Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

aintjoan t1_j5jgw4g wrote

Reply to comment by Phl_worldwide in Hit-and-run crashes hours apart kill woman in South Philadelphia, man riding bike in Kensington by hdhcnsnd

Not a single one of those things prevents a police officer from pulling people over for the kinds of flagrant violations that are causing hit-and-run crashes.

You can debate whether the bill itself was a good idea. Reasonable people can disagree about that. But it does not prevent the police from doing traffic enforcement. The fact that they have essentially stopped all traffic enforcement in response to it is... well. Let's just say, I think it sums up the issues with the PPD and FOP quite well.

65

[deleted] t1_j5jhjxd wrote

[removed]

−1

aintjoan t1_j5ji1t6 wrote

[Removing this comment because it was a reply to a comment that's no longer here and makes no sense without context]

4

justanawkwardguy t1_j5k716c wrote

It's not about the police stopping them though. Yes, police need to do their jobs and actually pull people over for flagrant violations, however, the bill also made it so idiotic drivers think they can do anything. Even if it's outside of what the bill was for, people who actively choose to drive recklessly see the bill as making their behaviors ok

−4

aintjoan t1_j5kby94 wrote

I think the fact that nobody is stopping them for doing 90mph down city streets or blasting through red lights without a second thought is doing a lot more to tell them their behavior is ok. Serious question: how many of the people we're discussing do you really think are aware of a bill that came out of Philly City council and what it says? Do you think the folks racing Dodge Chargers on Delaware Ave were waiting for an all clear from city council? Reckless driving behavior was already present. It exploded when the police stopped pulling them over for it, which was after the bill was passed, because the police didn't like the bill.

We're kind of at an impasse at this point, I think, because we don't have the kind of data analysis necessary to figure out the nuances of causation. The one thing I keep coming back to is that the police ARE the only ones who can enforce existing traffic law and they are NOT doing it. If that changed, it stands to reason the behavior would be reduced.

20

AKraiderfan t1_j5kcrk3 wrote

it only takes marginal enforcement to stop 90% of dumb fucks from thinking they can get away with shit.

Case in point: Seattle has jaywalking laws, and everyone mostly follows it. How often is this law enforced? averages out about 170 jaywalking tickets per year in the past decade. 170 tickets a year, in a metro area of 4mm people, a laughably small number, but keeps much of the population from jaywalking.

Fucking pull over 100 cars a year, and you'll get assholes calling PPD nazis, but probably reduce a whole bunch of bad driving for that comically small number of actual enforcement.

10

CT_Real t1_j5ni1xf wrote

90% of people in the city have no knowledge of this law...

2