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More Americans are using fake license plates

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Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#41

I’m not an old person, but I know I’m going to sound like a curmudgeon saying this. I think it’s just moral decay. I can’t think of any other meaningful reason. In Phoenix, which I consider the national capitol of bad drivers, in the span of less than 10 years, I’ve noticed a staggering number of people in the metro area who just blatantly run red lights now. Sometimes seconds after they’ve turned. It’s straight up r…

During the BLM protests, and then when COVID hit, police "quiet quit" on traffic enforcement, despite little to no danger to them (and high availability of the vaccine, which many did not avail themselves of.) Unfortunately, the result has been skyrocketing injuries and deaths.

This sounds backwards to me- usually the argument I hear is people on the left arguing for banning traffic enforcement because it can be pretextual/is applied discriminatorily, and people on the right, pro police people, claiming it's necessary for policing to work.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#42
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Moral decay” doesn’t really offer much of an explanation though. That’s basically just saying “people are doing bad things more these days because people care less about doing good things these days.”

There’s absolutely a transition occurring from a country that is still mostly high trust to one that is low trust. See: the sizable contingent in SF who believes that open air drug markets and rampant violent crime are simply the price one must pay to live in cities. It doesn’t have to be this way.

[flagged]

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#43
post #3

On the other hand it feels like there's been a huge money grab with automated systems mailing out tickets or maybe I'm just at sore at the $180 red light camera ticket I just paid.

I am absolutely not a fan of fixed or hidden speed cameras, but red light cameras are legitimately good because you have zero reason or excuse to go through a red or speed through an intersection.

Except some municipalities with large red light camera revenue streams use bad math to justify unsafely short yellow light times in order to increase ticket revenues.

More details here: https://redlightrobber.com

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am absolutely not a fan of fixed or hidden speed cameras, but red light cameras are legitimately good because you have zero reason or excuse to go through a red or speed through an intersection.

Avoiding an accident is always a valid reason for breaking a traffic law. For example, on a two lane road I'll move into the left lane if there's a cyclist on the right shoulder, if the left lane is clear. As for a red light, my pedal will be to the metal if my buddy is bleeding out in the passenger seat. Is that far-fetched? It happened to a friend of mine at Boeing. He didn't get his friend to the hospital in time.

Does this happen often?

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#45

I’m not an old person, but I know I’m going to sound like a curmudgeon saying this. I think it’s just moral decay. I can’t think of any other meaningful reason. In Phoenix, which I consider the national capitol of bad drivers, in the span of less than 10 years, I’ve noticed a staggering number of people in the metro area who just blatantly run red lights now. Sometimes seconds after they’ve turned. It’s straight up r…

I feel the same way about not putting your shopping cart back in the proper place after loading your car. It's the one test of whether someone is willing to do the right thing absent any reward or punishment, and so many people completely fail the test. I generally lean libertarian, but it's a demonstration on people's inability to govern themselves.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#46
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Moral decay” doesn’t really offer much of an explanation though. That’s basically just saying “people are doing bad things more these days because people care less about doing good things these days.”

There’s absolutely a transition occurring from a country that is still mostly high trust to one that is low trust. See: the sizable contingent in SF who believes that open air drug markets and rampant violent crime are simply the price one must pay to live in cities. It doesn’t have to be this way.

SF has relatively low violent crime compared to other cities, while drug sales are to be expected where a significant amount of people think drugs should be decriminalized or legalized. I don’t think the city has much of anything to do with the point of vague “moral decay.”

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#48

I’m not an old person, but I know I’m going to sound like a curmudgeon saying this. I think it’s just moral decay. I can’t think of any other meaningful reason. In Phoenix, which I consider the national capitol of bad drivers, in the span of less than 10 years, I’ve noticed a staggering number of people in the metro area who just blatantly run red lights now. Sometimes seconds after they’ve turned. It’s straight up r…

I don't think that's a good explanation at all. People are murdering less than a few decades ago, beating their kids less, stealing fewer car stereos. There might indeed be moral decay, but that doesn't answer why fake license plates and not some other thing. I suspect the reason for greater fake license plate use is the same reason for most products picking up: people are selling them, people are hearing about them,…

>People are murdering less than a few decades ago

Check your stats, this is quickly becoming outdated. Murder rates are back up where they were in the 90's in many parts of the USA.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Avoiding an accident is always a valid reason for breaking a traffic law. For example, on a two lane road I'll move into the left lane if there's a cyclist on the right shoulder, if the left lane is clear. As for a red light, my pedal will be to the metal if my buddy is bleeding out in the passenger seat. Is that far-fetched? It happened to a friend of mine at Boeing. He didn't get his friend to the hospital in time.

Does this happen often?

Police and emergency vehicles do it all the time. And sometimes, you get the terrible job of being an emergency driver.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#50
I was hoping to see some discussion of policy proposals and their pros and cons. Nope. Just another rambling news-style article. I think my experience with ChatGPT has changed what I expect in terms of information consumption. I’ve never liked the traditional journalism format; I’m more drawn to a well organized table of contents. If I want a freewheeling unstructured narrative, I can watch drunk history. Do others feel this way (about wanting better structured information, not inebriated content providers).
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