"Arcane and Repulsive?" Haha...You have the political Mumbo-Jumbo ******** down. Now all you gotta do is sell it. If you use those words enough, someone will listen and follow your cause.
Arcane: Understood by few. As in; "Why would just one state still have a law that all the other states who have tried it have over-ridden? That is hard to understand."
Repulsive: tending to keep away or at a distance. "I won't go through Virginia on my motorcycle because they have that radar detector law" (that wasn't me, but I have actually heard this sentiment)
"Average" drivers don't get cited very often, ...
Perhaps not very often, but they do get cited. Why? Shouldn't the average driver be not breaking the law?
... and I know it is hard to believe, but cops are people too. We have families, worries, and mothers, just like everyone else. Some of us like writing tickets and some don't. Some follow very close to the letter of the law and some won't. I will either give an ***-chewing or a ticket. I will NOT do both, some will. I like writing tickets, and every one I write is deserved...Sort of like every one I have received.
I've never said anything to the contrary. I've some good friends over the years who worked in law enforcement. It's a tough job, one that I would not care to do, but I don't think poorly of police in general. As I have said in the past, just like the rest of the general population there are bound to be good ones and bad ones.
Your idea Fred that higher speed limits will get people more in line with the written law has been disproven over and over again. It is true that if the limit is 75, people will go 80, 85 and 90, consisently. Here's an example: I used to be a detective, and as such had unmarked cars: Awhite CrownVic that looked like a cop car. A brown Impala and a maroon Impala that did not. My coolest one was a blue Ford Explorer with tinted windows and a great light package.
With the Impalas I wouldn't write tickets until 90+. Wrote probably 15 a week. With the Explorer, I wouldn't write until over 100mph. I consistently wrote 10 per week in the posted 65 and 75 mph zones. People will do anything to try to circumvent the rules, just like high school. Don't let age fool you.
I agree. Just raising the speed limit would result in average people continuing to break the higher speed limit. You missed my second, more important, point about
enforcing the higher speed limits to the letter. If the speed limit was chosen appropriately and with good cause (and the construction zone situation is a perfect example) then why not consistently pull people over for going 1 mph over the limit? If that became the expected norm, average people would quit speeding.
Actually this could be done at the current speed limits,
without raising them, too. The problem is that average people have become conditioned to it being an OK thing to break the rules just a little, and they translate that into it being OK to break a lot of other rules based on their own judgement of those rules.
Now, I don't seriously think the speed limits and their enforcement is the root cause of this societal situation of rule bending, just a glaring indication of the problem.
