(no subject)

[randomness]

My friend JH says a guy he knows contends that the traffic light, and traffic obeying their signals, is a hallmark of civilization.

https://g.co/doodle/9qhqxm

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Traffic signals are actually a pretty good sign (see what I did there?) of voluntary cooperation among humans. Laws generally depend on the idea that most of the people obey most of the laws most of the time, and that a relatively small portion of state or communal resources can be dedicated towards correcting the behavior of a tiny minority of outliers.

Given such a scenario, there are three big reasons to run a red light, and all of them are signs that "civilization" has broken down in some way:
1. You fear becoming a victim of violent crime, such as carjacking, if you stop and stay stopped until the light turns green.
2. You're an asshole, *and* you figure the state doesn't have enough resources to catch you, because:
2a. The state is broke, and traffic-law enforcement is way down on the list after catching people like armed robbers and such;
2b. The state and/or its agents are corrupt, and payment of a bribe will help you escape enforcement and penalties;
2c. So damn many people are doing it that it'd be impossible to catch them all, and your particular chances of getting caught are remote.
3. The light is broken. This includes detector-actuated lights that don't actuate for motor vehicles that are lawful to be driven on the road, such as motorcycles. Now, stuff does break, but if enough lights are broken and it happens often enough that red-light-running is a regular thing, well....