Negative Space: traffic laws
- At least I got to see the officer squirm
- Traffic court has a very high opinion of humans’ ability to violate the laws of physics.
- Bad laws cause crime
- “Honestly, the level of apathy I’m dealing with is maddening.” Bad laws make it easy to get away with breaking them.
- Driving laws too complicated for DMV
- It appears that California’s driving laws are so complicated that even the DMV and the California Highway Patrol get confused.
- The Guerilla Guide to Traffic Court
- Traffic court is a real eye-opener, especially when you know what really happened because you were there.
- Massachusetts State Police encourage speeding
- Massachusetts State Police have made it clear that speeding laws are not about safety, but only revenue.
- Money more important than safe intersections
- When cities make money when laws are broken, they’ll ensure that those laws are broken more often. With red light cameras, this means shortening yellow times to unsafe levels.
- Red light cameras increase accident rates
- Yet another study showing that red light cameras increase, rather than decrease the danger at intersections.
- San Diego’s Finest Elite
- For police officers, the laws are merely guidelines.
- Speeding and budgets: Conflict of Interest
- Obviously, the money generated by speed laws creates a conflict of interest for state lawmakers, who will need more “lawbreakers” in order to meet budget numbers. But the conflict of interest doesn’t always stop there.
- Targeting critics of the law
- When Canadian journalist Kerry Diotte criticized red light cameras in Edmonton, Edmonton police started looking for a reason to arrest him.
- The traffic ticket lottery
- States and cities are treating traffic enforcement as a tax lottery for themselves. Why not turn the winnings over to the voters?
