[afcool83]

I live in one of the areas they are actively testing/training in. Their cars consistently behave better and more safely than most human drivers that I’m forced to share the road with.

As semi-autonomous and autonomous cars become the norm, I would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road.

[throwaway0123_5]

> I would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road.

I think it would be far more effective to make it easier to lose your license than it would be to make getting the license more challenging.

The absolute most dangerous drivers I see on the road aren't bad drivers in the sense that they're unskilled at controlling their car. I can't weave between cars at 120 mph or cross three lanes of traffic to make an exit I didn't see until the last second without killing myself, but I routinely see people do that. Sure they don't care about driving safely and/or following the law, but they're probably sane enough to pull it together for a brief driving test.

The other big category of dangerous drivers is drunk/distracted (texting) drivers. Again, most of the people engaging in these behaviors are probably smart enough not to do them during a driving test.

[dbg31415]

> I think it would be far more effective to make it easier to lose your license than it would be to make getting the license more challenging.

For your system to work, there would actually need to be cops watching traffic.

Since the pandemic, some cities just don't have as many police watching the streets as they used to.

For example, there is virtually no traffic enforcement in Austin now. You see the results with how much people speed now, and how awful some drivers behave on the road.

* Traffic enforcement capacity in Austin dropped significantly -- traffic citations fell about 55% between 2018–2022.

https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Audito...

* As a result, speeding tickets, which once averaged 100 per day in 2017, dropped to about 10 per day by 2021 -- a 90% decrease.

https://www.kut.org/transportation/2022-02-24/austin-police-...

[scyzoryk_xyz]

If only there were other ways of tracking and observing vehicle behavior. And some reliable way of identifying vehicles themselves. Or ways that we could automate this with computers to sort through.

But that's just science fiction. Cars are just going to be cars!

[beAbU]

Kinda funny how the HN crowd can both decry and advocate for automated mass surveillance at the same time.

[account42]

Is this the first time you have encountered a community made up of individuals with different opinions?

[scyzoryk_xyz]

The HN crowd wouldn't see the tounge in cheek humor if it hit them in the face.

Vehicles have these things called license plates and take a license to operate. It's not dystopian mass surveillance or a technical challenge to have a camera assigning tickets for operating machinery dangerously in public spaces.

[dbg31415]

Not funny -- terrifying.

In Texas, traffic cameras that automatically issue tickets are illegal. Courts ruled they violate the constitutional right to face your accuser. And look, that's how it should be.

And I certainly don't want my own car, phone, or anything else I own snitching on me while I drive.

[dzhiurgis]

Kinda more dystopian the ads have better tracking of us than law enforcement.

[scyzoryk_xyz]

Yes. This. Or that the advertising is the driving force behind surveillance tech

[cwmoore]

It sounds like you have a problem with the police, ok? Step outside please.

[lazide]

But why? Did they fire all the cops? Or did the cops just stop doing their jobs?

[dbg31415]

Austin didn't "fire all the cops." What happened was messier.

After 2020, the city council cut about a third of the police budget and paused new cadet classes. At the same time, hundreds of officers retired early or left for better pay elsewhere. By 2023, patrol vacancies were over 30%. With fewer officers, APD stopped handling whole categories of calls -- traffic enforcement, minor crashes, and low-level 911 calls -- because they just didn't have the staff.

Then politics made it worse. Austin leaders (Blue) pushed for more oversight and accountability. The governor (Red) fought back with bills to hide misconduct records and block transparency. The Travis County DA started prosecuting misconduct more aggressively, straining relations even further. The result: a demoralized force, hollowed-out staffing, and a city caught between "fund them less" and "hold them accountable more," while basic policing collapsed.

So no, they weren't fired. But yes, many stopped doing the job -- leaving Austin residents stuck in the middle of a state–city standoff. And honestly, it feels like that was Governor Abbott's goal all along: "If you didn't vote for me, don't expect police to lift a finger for you." These days, even for traffic accidents, assaults, or vandalism, 911 just tells you to file a report online.

[lazide]

San Jose had a similar drama play out. Not the only one either. Fun times.

[Henchman21]

They’ve seemingly chosen, en masse, to simply do nothing anymore.

[Retric]

Currently people will just ignore a revoked license the same way they ignore other traffic laws.

So I think ~level 5 self driving cars becoming common + a modification to prevent people using their cars just like we install breathalyzers for habitual DUI drivers is needed before revoking people’s licenses is really a meaningful punishment.

[throwaway0123_5]

Doubtless some would ignore it, but you can go to jail for driving on a suspended license. I suspect there are a lot more people willing to risk a traffic ticket and a few $100 in fines for speeding, bad lane changes, etc. than there are people willing to risk jail for driving on a suspended license.

[Retric]

Obviously it’s not 100% meaningless, but the kind of people losing their licenses here correlate with the kinds of people who will take these risks.

Thus for many it’s a symbolic gesture until the next time something happens which is little different than simply doing nothing until the next incident like say 3 strike laws.

[throwaway0123_5]

I think that is probably true now (in the US), but the hypothetical is that it is made easier to lose your license.

DC recently banned "right on red" but it is routinely ignored and the penalty is apparently a $100 fine. If the penalty was loss of license (maybe not on first offense) I think there's a lot of people ignoring the current rule that would not be willing to ignore the possibility of losing their license.

[spauldo]

Any US jurisdiction that bans right on red is going to see a lot of violations - mostly from people who are unaware of the law or people who know the law but accidentally do it out of habit. If DC wanted to stop people from turning right on red, signs would be the only effective solution.

At least with Arizona, it's the whole state so most drivers won't have the habit.

Of course, if DC just wants to take in a lot of easy $100 tickets, this is exactly the way to do it.

[donalhunt]

s/some/plenty/

In Ireland, jail time is rare for such offences sadly. In cases where jail time is sentenced, overcrowding in prisons often results in early release.

[tempodox]

But prison is a business in the U.S., so new customers are always welcome.

[rib3ye]

Don't you think it would be easier and cheaper to gatekeep than to build up an enforcement and judgement workforce.

[dbmikus]

The people that are good but dangerous drivers will drive well and safely during tests, so you won't catch them.

[mcny]

We need a consistently reliable public transit system before we tell people they can't drive for one reason or another.

[AlecSchueler]

Allow drink driving in places with no metro system? There are obviously lines to be drawn in what you allow, for the safety of others, regardless of the alternatives. That said, we can absolutely work on improving public transport at the same time. There's no reason to have to fully solve public transport before trying to tackle dangerous driving.

[spauldo]

People don't need to drink. They do need to get to work, pick up the kids from school, buy groceries, etc.

[xnx]

> We need a consistently reliable public transit system

Like Waymo

[ilamont]

Traffic enforcement, which used to correct some bad driving, has basically evaporated in many parts of the U.S. This has been a long-term trend.

A friend who's a cop told me that only when their department got specific state grants would they set up stings of drivers driving in a pedestrian walkway while someone was crossing the street. Here's an example of one such grant program, which is actually funded by the federal government: https://www.mass.gov/doc/ffy26-municipal-road-safety-grant-a...

Crosswalk Decoy Operations: These operations may involve a plainclothes officer acting as a civilian pedestrian and a uniformed officer making stops OR involve a uniformed officer serving as a spotter to observe and relay violations to an officer making stops. ... All Pedestrian and Bicyclist enforcement must be conducted during overtime shifts, meaning grant-funded activity occurs during hours over and above any regular full-time/part-time schedule.

At other times, he said he would only pull someone over if they were doing something batshit crazy and they happened to be behind the vehicle where it was easy to pull them over. Minor stuff and speeding they would rarely ticket.

The U.S. and other countries need to use automated methods of detecting and applying penalties. Some busy intersections have cameras for this, but it seems to be very limited, maybe because of cost.

Years ago New York used to calculate if you were speeding the NY State Thruway based on the time between toll booths. They cancelled this program for some reason.

Although more recently, the New York State Police have speed cameras set up in a few highway work zones, which is effective (double fines applicable, see https://wnyt.com/top-stories/where-are-automated-speed-camer...) but it still requires a person driving a car to set up the gear.

[hombre_fatal]

I grew up in a Texas city, lived abroad for over a decade, and recently moved back to the same city because my girlfriend randomly got a job here.

The number of people who run red lights is giving me culture shock. You have to sit and wait at your own green light because 1-3 vehicles are still running their red light, and it's every time.

As a teen, I saw cops everywhere camping out for traffic violations. I got a few tickets myself for tiny infractions that don't compare to running a red light.

Of course, the icing on the cake is that Texas outlawed red light cameras in court.

[Henchman21]

I’m in Chicagoland and can report the same. The cops aren’t doing anything. Interestingly, it seems crime is going down while they do nothing. This leads me to believe we don’t actually need huge police forces.

[tptacek]

I'm in Chicagoland too, and they're doing basically what they've always done: issue tickets --- automatically, now, as well as manually. What difference are you seeing?

[kasey_junk]

Anecdotally, I have not seen a car pulled over on LSD south of the loop in _years_. That used to be common (my first year in Chicago I got 2 tickets there and don’t think of myself as particularly speedy).

I’ve not seen a single person pulled over in my neighborhood in the same time, another activity that was common.

Meanwhile traffic behavior has reached staggeringly wild levels.

My impression, which is certainly not backed with data, is that CPD no longer polices traffic violations. My cynical view is that it’s a work slow down in protest over all the trouble they’ve gotten in for pretextual stops.

[tptacek]

I've been pulled over in Chicago within the last couple months, for whatever that's worth. In Oak Park, this is a hotbutton issue, the belief that since COVID traffic enforcement is sharply down, and, apparently, by the numbers, it isn't.

[Henchman21]

Essentially the same as kasey_junk -- they're missing from the roads entirely. I frequently am in the areas of Lombard & Aurora for work, and I haven't seen a cop on the side of the road with someone pulled over in what feels like years.

I do see the insane driving. People going fast and weaving is the tip of the iceberg. Regularly now I see people using left turn lanes in intersections to pass people on the left and cut them off mid-intersection. Regularly I see people utterly spaced out on their phones, nearly stopped in the middle of the road -- these folks present a unique danger if you're doing the speed limit and not paying really close attention. But just generally, I think "good driving" went out of style during COVID, when a huge swath of people stopped driving.

These sorts of things I feel used to be addressed by the police in a very public way: you'd see that car that was weaving doing dangerous things pulled over a mile up the road as you continued on. THAT is what's changed, for me.

[jonahx]

In Miami, there is very little enforcement and reckless driving flourishes. I used to regularly see cars doing 90, weaving, pass cops who did nothing. I've also talked to multiple cops who confirmed that they rarely enforce unless specifically doing traffic duty. Which never made sense to me, since it's a revenue stream. But however the incentives are set up, they motivate cops to do nothing, and drivers know it.

[hombre_fatal]

Maybe it's only one part of an overall trend in cultural rot around rule enforcement.

A woman had her dog in the cart at Costco that kept barking at people.

I joked with an employee during check-out "So anyone can bring their dog to the store these days?" and she said they stopped confronting these people because it's not worth it and makes things worse. Worse for who?

Man, I thought that was the exact type of person worth confronting in civilized society. If we can't police minor antisocial behavior, what can we confront? We wait until it's so bad that we have no choice?

[bradleyjg]

The woman is going to claim it’s a service animal. There’s no real rules about service animals—-and even where there are rules, like with learning disabilities, doctors and other professionals act like whores and sell their signatures to anyone with money. It’s widespread bad parenting for generations now. How can a store fight that?

[csa]

> The woman is going to claim it’s a service animal. There’s no real rules about service animals

I agree with your overall point, but there are actually rules about what types of behavior are unacceptable for service animals. Uncontrolled or disruptive barking is one of those unacceptable behaviors.

The store would be entirely within their right to warn this person and remove the owner and/or ban the “service animal”.

That said, unless you have a legal team that aggressively embraces these sorts of acts against people who abuse the service animal rules, it’s almost always more practical just to let it go. Some of these folks have significant psychological issues, and you’ve already lost once you’ve entered a conflict with an unstable person.

[lazide]

Only if the rest of society won’t back you up. Which is the real issue. Society in general has turned into a bunch of lazy cowards.

[II2II]

If you wait until it's so bad you have no choice, you usually lack the ability to enforce the rules.

When I'm in the position that I have to enforce rules, I usually provide an alternative and explain to people that they're not the problem. I spell out that problems arise when you have a dozen people breaking said rule, or when the people who come after them decide to push the limits even further. As long as they see the rules enforced consistently and equally, I rarely encounter any pushback. But until my employer got all of the staff to consistently enforce the rules, things were getting pretty nasty (threats towards staff, people doing stuff that would endager lives, etc.).

[lenerdenator]

> The U.S. and other countries need to use automated methods of detecting and applying penalties. Some busy intersections have cameras for this, but it seems to be very limited, maybe because of cost.

Ultimately, someone still has to send in a check, and if they don't, you go back to the same problem, which is having police officers interact with random drivers, this time with a no-show warrant.

This isn't as much of a problem in NYC, but here in KC, unfortunately, neither the traffic stop nor the warrant are trivially safe tasks.

[gus_massa]

> Ultimately, someone still has to send in a check, and if they don't, you go back to the same problem, which is having police officers interact with random drivers, this time with a no-show warrant.

Here in Argentina they if you don't pay, they just remember until you want to sell the car, or renew your license or a ¿anual? technical review of the vehicle.

You have to pay it sooner or later with late fees. It's not necesary to send a minitank to the front door of the home of the bad drivers.

[UltraSane]

Normally in the US if you don't pay a fine they just contact your employer and tell them to take the fine from your paycheck.

[lenerdenator]

Missouri has the option of yanking your license [0]

... which kinda makes it hard to drive to work to get the paycheck that you need to pay the fine, at least legally. If you get caught it's a misdemeanor [1]

[0]https://dor.mo.gov/faq/driver-license/fact-nrvc.html [1]https://law.justia.com/codes/missouri/title-xix/chapter-302/...

[jerlam]

NYC seems to have a problem collecting those fines too. Some drivers wrack up hundreds of tickets every year and simply don't pay:

https://www.carscoops.com/2025/04/new-yorks-most-dangerous-d...

Apparently the tickets don't incur any penalties against a driver's license, so these drivers don't face repercussions such as suspension.

[hamdingers]

> which is having police officers interact with random drivers, this time with a no-show warrant.

Impounding vehicles is an option too. Like we do for parking tickets. That is routinely done without police interaction, or interaction at all with the driver.

I know in California if you ignore a red light ticket long enough they'll pull the fines (plus penalties and interest) from your state tax return.

[kotaKat]

> Years ago New York used to calculate if you were speeding the NY State Thruway based on the time between toll booths. They cancelled this program for some reason.

Did they? The only thing I knew they nailed people for was speeding through the EZPass lanes too fast.

[ilamont]

This was decades ago. Maybe the 70s or 80s. My late uncle got busted multiple times.

[lokar]

Have certification (required) for sensor/video recording systems in self driving cars. Make the data admissible in traffic court.

[AngryData]

That's because US cops and courts only care about making a profit, and cops issuing speeding tickets and minor traffic infractions don't earn money.

But something like an operating while intoxicated is big bucks, which is why some places have drivers on the road with 12 DUI convictions (tens of thousands in state profit), and now we got cops and courts from legal cannabis states arresting people for smoking 8 hours beforehand because the criteria for guilt is ill-defined but the punishments are massive because they just copied all of the harshest (read expensive) drunk driving laws.

US cops and courts don't care about guilt, they don't care about safety; over and over and over again they have shown themselves to be a profit-seeking racket. Anyone who has ever been in or had access to the the details of someone's criminal case and seen the mountains of ridiculous extra fines and fees and ways to waste money for no gain knows how ridiculous it is.

[gibolt]

The real issue is all the current bad drivers. A requirement to start re-testing normal people in addition to the elderly would be a large benefit to society.

[simonw]

I'm from the UK, took driving lessons in the UK but then passed my driving test in the USA (in California).

The USA driving test is so much easier than the UK one!

UK: Varied junctions and roundabouts, traffic lights, independent driving (≈20 minutes via sat nav or signs), one reversing manoeuvre (parallel park, bay park, or pull up on the right and reverse), normal stops and move-offs (including from behind a parked car), hill start, emergency stop.

California: Cross three intersections, three right turns, three left turns, lane change, backing up, park in a bay, obey stop signs and traffic lights.

My understanding is that the USA test is so much easier because it's hard to get by in most of the USA without a car, so if the test was harder people would likely just drive without a license instead.

[foobarian]

Not to mention no stick shift. The driving test from hell in hilly Adriatic cities: parallel park facing downhill

To be fair even people who have been driving many years do this by grinding up the clutch.

[meindnoch]

>To be fair even people who have been driving many years do this by grinding up the clutch.

What would be the alternative? There's no other way to inch uphill than to grind the clutch. It's fine as long as the engine stays below ~2000 rpm.

[foobarian]

Right, maybe those words don't express the action correctly: the experienced way to do it is like you say, but it's a little tricky for new drivers. And then there is the noob way where they keep the engine rpm bouncing around 5k and slowly let go the clutch as needed. Can really stink up or even smoke up the street.

[wccrawford]

It depends on the area. My (rural) test was harder than your CA one. My test was easier than many of my big-city friends' tests.

But I've heard of areas that's it's easier, too, like your CA experience.

[jen20]

Similarly, when I did a US driving test (with a UK license), the examiner himself commented on the relative difficulty.

[amy214]

have you taken the maryland test? no road test. an obstacle course

[rs186]

Complete unrelated, I just wish every driver on the road re-learn that cyclists have the same rights of being on city roads like cars.

[Antoniocl]

How this issue skews probably depends on where you live, but in the area I live, I have the opposite complaint: that bicyclists should re-learn that they are legally required (in my city) to ride on roads, rather than barrelling down sidewalks.

That said, this is coming from me as a pedestrian, so maybe someone who was primarily a driver would have a completely different take from both of us.

[dgunay]

I don't personally care whether bikes (or scooters) ride on the road or the sidewalk, but my one ask is that:

If they ride on the sidewalk, they should behave like pedestrians. That is, do not blast into the crosswalk at 20mph (impossible for drivers to safely check for in most environments), do not randomly enter the road from the sidewalk, pass pedestrians at a respectful speed and distance, etc.

If they ride on the road, they should behave similarly to motorists. That is, actually obey stop signs (rolling stop, or even treating it like a yield is okay), and actually obey traffic lights.

I'll even tolerate transitioning from one to the other at appropriate traffic stops. Just please don't get upset if I almost run you over for abruptly taking right of way you never legally had.

[nostrebored]

Biking while respecting traffic rules dramatically increases mortality rates.

[Mawr]

No problem, in exchange I just ask that you pass safely (1.5m distance). Since that's not going to happen until hell freezes over, we're gonna have to settle on the current situation.

[josephcsible]

That's often impossible except at super-off-peak times of day when there's no oncoming cars, except if the cyclist pulls over, but for some reason they never seem to do that.

[msgodel]

Yeah bikes and pedestrians can mix as long as speeds don't. Mixed use paths (like the W&OD in Reston VA) really need something like a 5 mph speed limit.

[pavel_lishin]

Where I live, there are definitely places where I end up cycling on the sidewalk, because it would be nigh-suicidal to actually take my bike on the road.

But I don't go barreling past pedestrians, and make sure I give them the right of way.

[II2II]

I have noticed a huge uptick in agressive behaviour from motorists over the past couple of years. By huge uptick, I mean behaviour that I used to see once every couple of weeks I am new facing multiple times daily. Quite bluntly, the politicians in my area are enabling life endangering behaviour towards cyclists by blaming cyclists for traffic congestion that have nothing to do with cyclists (e.g. road construction projects for motorists, or waterworks or building construction that have nothing to do with cyclists).

While I am sticking to the roads, I don't blame other cyclists for seeking refuge on the sidewalks.

[hamdingers]

Has your city made an effort to make it safe and attractive to ride on every street?

Or is that a de-facto ban on cycling.

[Foofoobar12345]

And I wish cyclists would re-learn that pedestrians have more rights of being on sidewalks. That said, the bigger plague on sidewalks are e-scooters.

Additionally, most cyclists I see never stop at stop signs no matter how busy the intersection is.

[decimalenough]

That's the "Idaho stop". You're moving at speeds slow enough to be easily able to check for traffic without stopping, plus losing inertia as a cyclist is much more annoying (and arguably even dangerous) than for a car.

[gibolt]

From a driver's perspective, you don't want to wait an extra 5-10 seconds because now the bike in front of you has to get back up to speed. 0-5mph is the slowest change and the most energy

[nsnick]

In many places cyclists are not required to stop for stop signs.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

[stronglikedan]

> And I wish cyclists would re-learn that pedestrians have more rights of being on sidewalks.

That's not universal, but I do wish they would just learn those laws for their state.

In my state, they have equal rights, and that is that no one has the right of way. If you run into someone, it's your fault full stop. If you couldn't stop in time, then you were travelling too fast for the situation. If someone is blocking the sidewalk, they're a dick, but you can't do anything about it without getting arrested except to find another way around.

Also, if you're on a bike and about to pass a pedestrian, you must give an audible (to the ped) signal so as to warn of your approach. Even then, if you hit them, it's because you were going to fast to stop safely in case they wandered into your path.

I love the laws in my state regarding shared cycling/pedestrian ways, and sidewalks in particular. Very reasonable and fair.

[bathtub365]

Yep, including not being allowed to run red lights. It would also be great if they had license plates so you could easily report dangerous behaviour.

[margalabargala]

Which state are you in? There are a lot of US states (like, more than 10) where cyclists specifically are permitted to go through red lights in some circumstances.

[nobody9999]

>Which state are you in? There are a lot of US states (like, more than 10) where cyclists specifically are permitted to go through red lights in some circumstances.

IIUC, cars are pretty much universally permitted to go through red lights at least 1/3 of the time -- right on red is legal (AFAIK) in all 50 states. In many states, left on red from a one-way street to another one-way street is also legal.

[margalabargala]

That's true, but there are additional special rules that apply to cyclists, and sometimes motorcyclists, allowing them to go straight at a red light under specific circumstances.

Depends on the state. Some are specifically "if there's a vehicle detection sensor and it doesn't detect your bike after 90 seconds", others are just "cyclists may treat a stop sign as a yield sign and a red light as a stop sign".

[MisterMower]

Riding a bike without a helmet is permitted in most states, too. Just because it’s lawful doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

[margalabargala]

That's a new and moved goalpost far from the original discussion, but sure.

Is there a specific state's laws that you think describe a circumstances when a bike may proceed through a red light, but it is unsafe to do so?

If so, how does that unsafety compare to your opinion on cars turning right on red?

[bathtub365]

None of them, most of the time.

[stronglikedan]

> It would also be great if they had license plates

Lol, like hell it would. The supposed "danger" is not worth more legislation and overreach.

[kyleee]

Just think of the YouTube videos though; sovereign citizens on bicycles.

[nradov]

At some intersections the sensor loops literally never activate for bikes (especially carbon bikes with very little metal). If you don't run the red light then you'll be stuck there until a car happens to come along and trip the sensor for you.

[aetherson]

Okay, that seems ultra relevant to the ~100% of bikes that routinely run red lights in San Francisco at fully trafficked intersections where the sensors are clearly already tripped.

[nradov]

Who cares about San Francisco? This article is about New York.

[mkl]

So you dismount and cross as a pedestrian. I mostly cycle, and the lack of bike sensors at some intersections is occasionally annoying but not a reason to break the road rules.

[stronglikedan]

I just wish every cyclist would re-learn that they're bound by the same traffics laws as every driver on the road. I'd bet accidents are more often than not mostly their fault.

[margalabargala]

There is no US state where the traffic laws for cars and cyclists are identical. Where are you located that they are?

[cooljoseph]

> I'd bet accidents are more often than not mostly their fault.

That's actually not true. Most surveys I've seen show that drivers are at fault ~80% of the time.

[MisterMower]

Surveys?

“Yes I’ve been in an accident on my bike Mr. Poll Taker.”

“What? Of course it was the other guy’s fault!”

[cooljoseph]

No, surveys like where researchers show up to hospitals and look at the police reports for the injured cyclists.

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my wording. By "survey" I was trying to point to the specific kind of research methodology where you survey people about what has happened in the past instead of trying to control variables like in a typical experiment.

I wasn't talking about random internet polls or self-reported blame analyses, but actual research papers.

[MisterMower]

Cyclists contribute to congestion and occupy road space that was created through taxes on motorists while paying nothing for these benefits.

Cyclists are not licensed and their bicycles are not tagged or inspected for safe operation on roads, unlike motorists.

Cyclists are rarely subjected to traffic law enforcement despite demanding all of the rights that motorists pay for and are licensed for.

Cyclists are a danger to themselves and others while operating in the same area as motorists, but are not required to carry insurance or wear safety equipment, while motorists are held to more stringent regulation.

In a nutshell, cyclists are free-riding risk takers who are arrogant to boot. When they start acting like motorists and pay taxes like motorists and are fined like motorists for violating the law, I will happily change my opinion.

[Mawr]

> Cyclists contribute to congestion

How many cyclists can fit in a space of one car? Or, would you rather that every cyclist was in a car instead? Would that increase or decrease congestion?

> occupy road space that was created through taxes on motorists while paying nothing for these benefits

So roads get funded in full by motorists and cyclists can't possibly also own motorized vehicles and they don't pay tax that definitely doesn't contribute to the roads that they surely wear down at a rate that's not on the order of tens to hundreds of thousands lower than cars. Oh and 16 lane highways are built because of all the damn cyclists clogging up the roads.

> Cyclists are not licensed and their bicycles are not tagged or inspected for safe operation on roads, unlike motorists.

A cyclist on the road is only a danger to himself. A motorist can mow down a school trip on a pedestrian crossing on a whim.

The latter two points just repeat the above. Yes, driving a 2 ton machine at 80 mph is going to have be a little more restricted than a 20 kg bicycle at 20 mph.

[MisterMower]

Cyclists travel slower than the prevailing speed of motorists, and they accelerate from a stop much slower. And while they don’t take up much space, the space they consume is not zero. We can argue the magnitude here, but the effect is obvious to anyone who has shared the road with a cyclist.

Road wear is not the main issue. Roads will deteriorate whether they’re used or not. They will deteriorate faster with heavier traffic, sure. But deterioration from temperature cycling, road salt application, and weather happens whether they’re used or not. If cyclists want to use this infrastructure, they should contribute to its upkeep.

If cyclists have a car and contribute by paying these taxes and fees, then let’s build a regulatory regime that exempts these users from cyclist fees and taxes. The point here is to make those using the infrastructure pay for their share of upkeep and their contribution to congestion.

Deer are only a danger to themselves too, right? People never experience damage to their vehicle or personal injury when they hit a deer? The damage and risk is not proportional to both parties, sure. But it is false to say that drivers experience no risk of damage or bodily injury when in an accident with a cyclist who disobeys traffic laws. Cyclists should be insured at whatever rate is necessary to protect against this risk.

Your school children example is not really applicable here. We’re discussing cyclists who want to be treated like motorists but refuse to act like them and obey common traffic rules. That is about as far as you can get from from an innocent group of school children crossing the street with the flashing red stop sign on the school bus activated.

[nostrebored]

Your takes are really, really ignorant.

Allowing cyclists to run red lights significantly reduces mortality. Waiting at an intersection is provably one of the most dangerous moments for cyclists.

Your “obvious” example is something that’s unknowable to you as an individual. You have no knowledge of the effective throughput of the road ahead of you.

The disdain you have for cyclists seems bizarre and misplaced. The idea that it’s a double standard is wrong — the standards are set to minimize harm and maximize effective throughput. Having separate rules is entirely consistent here. If we subsidized the lifestyle of cyclists as much as motorists, this would be a non problem.

[achierius]

I do pay taxes, just like a motorist might. Where do you live that you think your car or your gas is taxed in a way that contributes to road upkeep? In the US gas taxes haven't been upped in decades, roadways are maintained out of the common coffers (incl. large federal incentives which come straight out of your income tax payments).

[josephcsible]

> In the US gas taxes haven't been upped in decades

But the tax is still constantly being collected even though the rate isn't going up. This is like saying electricity must be free if you haven't had a rate hike in a while.

[MisterMower]

Because motorists don’t fund all road upkeep, cyclists who consume those very same roads are entitled to pay none of it? What exactly is your point?

For the record, I support closing that gap, in addition to taxing the odometer on electric vehicles which don’t contribute to gas tax revenue but use roadways like other motorists.

[Mawr]

> Because motorists don’t fund all road upkeep, cyclists who consume those very same roads are entitled to pay none of it?

I don't think you understood what you wrote. Non-motorists subsidize motorists.

Feel free to look up the % of funding for roads that gas tax or w/e accounts for in your country.

Also look up the fourth power law, that'll tell you how much tax a cyclist should pay compared to a driver in terms of road wear. Say a cyclist should pay $1, how much should you?

Then check how many millions it costs to build a mile of highway and internalize the fact that cyclists are not allowed there. Nor do they use car parking. Nor do they cause 40 thousand deaths per year in the USA. What's the cost of human life again?

Once you figure all that out, we'll be ready to start talking about pollution and its effects.

[nostrebored]

Motorists __DO NOT COVER__ the costs of roads. Your existence as a motorist is entirely subsidized. The cost of driving is borne by government and society. Road infrastructure, maintenance, and space for cars is actually insanely expensive.

[MisterMower]

What do you think taxes on gasoline are for?

You’re absolutely right, roadways are insanely expensive. That’s why it’s infuriating to see entire lanes expropriated for cyclists.

[ben_w]

Road wear is fourth power of axel weight, so trucks/lorries are overwhelmingly the cause of what repair money gets spent on fixing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law

Complaining about cyclists getting bike lanes is like complaining about pedestrians getting footpaths.

[JumpCrisscross]

> What do you think taxes on gasoline are for?

Paying for our highways circa 1993 [1].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_Sta...

[bsder]

> A requirement to start re-testing normal people in addition to the elderly would be a large benefit to society.

1) Are you going to fund that? Because it means a significant increase in testing examiners.

2) The data say over and over and over that the single best traffic safety enhancement would be to ban drivers until they are 21. People have to be in their 80s(!) before they are as bad as drivers in their teens and early 20s.

[hamdingers]

1. The people who want to drive should fund their own testing. This is how it works for every other heavy equipment operator's license.

2. Sounds good

[dmurray]

1) could reasonably be self funded. $150 per driver every 5 years is a rounding error compared to all the other costs of car ownership.

2) how much of this is because the drivers are young, and how much because they are inexperienced? If you ban teenage drivers, your 22-year-old drivers will still be inexperienced.

[Alex-Programs]

Is that because they're young, or because they're inexperienced?

[dddddaviddddd]

I would support re-testing on some interval like every 5 years. That said, so much could be done to make the environment safer. Lower speeds, more traffic calming, safer intersections, safer alternatives (public transit, walking, bicycle).

[sensen]

I can't help but think about the failures of basic human-oriented infrastructure when I can't safely ride my bike to the grocery store 2 miles from my home. I don't know what it'll take to change this in our cities, and it feels like an uphill battle when seemingly very few people care about problems like these.

[gosub100]

"Safely" is a subjective term. Plenty of motorists are injured in MVAs on 2 mile drives to get groceries too. What cyclists should pursue is an accident rate equivalent to cars, per hour in traffic.

[thinkingtoilet]

Everyone agrees to this, the problem is there needs to be a way for this to be done efficiently so it's not another regressive tax on poor people's time and money.

[tialaramex]

I think the US at least does sight tests periodically? The UK still doesn't do that, you're required to have decent vision to drive, but the license renewals are just paperwork, pay the money and click a web form.

There is talk in the UK of requiring sight tests for the elderly. Historically UK licenses required frequent renewal, when they were centralised for convenience they ceased to have a renewal step, and it was kinda-sorta reintroduced much later once they had photographs because of course a 40 year photo is unrecognisable. But because of the focus on photographs the renewal step is integrated to passports, and is a chain-of-likeness documentation process. If I look a big greyer than last time in the photo I upload, pay, wait a few days, OK, some mix of humans and machines says that's the same guy as the other photo except older, replace image, print new ID.

Since it's aligned with passports (which also care about image similarity) there's no room in that step for like "Do your eyes still work?" let alone "Do you know what this fucking sign means?" or anything resembling mandatory continuing education.

[throwup238]

> I think the US at least does sight tests periodically?

Depends on the state because drivers licenses are their remit.

[HiroshiSan]

Yeah the mindset is essentially drive to spec in the test and then skirting the law from then on.

[soupfordummies]

I think a lot about this (bad drivers) and I’m not really sure how to fix it since I think it’s really a problem of underlying selfishness and perceived-exceptionalism mixed with overestimation of skill.

[dgfitz]

Nailed it.

Mostly the selfishness part. The whole idea of being courteous with other people on the road just doesn’t exist.

Sadly, this also extends to bicyclists. Entitled instead of courteous.

[UltraSane]

cars can easily be programmed to detect bad driving.

[orangea]

Don't you think that the vast majority of dangerous human drivers would be perfectly capable of changing their behavior during a driving test? Even without any malicious intent most people would be more careful during a test.

[pb7]

No, I don't actually. Can't turn off stupid.

[beeflet]

You can turn on drunk

[overfeed]

I want a camera on every traffic light and stop light - or better, cameras on a random 20% subset of intersections. The system would automatically flag infractions for human review. Combined with docking points off people's licenses and/or fines based on income/wealth percentage, this would be a decent deterrent.

[jacinda]

What I would love to see happen from a safety perspective and which I think might happen (but zero timeline on when) is that a human driving a car will be relegated to something people do purely for enjoyment and only in areas designated for human drivers, similar to how you don't see horseback riding anymore except in designated areas or for specific use cases.

[TowerTall]

> I would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road.

That shift will happen all by itself. At some point, in a distant future, the price of the insurrance for human-driven cars will be so expensive that people because of that will choose a robot-driven car.

It is all about risk (the risk of the insurrance company loosing money) and an error prone and unpreditical human will be a considered high risk in that regard.

[potato3732842]

Will it though? Surely as driverless cars become viable the "I don't wanna do this, I actively don't care about doing it well" crowd will adopt them and insurance rates for everyone else will likely plummet.

[Natsu]

If you actually ride in one, you do notice some off behaviors that I didn't pick up while just driving alongside them. That said, I agree that the bad human drivers have done things far, far worse than any of the cars.

The biggest gripe with riding in one is that they're slow, both because of super cautious driving and because they won't take freeways yet.

[mgens]

A month ago I saw a Waymo turn left into a tiny alley in Palo Alto and continue at full 25mph speed, which was alarming. I guess the alley is marked as a regular road in the software? Highlights how even if it's safer than humans on average, they need to minimize these weird behaviors in order to get socially accepted and avoid $$$ liability when there is an accident.

[vesrah]

New speedbumps were installed in a school zone near my housing complex recently, we're a heavy Waymo area and I watched one of them launch itself over one without slowing down.

[potato3732842]

They installed one of those near my friends house. There's a couple mechanic shops in the vicinity used it for diagnosis while driving exactly the posted speed limit. It lasted about a month until the people who complained it into existence complained it out of existence.

[mulmen]

I have only taken a couple Waymos but I had the opposite experience. They were much faster and more decisive than I expected. They do apparently learn from surrounding drivers and this was LA so maybe that explains the difference.

[jen20]

It wouldn't surprise me if each Waymo has one of a pool of aggression settings - I've noticed the difference between cars as a rider.

[mulmen]

Interesting. I hadn’t considered it but that makes a lot of sense. I wonder if that happens per car or per ride. Do aggression settings adjust to apparent passenger comfort?

[jen20]

Unclear, I’ve noticed both timid and aggressive on the same day in different cars so maybe not?

[maest]

> I would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty

I have taken driving licence exams in 3 different countries in the world and the NY exams was, by far, the easiest, less stringent one.

For the theory part, you can take the exam from home, on your own laptop and you just have to pinky swear you won't cheat. It's downright silly.

Also, traffic enforcement in NYC feels basically nonexistent. Drivers will run red lights, fail to yield at pedestrian crossings and will park wherever they feel like it. And the police won't do anything - in fact, the police are one of the biggest offenders.

[segmondy]

be careful what you wish for, you are giving up your freedom to movement in the name of security. you might make the argument that you can hail a cab. that's more expensive than owning your own car and with self driving cabs you will lose your privacy when you use them. any movement between 2 points will always be recorded with at least video and as you are moving, someone else other than you can pinpoint your exact location. with your own vehicle, you could unplug your phone and car GPS/tracking device and have some privacy.

[JumpCrisscross]

> you are giving up your freedom to movement in the name of security

Driving in American cities is the opposite of freedom. The necessity of regulating apes piloting heavy machinery in close proximity to each other and society is a major source of our modern police state.

[Klonoar]

No, it is still freedom.

It is inconvenient freedom, but it’s freedom.

[afcool83]

We do not have a freedom to movement _by motor vehicle_ in the US.

It is a privilege licensed by the State and regularly revoked through due process or expiry.

While your concern about mobility and privacy are valid, I would contend that public safety is what it’s to be weighed against. Some people really are better riders than drivers.

[potato3732842]

We do not have a "right", in practice, we have some degree of practical freedom.

Of course people who really don't like that freedom will play up the privilige vs right angle as they see fit to advance their goals.

[potato3732842]

Like "real" safety or like "16yo with a driver's ed instructor in the passenger seat ensuring the follow every law but doesn't really 'get it' yet" safely?

[nradov]

Making it more difficult to obtain (or keep) a driver's license is meaningless without tough enforcement. Traffic enforcement in many areas is still way down after the "mostly peaceful" protests in 2020. When police do stop an unlicensed driver they often treat it as a simple citation without even impounding the vehicle.

[JumpCrisscross]

> would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road

A Manhattan driver’s license addendum might be the way to do it. Keep a low bar for where one might need a car. But to enter Manhattan, you need to be autonomous or specially licensed.

[potato3732842]

That's gonna be great when other states start doing it and it becomes an absurd maze of predatory fees, reciprocity and political footballs.

[RainyDayTmrw]

Human failures have some, but not total, correlation with each other. A big fear of autonomous driving is some severe failure with total correlation - the whole fleet does the same dumb thing at the same time, in the same place, and/or in the same way.

[ethics13]

If only we can get autonomous cycles that also a danger to pedestrians and themselves.

[wnc3141]

My aunt's leg was crushed by an NY Taxi blowing a crosswalk. As hard as her recovery was too the legal battle that followed.

[wnc3141]

^ for context this was about 20 yrs. ago

[toasted-subs]

Hang up man.

Not sure if there’s any real human drivers on the road anymore.

[adonese]

> I would adore to see obtaining a drivers license ratchet up in difficulty in order to remove dangerous human drivers from the road.

I'd like to challenge this part. I don't see the value of increasing the driving license tests. Reckless drivers can be reckless regardless of their initial driving license tests. You just need drivers with sense of responsibilities. they will get to know road norms as they go, which often is far more valuable than the driving license quizzes.

Context: I moved to a new place where acquiring a license can take more than a year. It turns into a game where driving license companies deliberately fail you just to get you to pay more.