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More Americans are using fake license plates

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Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#51

Post by WheatMillington »

throwaway68911 wrote: post #23
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #2

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…

[flagged]

The USA is the richest country in the world by a long way. How exactly is it suddenly becoming a 3rd world nation? I see this kind of hand wringing often from Americans, and I find it puzzling.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#52

Post by throwaway68911 »

WheatMillington wrote: post #51
throwaway68911 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The USA is the richest country in the world by a long way. How exactly is it suddenly becoming a 3rd world nation? I see this kind of hand wringing often from Americans, and I find it puzzling.

[flagged]

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#53

Post by schmookeeg »

WalterBright wrote: post #37
King-Aaron wrote: post #16

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.

I suppose the camera would have a great shot to prove this heroism, and if you couldn't get dismissal for the ticket under these extraordinary circumstances, you'd be one gofundme away from turning a profit from the outrage/sympathy legions.

sorry about your friend's friend.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#54

Post by eyelidlessness »

King-Aaron wrote: post #16
djmips wrote: 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.

I’ve avoided several collisions by making the snap decision to go ahead and run a stale yellow (knowing I technically was running a red). Some maybe warranted a moving violation if I’d been pulled over, and I’d (erm) cop to that if it were the case, but these cases have all been distraction by trying to avoid other driving dangers. Others were straight up design failures I couldn’t avoid if I’d tried, usually lights timed to make stopping impossible. In every case, I’d rather run a light than smash vehicles together to follow the rules.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#56

Post by matrixdata »

WalterBright wrote: post #49
curiousg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

More often, cars at a red light need to clear a path ASAP for emergency vehicles approaching from behind. The cars at the front of the line have nowhere to go except past the intersection, running the light.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#57

Post by WalterBright »

schmookeeg wrote: post #53
WalterBright wrote: post #37

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.

I suppose the camera would have a great shot to prove this heroism, and if you couldn't get dismissal for the ticket under these extraordinary circumstances, you'd be one gofundme away from turning a profit from the outrage/sympathy legions. sorry about your friend's friend.

I wouldn't mind paying the ticket if I thereby avoided an accident or got someone to the hospital in time.

I'm merely pointing out these absolutist statements are wrong.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#58

Post by jb1991 »

melvyn2 wrote: post #46
atdrummond wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.”

Perhaps depends on your definition of “violent crime“ or what you are including. Armed robbery, for example, is a violent crime, and SF is in the top 20 cities in the US for that crime.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#59

Post by matrixdata »

xpe wrote: post #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 f…

You'd probably like Axios where the journalism is presented in bullet points.

Re: More Americans are using fake license plates

#60

Post by WalterBright »

matrixdata wrote: post #56
WalterBright wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

More often, cars at a red light need to clear a path ASAP for emergency vehicles approaching from behind. The cars at the front of the line have nowhere to go except past the intersection, running the light.

Yup.

As always, use your best judgement rather than blindly following rules. This is also why cops, prosecutors, judges, and juries have discretion about applying the law, because the law simply cannot be blindly applied.

(Which is why I object to mandatory sentencing laws.)

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