[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: 65 means 65



In article <3vtp7p$9ob@condor.philabs.philips.com> jpc@philabs.philips.com (John P. Curcio) writes:
$Also, now that we have 65 here in New York on a number of roads, there
$are a few which didn't get raised (aside from the ones banned by
$federal law, others weren't raised for political reasons).  The NYSP
$say that they will be enforcing them a lot tighter than before.  In
$other words, the "10 over" tolerance is gone altogether, so the de facto speed limit on those such roads has actually dropped.

   What the police say and what the police do are not always one and
the same.

   When we had photo radar in Ontario, the official police line was
that speeding was a very severe offence, the most important contributor
to accidents, and that photo radar was a good way of helping people to
slow down.

   When photo radar was eliminated, the government replaced it with
more officers with instructions to go after _bad_ drivers, and
not necessarily speeders.  The official police line became that
there are a lot of bad driving habits which many drivers have,
and that it's important for the cops to go after people who drive
on shoulders, tailgate, make bad lane changes, drive with one or
zero hands while doing something else, etc.

   There was soon a story in the paper telling how these new officers
did on their first day, and giving examples of the bad drivers
(other than speeders) they had caught and either ticketed or warned.

   A few days later, there was a picture of one of these officers
sitting by the side of the road on a busy highway with a radar gun.

   It's nice to at least have them paying lip service to the fact
that speeding and dangerous driving are not synonymous, and it's
also nice to see that they're at least making some effort to
go after bad drivers and not just speeders.  Hopefully they'll
keep moving in the direction of balanced enforcement of the
driving laws.
-- 
 ______________________________________________
/  Hi Ho Silver, who likes the idea of having  \  __________________________
\  SNTF and large h00ters in the same package   \/   silver@bokonon.UUCP    \
 \______________________________________________/ ...{!uunet}!bokonon!silver \


References: