Proposal to stop Pittsburgh police from making minor traffic stops moves forward

[bike_lanes]

Originally Posted by gg

What if the entire force just slowed way down and didn't pull anyone over anymore?

They already don't.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by bike_lanes

They already don't.

Stats say otherwise…and if they didn’t pull folks over, why the need to have a law to not do it?

[bike_lanes]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Stats say otherwise…

That's cool. In my experiences as a resident of Pittsburgh I've seen people running stop signs and red lights in front of Pittsburgh police officers with no repercussions. I've seen Pittsburgh police officers themselves committing traffic violations when they had no lights or sirens activated. I walk my dog every day past a car parked on the the main street in neighborhood with paper dealer plates that expired four months ago.

and if they didn’t pull folks over, why the need to have a law to not do it?

I'm don't support this law. In fact I'm in favor of capital punishment for traffic offenses.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by bike_lanes

That's cool. In my experiences as a resident of Pittsburgh I've seen people running stop signs and red lights in front of Pittsburgh police officers with no repercussions. I've seen Pittsburgh police officers themselves committing traffic violations when they had no lights or sirens activated. I walk my dog every day past a car parked on the the main street in neighborhood with paper dealer plates that expired four months ago.



I'm don't support this law. In fact I'm in favor of capital punishment for traffic offenses.

Except there’s nowhere near enough officers to address every traffic violator, and the stats still say that they do in fact pull folks over, and if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have made a law against it.

[gg]

Originally Posted by bike_lanes

That's cool. In my experiences as a resident of Pittsburgh I've seen people running stop signs and red lights in front of Pittsburgh police officers with no repercussions. I've seen Pittsburgh police officers themselves committing traffic violations when they had no lights or sirens activated. I walk my dog every day past a car parked on the the main street in neighborhood with paper dealer plates that expired four months ago.



I'm don't support this law. In fact I'm in favor of capital punishment for traffic offenses.

In my experience I agree. You have to do something like crash your car into another for a cop to do anything, but it seems people are being pulled over, but I think it is because the cops know who the bad people are and they also know they can bust them for something a lot larger than a taillight out, that is why they pull them over.

Maybe this whole thing is smoke and mirrors to make the blue haired women that protest all the time feel they are winning something?

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by bike_lanes

That's cool. In my experiences as a resident of Pittsburgh I've seen people running stop signs and red lights in front of Pittsburgh police officers with no repercussions. I've seen Pittsburgh police officers themselves committing traffic violations when they had no lights or sirens activated....

dude, its ridiculous. and its everywhere, in all cities, so not unique to Pittsburgh.

i have ridden around RARELY for the last 2 years now because I was knocked off my bicycle onto the pavement - I was not riding carelessly, following all laws in a dense neighborhood (outer Strip District) and the whopper is I made eye contact with the driver prior to impact.

So yes, I think it was intentional on his part.

Since then, I've ridden a bike for either transportation or pleasure maybe 5 times in 2 years. I am just scared, I admit.

But the rolling through stop signs, the continual right turns on red lights (you have to come to a complete stop!) and I wonder why there aren't more pedestrian collisions. In a previous life, pre-pandemic and when there were more students and less people working from home, there probably WOULD be more. This was a problem of note last year in Philadelphia and Toronto and I believe in one of the NYC boroughs (Brooklyn maybe?) from what I've gathered from online news items.

and the cops also drive too fast, like everyone else. at a red-to-green light change, they turn left ahead of oncoming (annoying), but if stationed due to a complaint, would easily give you a ticket for rolling through a stop sign.

this is exactly why drivers behind me get PISSED. The last ticket I got was in 1995 in East Liberty from a cop stationed at a street, likely due to a citizen complaint. I got a ticket for not coming to a complete stop - i was literally rolling at 1 mph - that ain't close enough? I was poor at the time and that ticket killed me financially. Since then, I drive not 'like an old woman' but too damn slow for everyone else. Well, tough luck, I guess.