-50 in age. Edit: no offense to Gen Z with my earlier comment btw. My reasoning was maybe we're failing younger generations with drivers ed so the blame would be on us anyway. Also I've seen these strange patterns in many states in the last year+: Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, California
- zoklet-enjoyer 11mo ago
  Come to Fargo. I see it multiple times a year. Usually right after a new semester starts and the farm kids don't know about one ways haha
  - y-c-o-m-b 11mo ago
    I'm not talking about one-ways, those are confusing in general. I'm talking about clearly marked off-ramps from freeways. In one situation the person had to drive over a fairly large bump in the median just to enter the wrong side of the freeway; again many signs to prevent such a thing and they still ended up in that predicament. Sometimes miles down the freeway before a cop pulls them over. It's terrifying. I saw another one where the car tried to turn right into an off-ramp with a line of cars waiting at the light. Like wtf, do you not see the wall of cars and headlights in front of you? Where are you going?!
    - zoklet-enjoyer 11mo ago
      Oh. That's completely different and frightening whereas what I see isn't too dangerous and is more comical
  - darubedarob 11mo ago
    Its usually drivers license transfers from countries where small bribes can "buy" you a license? https://wise.com/us/blog/transfer-international-driver-license https://wise.com/us/blog/transfer-international-driver-licen... The worst offenders are usually the older generations of countries where driving en mass is a recent thing. The old red guard uncles and aunties regularly run red lights cause who gives a damn about the law when you experienced the rule of the mob throughout your formative years. So parents and grandparents of students would be my guess.
tiltowait 11mo ago
Traffic fatalities increased during the pandemic[1]. AAA released a study examining the effects in 2024[2]. [1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10149345/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10149345/ [2]: https://newsroom.aaa.com/2024/08/the-pandemics-tenacious-grip-on-traffic-safety/ https://newsroom.aaa.com/2024/08/the-pandemics-tenacious-gri...
- lokar 11mo ago
  DUI enforcement is CA is really poor: https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/12/california-roadway-deaths-inaction/ https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/12/california-road...
bko 11mo ago
I think it's lawlessness overall. For instance, consider San Fransisco traffic citations. Went from around 11k in 2014-2015 steadily down and then fell off a cliff during covid but never recovered (around 1k in 2023). I remember the sad story of Eric Garner who was killed in 2014 while being arrested for selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island. Today, at least in NYC, you see people parked out in front of the same corner every day selling weed and loose cigarettes. Same people, out in the open. I'm pretty sure that's not a sanctioned dispensary. Just shows how much things can change in ten years. For whatever reason, police and prosecutors just gave up in enforcing any kind of laws. Seems like an overreaction to whatever problems we had with criminal justice https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/11nbnxw/san_francisco_traffic_citations_20142023/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/11nbnxw/san_f... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Michael_Brown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Michael_Brown
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- antonymoose 11mo ago
  I do believe you’re mixing up Michael Brown in Missouri who robbed a gas station and assaulted a cop and attempted to steal his pistol (per your own link) with Eric Garner in New York who was choked out by a police officer and subsequently died.
  - bko 11mo ago
    Yes, I am. Updated. Thank you
- nomel 11mo ago
  https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/to-reduce-racial-inequality-in-the-criminal-justice-system-government-should-explore-ways-to-reduce-police-stops-detention-and-long-sentences-says-new-report https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/to-reduce-racial-ineq... Are there any stats for incorrect crime reporting based on political leaning?
  - 11mo ago
HarHarVeryFunny 11mo ago
The numbers do appear quite staggering. It can't just be the dead drivers - there must be similar numbers of stoned drivers who are causing accidents, maybe killing others, while surviving themselves. As far as driving goes, any amount of drugs or alchohol is going to reduce reactions times, in addition to any impaired judgement or ability to control the vehicle. Even a couple of 1/10ths of a second in increased reaction time is enough to make the difference between braking in time and hitting another car or pedestrian/etc.
VerifiedReports 11mo ago
The most galling and pervasive offense, though, is TEXTING. The rampant texting while driving is killing pedestrians (and other drivers), leading to oft-cited statistics about the failure of "Vision Zero" and the increase in pedestrian deaths. Not to mention the millions of hours stolen from us all by people BLOCKING TRAFFIC while texting. We should not tolerate the ignorant and ineffectual response from lawmakers on this issue. Year after year, they refuse to do the right thing: make texting a DUI-level offense, with the same penalties. You could even argue that texting while driving is worse than DUI: Drunk people suffer from impaired judgment; sober people texting have decided to endanger and steal from everyone else while in full command of their faculties. It's despicable.
- eastbound 11mo ago
  Yeah. Well on one side, sharing location on Whatsapp has reduced by 90% the need to text while driving. But we still need to address the rest. Radio is chokefull of ads and the usual radio content is often insufficient to overcome my loneliness, so I’m not gonna say it’s ok, but I listen to Youtube videos while driving. You can sanction me. But let’s make the radio less boring for the sake of safety.
  - slumberlust 11mo ago
    'Entertain me better or I'll drive distracted' is a distorted view on your responsibility as the controller of a two ton missile. I don't like ads either, but that doesn't excuse my responsibility to drive safely for the betterment of myself and my community.
elif 11mo ago
It is crucial to consider correlated variables in their correct context. This finding does not even imply impairment. A low emotional intelligence driver, one with depression or low self worth, perhaps a psychological pathology like narcissism or nihilism. This is the type of person to initiate vehicular homicide. Intoxicant intake is a SUBSET of this group of variables. The archetypical homicidal driver would of course have exceptionally high representation in cannabis use, and also likely cigarette use, and probably nitrous oxide but they don't measure that. EDIT: what I will say is that dab culture is something beyond traditional cannabis use, and I could absolutely theorize that dab use in a vehicle is the new drunk driving.
modeless 11mo ago
If you're in San Francisco, the city essentially stopped issuing traffic tickets when COVID started. It's no wonder lawlessness increased. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xMUFt/mobile.png https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xMUFt/mobile.png
- staplers 11mo ago
  the city essentially stopped issuing traffic tickets I think you mean "law enforcement" stopped enforcing established laws.
  - jazzyjackson 11mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy
Aurornis 11mo ago
> I was guessing it was any amount of positivity, and may be close to the population level, but it's actually impairment levels of THC: A lot of people are trying to debate the impairment threshold or argue about mean vs median, but 40% of deceased drivers having this much THC in their blood would be a notable result for basically any sample of people for anything other than a music festival or something. The number of people age 12 or older who report any THC use at all, even once, in the past year is around 20% (or less depending on the survey). Having 40% of a group register levels this high is a very eye opening result.
lamontcg 11mo ago
> Since COVID ... I was noticing driving getting worse before COVID. It is the plague of narcissism and individualism out there (which doesn't just affect "boomers" but also every millennial and zoomer that dreams of doing nothing other than becoming an "influencer" and posts their life on their Instagram). Social media, low attention spans, cellphone and driving distractions, narcissism, and "fuck you, got mine" culture is going to wind up being to blame. It is a population-wide axis II personality disorder.
estimator7292 11mo ago
It's the same everywhere. It seems like police have just stopped enforcing traffic laws. Multiple times per week someone runs the red light in front of my local police station, in full view of an officer in their car, and nothing ever happens. Same with the multiple near-misses I see every week. They don't care, and since there are no consequences, there are no longer any traffic laws. Couple that with the mass psychosis afflicting the US, nobody seems to care about anything and just drive as fast and hard as they want to, and fuck absolutely everyone else.
Ancapistani 11mo ago
There’s no reliable way to determine impairment from a blood test. At most, this says that ~42% of people used it recently and/or frequently enough for metabolites to be present. https://forensicresources.org/2021/marijuana-impairment-faq/ https://forensicresources.org/2021/marijuana-impairment-faq/
- jeremyjh 11mo ago
  Sure, but if the baseline level of annual usage is only 20% in the general population then you still have a significant correlation.
  - Ancapistani 11mo ago
    Correlation, and about a billion compounding factors. For example: younger people are more likely to be regular cannabis users - and are also more likely than the general public to get in motor vehicle accidents.
ok_computer 11mo ago
Non-scientific anecdote here but I feel like the lawlessness is due to lack of enforcement for traffic violations vs an uptick in weed usage. Possibly covid scrambled our brains and promotes aggressive impulsive behavior. Maybe cops are afraid to pull people over because they might inadvertently shoot them and become a national news story. Maybe the adoption of big trucks makes people feel invincible (two distinct trucks on my drive have cut in line at a left turn lane with a red arrow and crossed 2 lanes opposing traffic at different lights, what would possess someone to do that(?)) Whatever the cause I feel in my gut that if our police did basic standards enforcement people would think twice about lawlessness. I’m in Pennsylvania.
spike021 11mo ago
I got a dog during COVID and I'm not sure if this is a related issue but the number of times I've had people not brake but accelerate as we're crossing the street or flash their high beams or try to drive around us at the last moment is insane. there are days where it happens multiple times during one walk and weeks where it happens at least each day of the week. i'm actually a car guy but when i drive if i see any pedestrians i always slow down and i take it even easier if i see they have small children or dogs since either can randomly stop or dart away.
asdff 11mo ago
If you have ever driven in Ohio the driving behavior is absurdly different than what you see in places like CA. People rarely speed. They willingly let you cut them off. And there are reasons for that too. Here is a map of where you are most likely to get a speeding ticket (1). The only place in california I've seen any enforcement of speeding or traffic behavior is along the 395 corridor in the Owens valley. Incidentally this region comes up in the map. It simply does not happen in LA county at least. Well, maybe they slap a speed ticket onto a pursuit case on top of everything else. But no sit and wait radar taking that I've seen. 1. https://i.redd.it/f898arvdx6je1.jpeg https://i.redd.it/f898arvdx6je1.jpeg

QuadmasterXLII 11mo ago

reading the paper, I’d say this is a case of hoofbeats meaning horses- people are just getting high and crashing.. Although, this seems like a case where the average is very vulnerable to a ‘spiders georg’ type distortion, especially because of the tolerances people build.

iLoveOncall 11mo ago
Wow, this is amazing, you managed to read a paper that is not published? Impressive!
Y_Y 11mo ago
> "average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

Benjammer 11mo ago

>Since COVID in CA, it feels like driving has become far more dangerous with much more lawlessness regarding excessive speeding and running red lights, going into the left lane to turn right in front of stopped cars, all sorts of weird things NYC has had the same effect since COVID, and over the last year or two it's gotten to the point where every single light at every busy intersection in Manhattan you get 2-3 cars speeding through the red light right after it turns. I bike ride a lot so I'm looking around at drivers a lot, and for the most part the crazy drivers seem to be private citizens in personal cars, not Uber or commercial/industrial drivers.

SecretDreams 11mo ago
Could we verify this against data? Surely if people are trying way worse post covid, that would show up compared to pre covid data by way of accident, fatality, and ticket issuances, e.g.? To the OP, I'm not sure I buy into it being tied to THC which seems to be the implication. Canada isn't seeing this trend, afaik.
- epistasis 11mo ago
  Those who are autopsied due to traffic deaths clearly show a massive amount of THC impairment. But the data here also show that it's a consistent level before and after legalization of cannabis in Ohio. So legalization of cannabis in Ohio did not cause a big increase in impairment-levels of THC in those who died in traffic.
nothrabannosir 11mo ago
Funny I ride a bike in Manhattan & BK (but only post COVID) and I very rarely experience cars going through reds. IME cars here respect traffic lights and stop signs. I try and count cars actually running a red ("speeding" through it) and it's rare, say 1/mo tops. Ymv I guess :) They do not, though, give an owl's hoot about yielding to straight traffic when turning. I suspect NY drivers are on a big group chat encouraging each other to cut off cyclists and pedestrians, by turning into their lane whenever they see one, and promptly parking there for an hour. And there's the "squeeze", and "crowding the box". Almost like no car here is truly allowed to ever really stop so they're always gently rolling, just a little, juuuuust a little, just, maybe, I know it's red but maybe just a lil squeeze into the intersection, maybe, squeeze, ... I don't know how to explain it but if you've been here you'll recognize it I'm sure.
- VerifiedReports 11mo ago
  The worst are assholes "blocking the box" while there is space to pull forward along the curb or even the neighboring lane. This should be a tripled fine, simply for the monumental level of douchebaggery displayed.
- 11mo ago

swimorsinka 11mo ago

We've seen the same uptick in reckless driving in CO since Covid. Reddit Denver complains about it all the time. I think it's happening everywhere, and it's not clear why.

assimpleaspossi 11mo ago
Cause there are fewer police watching and there are no consequences for these people's actions.
chasing0entropy 11mo ago
One of the lesser known dictatorship plays: the ostensible increase of police presence with a proportionate and perceptible increase in crime lead the public and local governance to embrace harsher rule of law and violations of their rights under the auspices therin.
- asdff 11mo ago
  I think the truth is more boring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeaHOe7eviQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeaHOe7eviQ

gretch 11mo ago

The running red lights thing is crazy. I think at it's height, I would maybe see 3 people do this in a single 20 minute drive. And not like running a late yellow, but a full on my-light-is-green-and-there's-a-guy-in-front-of-me-sideways It has dropped a bit now though.

dawnerd 11mo ago
I was tboned by someone that swore their light was green. I had a dedicated turn. Thank goodness for cameras. The trend I’ve noticed this year is turning right from the middle lane cutting off people in the turn lane.
- VerifiedReports 11mo ago
  Are they cutting them off, though? If the street you're turning onto has two lanes, it shouldn't be a problem for two cars to turn at once. The car on the inside is required to turn into the nearest lane (according to any state law I know), so why can't the car on its left turn into its own lane?
  - 1123581321 11mo ago
    You’re not allowed to double right turn unless it’s explicitly marked, at least in the US.
  - dragonwriter 11mo ago
    > Are they cutting them off, though? Its possible for multiple lanes to turn without anyone cutting anyone off, but its also possible for people to turn right from the middle lane of the source street into the rightmost lane of the target street, cutting off people in the rightmost lane of the source street attempting to turn, or to make a right turn from a middle lane that is not allowed to turn, cutting of a legal right-into-any-lane from the rightmost lane when it is the only turning lane, so if someone explicitly says that's what they see and there is no available counterevidence that they are misreporting their observation, questioning it accompanied by a description of how it is possible for people to turn from multiple lanes into distinct lanes in harmony without anyone being cutoff is not particularly useful. > the car on the inside is required to turn into the nearest lane (according to any state law I know) That's the base rule in most jurisdictions, but there are places where it doesn't apply. See, e.g., for California: https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-veh/division-11/chapter-6/section-22100/ https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-veh/division-11...

y-c-o-m-b 11mo ago

Before this year I had only seen 1 wrong way driver in 30 years. In the last year alone I've seen 6! I saw one person going the wrong direction in a round-about. Another person going over the inner portion of a round-about. People stopping in the road for no reason. It's insane. The strange driving patterns is indeed a major issue. I thought it was maybe a Gen Z thing, but often times these people seem to be between 30-50 in age. Edit: no offense to Gen Z with my earlier comment btw. My reasoning was maybe we're failing younger generations with drivers ed so the blame would be on us anyway. Also I've seen these strange patterns in many states in the last year+: Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, California

zoklet-enjoyer 11mo ago
Come to Fargo. I see it multiple times a year. Usually right after a new semester starts and the farm kids don't know about one ways haha
- y-c-o-m-b 11mo ago
  I'm not talking about one-ways, those are confusing in general. I'm talking about clearly marked off-ramps from freeways. In one situation the person had to drive over a fairly large bump in the median just to enter the wrong side of the freeway; again many signs to prevent such a thing and they still ended up in that predicament. Sometimes miles down the freeway before a cop pulls them over. It's terrifying. I saw another one where the car tried to turn right into an off-ramp with a line of cars waiting at the light. Like wtf, do you not see the wall of cars and headlights in front of you? Where are you going?!
  - zoklet-enjoyer 11mo ago
    Oh. That's completely different and frightening whereas what I see isn't too dangerous and is more comical
- darubedarob 11mo ago
  Its usually drivers license transfers from countries where small bribes can "buy" you a license? https://wise.com/us/blog/transfer-international-driver-license https://wise.com/us/blog/transfer-international-driver-licen... The worst offenders are usually the older generations of countries where driving en mass is a recent thing. The old red guard uncles and aunties regularly run red lights cause who gives a damn about the law when you experienced the rule of the mob throughout your formative years. So parents and grandparents of students would be my guess.

tiltowait 11mo ago

Traffic fatalities increased during the pandemic[1]. AAA released a study examining the effects in 2024[2]. [1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10149345/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10149345/ [2]: https://newsroom.aaa.com/2024/08/the-pandemics-tenacious-grip-on-traffic-safety/ https://newsroom.aaa.com/2024/08/the-pandemics-tenacious-gri...

lokar 11mo ago
DUI enforcement is CA is really poor: https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/12/california-roadway-deaths-inaction/ https://calmatters.org/investigation/2025/12/california-road...

bko 11mo ago

I think it's lawlessness overall. For instance, consider San Fransisco traffic citations. Went from around 11k in 2014-2015 steadily down and then fell off a cliff during covid but never recovered (around 1k in 2023). I remember the sad story of Eric Garner who was killed in 2014 while being arrested for selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island. Today, at least in NYC, you see people parked out in front of the same corner every day selling weed and loose cigarettes. Same people, out in the open. I'm pretty sure that's not a sanctioned dispensary. Just shows how much things can change in ten years. For whatever reason, police and prosecutors just gave up in enforcing any kind of laws. Seems like an overreaction to whatever problems we had with criminal justice https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/11nbnxw/san_francisco_traffic_citations_20142023/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/11nbnxw/san_f... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Michael_Brown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Michael_Brown

deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
antonymoose 11mo ago
I do believe you’re mixing up Michael Brown in Missouri who robbed a gas station and assaulted a cop and attempted to steal his pistol (per your own link) with Eric Garner in New York who was choked out by a police officer and subsequently died.
- bko 11mo ago
  Yes, I am. Updated. Thank you
nomel 11mo ago
https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/to-reduce-racial-inequality-in-the-criminal-justice-system-government-should-explore-ways-to-reduce-police-stops-detention-and-long-sentences-says-new-report https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/to-reduce-racial-ineq... Are there any stats for incorrect crime reporting based on political leaning?
- 11mo ago

HarHarVeryFunny 11mo ago

The numbers do appear quite staggering. It can't just be the dead drivers - there must be similar numbers of stoned drivers who are causing accidents, maybe killing others, while surviving themselves. As far as driving goes, any amount of drugs or alchohol is going to reduce reactions times, in addition to any impaired judgement or ability to control the vehicle. Even a couple of 1/10ths of a second in increased reaction time is enough to make the difference between braking in time and hitting another car or pedestrian/etc.

VerifiedReports 11mo ago

The most galling and pervasive offense, though, is TEXTING. The rampant texting while driving is killing pedestrians (and other drivers), leading to oft-cited statistics about the failure of "Vision Zero" and the increase in pedestrian deaths. Not to mention the millions of hours stolen from us all by people BLOCKING TRAFFIC while texting. We should not tolerate the ignorant and ineffectual response from lawmakers on this issue. Year after year, they refuse to do the right thing: make texting a DUI-level offense, with the same penalties. You could even argue that texting while driving is worse than DUI: Drunk people suffer from impaired judgment; sober people texting have decided to endanger and steal from everyone else while in full command of their faculties. It's despicable.

eastbound 11mo ago
Yeah. Well on one side, sharing location on Whatsapp has reduced by 90% the need to text while driving. But we still need to address the rest. Radio is chokefull of ads and the usual radio content is often insufficient to overcome my loneliness, so I’m not gonna say it’s ok, but I listen to Youtube videos while driving. You can sanction me. But let’s make the radio less boring for the sake of safety.
- slumberlust 11mo ago
  'Entertain me better or I'll drive distracted' is a distorted view on your responsibility as the controller of a two ton missile. I don't like ads either, but that doesn't excuse my responsibility to drive safely for the betterment of myself and my community.

elif 11mo ago

It is crucial to consider correlated variables in their correct context. This finding does not even imply impairment. A low emotional intelligence driver, one with depression or low self worth, perhaps a psychological pathology like narcissism or nihilism. This is the type of person to initiate vehicular homicide. Intoxicant intake is a SUBSET of this group of variables. The archetypical homicidal driver would of course have exceptionally high representation in cannabis use, and also likely cigarette use, and probably nitrous oxide but they don't measure that. EDIT: what I will say is that dab culture is something beyond traditional cannabis use, and I could absolutely theorize that dab use in a vehicle is the new drunk driving.

modeless 11mo ago

If you're in San Francisco, the city essentially stopped issuing traffic tickets when COVID started. It's no wonder lawlessness increased. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xMUFt/mobile.png https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/xMUFt/mobile.png

staplers 11mo ago
the city essentially stopped issuing traffic tickets I think you mean "law enforcement" stopped enforcing established laws.
- jazzyjackson 11mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

Aurornis 11mo ago

> I was guessing it was any amount of positivity, and may be close to the population level, but it's actually impairment levels of THC: A lot of people are trying to debate the impairment threshold or argue about mean vs median, but 40% of deceased drivers having this much THC in their blood would be a notable result for basically any sample of people for anything other than a music festival or something. The number of people age 12 or older who report any THC use at all, even once, in the past year is around 20% (or less depending on the survey). Having 40% of a group register levels this high is a very eye opening result.

lamontcg 11mo ago

> Since COVID ... I was noticing driving getting worse before COVID. It is the plague of narcissism and individualism out there (which doesn't just affect "boomers" but also every millennial and zoomer that dreams of doing nothing other than becoming an "influencer" and posts their life on their Instagram). Social media, low attention spans, cellphone and driving distractions, narcissism, and "fuck you, got mine" culture is going to wind up being to blame. It is a population-wide axis II personality disorder.

estimator7292 11mo ago

It's the same everywhere. It seems like police have just stopped enforcing traffic laws. Multiple times per week someone runs the red light in front of my local police station, in full view of an officer in their car, and nothing ever happens. Same with the multiple near-misses I see every week. They don't care, and since there are no consequences, there are no longer any traffic laws. Couple that with the mass psychosis afflicting the US, nobody seems to care about anything and just drive as fast and hard as they want to, and fuck absolutely everyone else.

Ancapistani 11mo ago

There’s no reliable way to determine impairment from a blood test. At most, this says that ~42% of people used it recently and/or frequently enough for metabolites to be present. https://forensicresources.org/2021/marijuana-impairment-faq/ https://forensicresources.org/2021/marijuana-impairment-faq/

jeremyjh 11mo ago
Sure, but if the baseline level of annual usage is only 20% in the general population then you still have a significant correlation.
- Ancapistani 11mo ago
  Correlation, and about a billion compounding factors. For example: younger people are more likely to be regular cannabis users - and are also more likely than the general public to get in motor vehicle accidents.

ok_computer 11mo ago

Non-scientific anecdote here but I feel like the lawlessness is due to lack of enforcement for traffic violations vs an uptick in weed usage. Possibly covid scrambled our brains and promotes aggressive impulsive behavior. Maybe cops are afraid to pull people over because they might inadvertently shoot them and become a national news story. Maybe the adoption of big trucks makes people feel invincible (two distinct trucks on my drive have cut in line at a left turn lane with a red arrow and crossed 2 lanes opposing traffic at different lights, what would possess someone to do that(?)) Whatever the cause I feel in my gut that if our police did basic standards enforcement people would think twice about lawlessness. I’m in Pennsylvania.

spike021 11mo ago

I got a dog during COVID and I'm not sure if this is a related issue but the number of times I've had people not brake but accelerate as we're crossing the street or flash their high beams or try to drive around us at the last moment is insane. there are days where it happens multiple times during one walk and weeks where it happens at least each day of the week. i'm actually a car guy but when i drive if i see any pedestrians i always slow down and i take it even easier if i see they have small children or dogs since either can randomly stop or dart away.

asdff 11mo ago

If you have ever driven in Ohio the driving behavior is absurdly different than what you see in places like CA. People rarely speed. They willingly let you cut them off. And there are reasons for that too. Here is a map of where you are most likely to get a speeding ticket (1). The only place in california I've seen any enforcement of speeding or traffic behavior is along the 395 corridor in the Owens valley. Incidentally this region comes up in the map. It simply does not happen in LA county at least. Well, maybe they slap a speed ticket onto a pursuit case on top of everything else. But no sit and wait radar taking that I've seen. 1. https://i.redd.it/f898arvdx6je1.jpeg https://i.redd.it/f898arvdx6je1.jpeg