Originally Posted by
jon c.
Certainly not a society I'd wish live in.
I'll take that over motor vehicle anarchy and epidemic lawlessness behind the wheel! (Yeah, yeah, "Those who trade safety for freedom get neither" or other such gibberish.)
I don't see much of a difference between the police issuing a citation and a citizen doing same. The problem is, we have no police issuing citations. There's no traffic enforcement. Add to that the fact that people don't make enough money in America (44% of Americans earn $10.22/hr. or less.), giving a little economic incentive to improve behavior behind the wheel is a pretty effective way to address the problem.
Oh and I JUST learned that the owner of River City Bicycles in Portland, OR was nailed by a red light-running driver in June. Multiple injuries put him in the ICU for two weeks. Just one more almost fatal data point in the endless data points of drivers injuring, maiming, and killing other road users.
It's beyond an outrage at this point. There are MANY causes for driver anti-social behavior on our roads. I pin it directly on the problem of failed economic opportunity. Basically, when a population is struggling economically, they don't tend to have much time for doing things well or right, following rules, regulations and laws. And just look to other societies and this is obvious: lawless places like Somalia where poverty reigns, government is failed, and crime is rampant. Pollution, disease, crime, you name it, society is falling apart. Then look to prosperous nations with strong social democratic principles, you tend to have law-abiding, happy people.
The US is quickly falling from first-world status to something like Somalia. Our growing homeless camps are proof. Egregious driver behavior is another data point supporting the demise of American society.
But these things cannot be fixed overnight. Repairing the decimation of the American working class will take generations. Until then, we need to stop the killing on our roads. WAY MORE emphasis on road safety and enforcement is so badly needed. And why not pay concerned citizens to help police the situation?
You call it a "tattle-tale." I call it "whistleblowing." And remember, if YOU don't want to participate, YOU don't have to!