I think that one of the issues is that the right wing people who are inclined to mob mentalities are less educated than the left wing people who do the same.
I have seen stuff about overt right-wing racism and homophobia still being real in many parts of the US, and still being dangerous to people there. I have seen stories about people being murdered for being gay, being assaulted by racists, etc.
But the people who do that stuff aren’t gaining popularity writing tweets about it and calling themselves journalists.
Right. So access to the SJW group is gated. You need to be educated better and more able to write tweets (that sound like standard English, not like you’re black or redneck). Some people are excluded and alienated, and basically have no choice but to hate and fight the SJWs because they can’t join.
Yeah, that makes sense. People who are angry and want to self-righteously confront people and be part of “vigilante justice” join the popular group that they can get acceptance for it in. If you are educated and like to write stuff on the internet and want people to think you are smart, then you are more likely to join the left for this.
I could be so much more popular if I had different opinions and was mean to the outgroup in the right ways (and stopped criticizing the ingroup or my fans). I’m very smart and could win a lot…
I don’t know if I really think the right is better. I think that if you just look at the best arguments of both sides, then the right is better. But that’s because they are closer to being correct about basic things like economics.
But if you just look at average people who don’t really know anything, don’t really care about ideas, and are just following their group… I’m not sure the right is actually better there.
One particularly glaring contradiction I’ve noticed is the bike advocacy people who are militantly anti car but then celebrate expansions of the bikeshare. The bikeshare has vans that move around the bikes throughout the day so that there are sufficient bikes at the appropriate stations during e.g. the morning and evening rushes. I see these vans all the time. So the bikeshare system is literally dependent on automobiles to function in a reasonable way. I guess the bike militants are okay with that though and just want all the other cars off the road, so long as it doesn’t affect their lifestyle? It’s like this narrow, short-sighted “selfishness” that they have.
In my particular case, there is parking in the back and on a side street. It’s just the front of the building that’s really a problem.
For car rides, Uber lets me specify a specific location to meet a driver, and even a default pickup point, other than my address. I specify a place and just walk a few feet so I don’t have to deal with the hassle of being picked up in front. I would happily do this kind of thing in other apps, if they supported it. It wouldn’t be a complete solution (e.g. doesn’t address UPS) but I think it might help some.
There is a lot of hypocrisy in the “…BUT THE LAW SAYS…” posturing of many bicyclists re: cars blocking lanes, since my local laws say something to the effect that if you’re a bicyclist on the road, you’re basically supposed to act like any other vehicle. That means no running red lights, no rolling through stop signs, no riding on the wrong side of the road, and so on. I sometimes feel like the only cyclist in my area who actually follows this mandate. (BTW some places do let cyclists do stuff like roll through stop signs, but it’s not allowed here!) So I think of lot of cyclists are pretending to be some kinda Lawful Good Citizens when they’re just being biased, selective and self-serving.
And you know, there’s an issue there, cuz like, if you’re actually riding a regular, person-powered bicycle (and not something with an electric assist), stopping and then having to build up your momentum again from a dead stop kinda sucks. BUT THE LAW SAYS you’ve got to follow the same laws as other vehicles, so I do it.
A high number could also indicate some sort of clerical error or software bug.
I also looked at the data on the tickets, and noticed that a lot of the tickets are for the exact same block of the same street going the same direction, which indicates that it’s actually a speed camera:
I don’t know if all of his tickets are speed cameras, but it seems likely that at least most of them are, looking at the ones that are visible.
There is a possibility he didn’t even know he had all these tickets. The government can take weeks to send out camera tickets to in-state drivers with all their information current. It can take even longer to get things to out-of-state drivers or drivers who don’t have their current address information on their registration.
I went on google maps street view and found the spot he had the most tickets showing from. It is a long, straight road, one lane in each direction, with a double yellow line divider in the middle. The speed limit from the signs I could find is 25mph. That actually seems slow for that type of road. Most of his tickets are for going 11-15 over, so 36-40mph. That doesn’t seem higher than normal speeds that I see people going all the time on similar roads. Lots of similar looking roads I drive on have a 35mph speed limit, and people routinely go over 40 on them.
He is getting a lot of criticism for the tickets, but as far as I can tell, most people speed. And they drive similar speeds as he was driving on similar roads without ever considering it a major safety risk. I think they are mostly just hypocrites – he is being criticized by people who mostly speed themselves, at similar levels, and just don’t get caught. (Or, he is being criticized by people who don’t drive, but expect their Uber, Uber Eats, Instacart, etc, drivers to speed, in order to get them their deliveries in a timely manner. They don’t consciously realize they expect speeding, but they complain and give bad ratings when things take too long.)
Oh, also, given the amount of tickets and the time, along with the fact that he said in the video he was working, it is likely that he has a job that requires a lot of driving. He could be a delivery driver, or something else. If he is driving around for 8 hours a day, he is going to end up driving through way more speed cameras than average, so could end up with way more tickets than average for just normal driving behavior.
Even without having looked at the ticket info yet, someone having 91 tickets, $10k fines, and still driving seems like a problem. What is going on there? Is he actually a safety risk, and the government is just ineffective at enforcing serious safety standards, even when they catch people? Or is he doing something that the government does not actually believe is a serious safety risk? Both of those possibilities say something bad about the government.
After looking into the DC speed cameras a bit more, I am guessing that the DC government does not actually believe the speeding is a real safety risk. It looks like they are treating speed cameras as a source of revenue, and there are multiple articles and comments online about how some people believe that these cameras are purposely placed in ways that maximize revenue, as opposed to actually trying to increase safety.
During the 2014 fiscal year, that ends Sept. 30, it was estimated that $93.7 million would be brought in from automated traffic enforcement. As of Monday that number is down by about $70 million.
“The 40 percent decline in fines, which already undermines the FY 2014 forecast, poses the greatest downside risk to the FY 2015 revenue estimate,” DeWitt wrote.
So they expected around 90 million in fines, only got around 30 million, and considered this a problem??? Does that sound like a legitimate safety program?
It seems like they managed to “fix” their “problem” though. From a 2016 article:
Speed enforcement cameras in the District are generating so many tickets that if the current pace continues, the cameras will have generated 1.4 million tickets with fines reaching $148 million by the end of the year, AAA Mid-Atlantic estimated.
How did they fix it? I don’t know. I don’t have familiarity with things like where the cameras are, and what the speed limits are in DC. But I have read comments that believe that the cameras are purposely placed in areas where the speed limits are unreasonable, so drivers are more likely to speed. (E.g., roads with speed limits lower than normal for that type of road. Or one camera that is right after a highway off-ramp, so that if you don’t immediately brake you will be caught by it.)
That sounds a lot more like an expected revenue source than a legitimate safety program.
The article goes on to say:
The D.C. Policy Center asserts that much of what determines the location for these cameras is not necessarily safety, but instead frequent commuter routes that can help generate more revenue.
(I don’t know who the DC Policy Center is or what their politics are, and I’ve done enough reading for now).
The sheer number does indicate a pattern. But what type of pattern? Are they independent data points?
If 50+ different human beings (cops) gave him 1-3 traffic tickets each, and each ticket was due to an independent judgment in person, then your conclusion would be reasonable. You seem to be assuming that’s what happened, but I don’t know why you think that and couldn’t find anything to the contrary by web searches.
If one piece of computer software gave him 90 tickets, it could be a bug. It could be the driver against one single judgment (made e.g. by a coder or politician) that repeated itself 90 times. In short, independent data points matter but the same source repeating itself shouldn’t count extra. That’d be like deciding he’s probably innocent if he said he’s innocent 900 times, so most of the data points favor innocence.
Do you think the government might have unreasonable speed camera software, locations and speed limits? Might most of it be speed traps not safety issues? Or might they have buggy software?
Did you try giving the driver the benefit of the doubt some? One scenario is:
He got his first job since covid started. He is industrious and wanted to get back to work, and away from government assistance, before many other people did. He wanted to help out in the labor shortage where companies are having so much trouble getting other people to come back to work. And he believed what a lot of people have said: if you work for a living you’ll be better off. You’ll have more money and a better life.
His job is a delivery driver for Uber Eats or similar. So he started driving around a ton, including in areas where he didn’t have a lot of previous driving experience. And he’s from Virginia, which doesn’t have speed cameras, but he’s been going to DC because a lot of people there want food deliveries. He has not yet been notified of a single speeding ticket, and the government has racked up a $10,000 bill for him without telling him, so he’s had no opportunity to adjust his driving behavior yet. He can’t afford the bill and it’s more than the total amount he’s earned on the job so far. He would have been better off staying home instead of working. He may think – essentially correctly – that he’s being punished and taken advantage of for trying to get ahead through legitimate means and follow the American Dream.
Oh, and his employer, Uber Eats, gave him zero warnings about this problem even though it affects many of their drivers. (Also, Uber Eats hires freelancers for gig work, so they aren’t his “employer” but his … “client”?)
Every day that I commute on bike, foot, or skateboard, I am prepared to die. I’m not scared of a driver who makes like he has a gun. Shoot me. Do it. My death is by far the best thing I could ever do for a safer street.
Which is actually interesting: his twitter bio links StreetSenseDC, so I went there and it turns out he is the Deputy Editor of an organization with this mission listed on their website:
Our mission is to end homelessness in the Washington, D.C. area by empowering people in need with the skills, tools, and confidence to succeed.
So, apparently he is concerned about ending homelessness, but doesn’t actually care what happens to people when they are trying to work??? He cares about people while they are homeless, but once they have cars and jobs and are trying to support themselves, they can just fuck off?
The skateboarder is the more immoral person. He’s an altruist. And he values his cause (which seems pretty oriented around other people doing what he wants) more than his life.
And he’s not a fool who was unaware of the risks of his actions. He does this stuff on purpose.
The current default speed limit if no signage is posted is 20mph. It was lowered from 25mph, which was the old default. AFIAK the only time you’re supposed to go higher is if a sign says so or you’re on a highway.
Lots of streets are even lower than 20mph (so more like 15mph) as part of the “Slow Streets Initiative.” There are various efforts/initiatives here (another one is “Vision Zero”) cuz people keep getting hit by cars and the govt keeps trying to do something about it (not very effectively, mind you).
Yeah the existence of widespread hypocrisy sounds plausible. Lots of people speed. I actually try in good faith to comply with the law even when it seems like most other people don’t. I also don’t dock deliverers in ratings for mild lateness (and actually try to do what I can to help them find legit parking, and come out to find and meet them so they’re not wasting time being lost, etc.)
DC govt is having difficulty enforcing laws against murdering fellow human beings (notable murder spike in past couple of years), and I don’t think the issue there is that they doubt the harm involved. So I think perhaps the local govt just kinda sux. (It also can’t keep the roads in good repair, run the judicial system in a reasonably timely way, pay out unemployment benefits in a reasonable time, and various other things).
