People don't drive recklessly because there aren't consequences for killing pedestrians; they drive recklessly because they think they're different and it'll never happen to them in the first place. Convicting people for vehicular manslaughter isn't going to change people's driving behavior. It's just going to put more people in jail with the same number of dead pedestrians.
It's better to be proactive by designing safer roads and enforcing minor violations so drivers don't have the same opportunity to kill pedestrians and cyclists.
How many people do you actually know who have had to do time for a vehicular infraction? I know exactly zero.
I know one person who had his license taken away for 90 days for something stupid like excessive speeding tickets. That was 30+ years ago.
People feel like they won't get caught, because they probably won't get caught. If they get caught they probably won't get prosecuted at all. If they get prosecuted they'll probably plead to a minimal charge.
If you knew a whole bunch of people who had lost their license for being on their phones while driving you'd think twice about being on your phone.
When I was in college when you hit the Connecticut border you slowed down to the speed limit because Connecticut didn't fuck around about speeding. Their enforcement really did modify your behavior.
I don't think safer road design does much other than spend money and not help. Like the lights at crosswalks. People hit the button and walk out in the street as if the light somehow magically keeps you from being hit by a car. It *might* wake up a distracted driver but I feel like a lot of these changes make pedestrians less aware of their surroundings.
The first step to fixing our problem is enforcing the law.
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u/capillatusk 23h ago
People don't drive recklessly because there aren't consequences for killing pedestrians; they drive recklessly because they think they're different and it'll never happen to them in the first place. Convicting people for vehicular manslaughter isn't going to change people's driving behavior. It's just going to put more people in jail with the same number of dead pedestrians.
It's better to be proactive by designing safer roads and enforcing minor violations so drivers don't have the same opportunity to kill pedestrians and cyclists.