No criminality was suspected

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Permalink Reply by S on February 28, 2012 at 2:50pm

Broken windows is a crappy approach to reducing crime and often used as a pretext to harass minorities and people that differ from the norm.  I'd rather not see that be applied to traffic crimes as well.  Besides people seem to scream and shout the moment speeding and/or red light cameras pop up which is essentially an automatic way of applying the broken windows theory to traffic laws.

That being said traffic laws need to be better enforced or rationalized.  If no one follows the current set of laws then they need to be changed to a set of laws that can and will be enforced or the traffic infrastructure needs to be changed so that people are already inclined to do the right thing.

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Permalink Reply by Tim S on February 28, 2012 at 3:56pm

that was an interesting article. the consistent demonization of the irresponsible cyclist I am sure does nothing to help this lopsided statistic. There also needs to be better understanding between the PD, cycling community and community at large.

More people die at the hand of the automobile than guns yet guns are the horror story.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on February 28, 2012 at 6:59pm

Tickets are a revenue stream and seperate from "real" crimes.

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Permalink Reply by Bike Bloke on February 29, 2012 at 10:10am

In order for Police Departments everywhere to develop a smidgeon of empathy with the cycling community, they need - every urban Police Department out there - to have a cycle cop section. And every cop needs to do a stint (minimum six months) in that section.

Otherwise, they will remain forever clueless.

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