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To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

nyc.streetsblog.org

11–20 of 156 posts

Re: To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

#11
post #4

Has he ever hit something or someone? If the answer is no, then speeding laws are too strict and must change.

I am of two minds about it. On one hand, speeding alone when done by a mature highly-attentive driver isn't really dangerous no matter the limit, because the driver has enough expertise to know what his personal limit ought to be. The residual risk is more from immature drivers, the mistakes of other cars, cyclists, and pedestrians.

I have been on both sides of it. I have been the speeder who can drive very safely, and much earlier than that I have been the one to get hit by a car on a street. If the car had been going faster, or if it had been an SUV or a truck, I could have been less than lucky.

I settle for a middle position, which is that the speed limit should be no less than 35 mph on most streets, with heavy mandated use of automated collision avoidance systems. Moreover, I think that all pedestrian collisions, no matter how small, must be investigated thoroughly, with a hard action taken to minimize such an incident. School zones and other low-speed zones are a complete moneygrubbing racket because we already use schoolbuses which have protections.

Bicyclists must be mandated to wear light-colored high-visibility clothing, reflective gear, and a helmet, otherwise their bicycle should be confiscated.

Re: To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

#12
The solution is pretty straight forward.

Fine should be scaled to your income and have an escalating multiplier for reoffense within the same category of offense with a cool down period of a few years if they don't break the law.

I've brought this up many times online and people usually reply with something like "lots of people who have no income on paper but are wealthy speed" and a recent solution that I've seen posted is to scale the fine to the value of the vehicle.

Quite often fines are a pretty limp and ineffective way of modulating an individual's behaviour which is ultimately a choice by society.

We can make a better choice there to induce the behaviour that we want from antisocial people.

Re: To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

#13
post #4

Has he ever hit something or someone? If the answer is no, then speeding laws are too strict and must change.

It's not so much whether someone has hit anyone - speeding laws exist for a good reason to protect other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, etc. There's a good reason that school zones are 25 mph for survivability in the case of a car hitting a pedestrian (especially for small children).

There's certainly issues with speeding laws and enforcement, but at the end of the day the US is so car-centric that removing someone's license for dangerous driving can severely impact their ability to get to work, etc.

Re: To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

#15
> Since 2022, traffic cameras have caught his pickup truck blasting through school zones or running red lights more than 547 times in that one borough

In the UK speeding tickets get you 3 points (or more if you're really over like 50+ in a 30).

Get 12 points in a 3 year period and you are banned from driving.

I thought that the US had something similar for "moving violations" (rather than say parking).

Is the penalty for ignoring the law seriously just a fine (i.e. if you're rich you aren't affected)?

Re: To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

#16
They went to the guy's house, workplace? Followed him and took pictures?

This article reads like a Kiwi Farms thread. Just saying. I'm not a fan of what they do, but that's what came to mind. And when people do undesirable things, documenting them for public awareness is important. But how deep is too deep when it comes to freelance investigative journalism of this type?

e: critically I'm _agreeing_ that the reporting is important, and I'm not passing judgement either way here, only making a comparison and posing a question

Re: To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

#18
post #4

Has he ever hit something or someone? If the answer is no, then speeding laws are too strict and must change.

I am of two minds about it. On one hand, speeding alone when done by a mature highly-attentive driver isn't really dangerous no matter the limit, because the driver has enough expertise to know what his personal limit ought to be. The residual risk is more from immature drivers, the mistakes of other cars, cyclists, and pedestrians. I have been on both sides of it. I have been the speeder who can drive very safely, a…

> Bicyclists must be mandated to wear light-colored high-visibility clothing, reflective gear, and a helmet, otherwise their bicycle should be confiscated.

The leading cause of death for car occupants is head injuries, I assume you believe that all car occupants must wear a helmet.

All cars needless to say need to be bright orange

Any infringement should have the car crushed.

Re: To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets

#20

I don't understand, doesn't NY have a points system for driving licenses? In most places you could speed at most half a dozen times before you lose your license.

It does, but according to the article it doesn’t apply to tickets issued by camera.
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