These up-eds usually complain that photo radar would be fine if the radar worked properly. This one doesn’t even do that. It just complains that speed limits aren’t fair and now drivers have to change their behavior. jfc
It is true that drivers can avoid such tickets by sticking to the posted speed limits, but it is also true that drivers are hardly ever expected to strictly observe those limits.
…
It’s like the generally accepted contract between drivers and police – just drive at a reasonable speed and you’ll be fine – has been broken.
You agree there is a systemic problem and then…
… You say it’s an individual one?
People are largely driving with the instincts they learned with training and over time. They’re not actively thinking about the decisions they make most of the time. We can call that a personal failing all we want but that won’t change the result.
This is a systemic problem, so it needs a systemic solution.
Intrinsically, yes. We don’t naturally have the same natural ability to judge our risk compared to, for example, running on uneven ground. The argument that the only reason people speed is because the roads feel like they can go that fast is often brought out, and is one that needs to be debunked. There are many cases where road design contributes to speeding, like stroads where you have a 4x 4m wide lanes in areas that shouldn’t have that much traffic, but generally if you narrow the road to a degree that controls speeding by itself (Typically <3m) you increase risk of accidents, as well as make travel difficult for large vehicles like transport trucks. Narrowing that much is applicable for residential only areas, but not any roads larger than that. Using our ‘feeling’ of what speed we can drive safely at is NOT a good measure for what speed we can actually travel safely at.
Thats the problem. If you’re okay with getting behind the wheel of a 2 ton+ vehicle while not actively thinking about your decisions you shouldn’t be getting behind the wheel. You’re a danger to yourself and those around you. If you kill or seriously injure someone while doing that, you don’t get to shrug off your responsibility and say ‘not my fault, I wasn’t given an opportunity to improve’ or ‘I’m driving how I was taught!’. As an adult, you have a responsibility not to hurt those around you, regardless of how good or bad your parents were at teaching you. Instincts alone are in no way sufficient for driving.
I think we should be having regular driving exams (~5 years), and subsidize drivers ed for all new drivers, but I can’t make the laws, and most people are against that. Systemic change is great, but until that change occurs, the onus is on the individual to be responsible, especially when its something that has such power to wreck lives.
I mean I already said it but again: this won’t change anything merely by virtue of being true. You need to change the system. You can’t fixate on individuals when the problem is as widespread as it is.
I get it makes life harder, and many places do require a car to function. If you are consistently a poor driver, unable to actively think about decisions you are making while operating that vehicle, you need to change your life. Whether that’s job you’re in, where you live, or how you work, that’s up to you. There are plenty of options, just people like to default to the easiest. StatsCan data:
75% of people in GTA commute to work in a car. 85% of those are the only person in their car. Average commute for those drivers is 25.5mins.
Lets take out the transit option, since the system can be shoddy and patched together. There are SO few people who carpool to work. If you work down in the GTA and commute in, odds are there is someone within a short drive of you that also commutes in near to your end point. There are facebook groups that are sadly empty for carpoolers, and there are lots across the city to park in and share the drive. You can split the drive, offer to pay, or come up with another solution not based around transit or other, system setups, and doesn’t involve you driving.
25.5mins at 50km/hr (assuming 0 traffic) is 21km. An e-bike is easily able to commute to and from that daily, and is far less likely to kill someone else.
Both of those are less easy options, and options that make most people uncomfortable, so they default to driving themselves.
That choice is the problem. If you are someone who can provide actual rationale for why those reasons don’t work (those who need to drive their personal vehicle for work, extreme mobility restrictions, extremely irregular schedule, etc), but for the vast majority of officeworkers, there are options they are choosing not to use because they’re less comfortable. So yes, I will fixate on individual choices, especially ones with such life-altering consequences. You can’t change the system if you don’t have more individuals on board to drive those changes and sustain them through carbrained idiots fighting against you.