Is America a Police State?
I drove into Staines the other day to pick up a new suit (funny how the Olympics, the US Presidential race and new suits tend to arrive in the same year). Cleverly anticipating some one-way streets, I entered town from the north, through that complex Crooked Billet Roundabout on the A-30 bypass. A police car pulled in behind me while I was mentally rehearsing my line through the roundabout. Instantly, I went into ‘American Driver Mode.’ Upon seeing a policeman, most Americans assume he/she is looking to pass out traffic tickets, and you could be next.
After living so long in Europe, I can’t help noticing during US visits how many cops are prowling around America’s road system. Once on a business trip from Cleveland to Columbus I passed 7 highway patrol cars. Sure, most countries enforce the speed limit in some way (well, only in 1/2 of Italy), but other than Canada, I’ve never been any place that felt it was the primary role of the keepers of the peace to be nursemaiding automobiles.
In the UK, the police have better things to do than following around drivers looking for an excuse to issue them a citation. The idea of a ‘rolling stop,’ in which a driver is fined for not coming to a complete halt at an intersection, is totally alien to European driving. If you are not skillful enough to avoid pulling in front of another car, you shouldn’t be driving at all. Probably because they are not needed, stop signs are relatively rare over here–vehicles in the little roads are expected to yield to vehicles in the big road (which road is which is marked if it is not obvious).
To be fair, drivers in the UK are much more predictable and civilized than drivers in the US. I don’t know how much of this is innate. Its hard to imagine that American drivers would suddenly become more careful if there were fewer traffic cops, but nobody would expect any significant upturn in the number of accidents caused by failures to come to complete stops. The driving test is significantly more difficult in the UK, and once you pass the test, you generally drive with courtesy and skill. Lane discipline happens naturally, and there is very little weaving between lanes. UK natives who feel otherwise should spend 30 minutes driving around the Washington Beltway, Cleveland’s inner belt, or anywhere on I-95.
Do American drivers need more enforcement because they are innately more dangerous, or because the local municipalities find traffic citations to be a convenient source of money? I won’t address that, but I’m confident in belief that traffic duty does nothing to improve the level of respect that people in America (and let’s lump Canada into this one) have for their law enforcement officers. It is counterproductive to their purported primary duty.
I’m going to Dorset tomorrow, for the 40th anniversary Great Steam Fair, and I’m taking the train.