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Yellow Vests Knock Out 60 Percent of All Speed Cameras In France (bbc.com)
Thelasko shares a report from the BBC: Members of the "yellow vests" protest movement have vandalized almost 60% of France's entire speed camera network, the interior minister has said. Christophe Castaner said the willful damage was a threat to road safety and put lives in danger. The protest movement began over fuel tax increases, and saw motorists block roads and motorway toll booths. Some protesters feel speed cameras are solely a revenue-generating measure which takes money from the poor. The BBC's Hugh Schofield, in Paris, said evidence of the vandalism is visible to anyone driving around France, with radar cameras covered in paint or black tape to stop them working.
These devices may not be able to take pictures but they still measure speed. And the results are damning:
They detect a 30 % increase [fr] of rides above the speed limit. The lessons of all this are clear:
Death rates are lower on the Autobahn. Perhaps instead of going after speeders, go after people who hog the left lane which impact those behind them. Maybe go after those who don't signal their intent which can also affect those around them.
Speed doesn't kill. Idiots do.
You live in a fucked up place if a contractor can levy random fines without legal recourse.
The problems with banks and the poor is nearly a catch 22 problem, and oddly enough there isn't much the Bank Owners can do.
To really succeed in life, you need money upfront. If you are young and can buy yourself a good working car that can last over a decade, and a good condition home where you don't need to pay rent, money to go to school and be trained to be well qualified for the workforce. So if you had all this money upfront and used it wisely. You can probably have a good life.
The problem is most young people do not have money, so they need a loan, to start out their lives. Now a bank loan needs to charge a higher interest rate for higher risk people. This was a big part of the 2008 recession, the subprime loans which split the risk to the institution meant they could offer lower interest rates to higher risk people, who then got loans they couldn't afford to pay. But this means if you are poor and have less money, you need to pay more money to borrow money. This puts you in a poverty cycle. And unfortunately banks can't just give the poor lower interest rates, because they are at a such a high risk of not paying it back.
This is the reason why we need government or some non-commercial safety net services. To help get people out of the cycle. This could mean giving people money to start out their lives, or offering services where they can get affordable housing or transportation and education healthcare...
These services don't fit well on a commercial business plan, because the payback is to society, not to service giving it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I know how fast I can drive safely. If I'm in error, charge me when I do so.
Did you really just make the "I should be allowed to drive as fast as I deem safe until I cause an incident." argument?
That's all speed limits are. People who think they know better.
Are you under the impression that speed limits are just made up at random? Or are you actually aware that there are scientific methods, formulas, and guidelines used by engineers to determine what the proper speed for a particular stretch of road should be?
Depends on what the speed limits are. You like to pretend that's not part of the equation but it's essential to this form of taxation.
Also, it simply doesn't work this way except for sociopaths like you. People drive at speeds reasonable for prevailing conditions and drivers are consistent in their perception of safe speeds. When speed limits are reasonable, compliance is high. When limits become sufficiently low, drivers tend to ignore them. Governments exploit this when they set limits. They want an adequate supply of speeders so they deliberately set limits too low. If they aren't getting enough, they lower limits. Happens everywhere in the US.
Understanding this, it's clear to see that the cost of this is actually high. People waste time, safety is actually worse and expensive infrastructure is underutilized.
Do you even banking? The savings are backed by mortgages, in general. The government can administer the funds appropriately.
Also, I don't think "collapse of the government" would be seen as a negative by the Yellow Vests. Much like there's a rather large group of Americans who would be content to see the current government shutdown become permanent. When the government stops serving the people, it's time to start over. Both France and the US have this history, after all.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.