No joke. J-walking? Are you kidding? Actually I know very well that J
walking is a no no on the west coast. J walking is common over here in
Philly, but we don't call it J walking. Everyone just crosses when and where
they please. There is a lot of corruption in this part of the country. It's
engrained from over 200 years of settlement; this was the first settled part
of the country. Bribing judges, paying off city hall officials is a all part
of the game over here. Its a fact of life. In fact, many legal scholars will
tell you that Philly is the most corrupt judiciary in the country. Anyway,
this fosters high crime rates in the form of very sophisticated car theft
rings which translates into outrageous car insurance premiums that nobody in
their right mind would pay, so some do and most don't. Personally I always
play by the rules of U.S. law and I feel like a sucker. Its very interesting
how differently U.S. law is enforced and interpreted in different parts of
our country.
-Brian Shepard
Philadelphia PA
A13
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Walker [mailto:jlwalk@...]
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2000 5:54 PM
To: Shepard,Brian; klr650@...;
DSN_klr650@egroups.com;
tryce@...
Subject: Re: [DSN_klr650] hand signals NKLR
> I ride my bicycle to work every day as I choose not to own a car; and I'm
> NOT an environmentalist. I live in the city of Philadelphia and like most
> Northeastern cities in the US, you're crazy to own a car or even drive one
> in these cities. I'm sure dat Brooklyn bum would agree. Just try riding
your
> bicycle in the city streets. You won't last a week. If you're not killed,
> you'll be seriously injured. I ride side streets or side walks. The police
> will look the other way because they know you'll be killed if you ride in
> the streets. Most drivers in Philly are uninsured. Yes, more than 50% of
> drivers don't have insurance and everyone knows it even the police. Its so
> far out of control that Philly cops don't ask for your insurance when they
> pull you over because they know that you probably don't and they don't
want
> to impound the car and all the paper work associated with it.
>
You're joking right? When the mandatory insurance law went into effect in my
state over ten years ago, the cops were pulling over people right and left
just to see if they had proof of insurance. If not, SMACK! $500 ticket
then and there. It doesn't even matter if you actually have insurance, if
you can't produce proof they write that ticket, no questions asked or
arguments accepted. Even the judge wasn't very lenient when I proved in
court that I had insurance at the time of the ticket, and made me pay $50 of
that $500 ticket. Hey, this is mo' money for the state, and it has done
some good overall, so I'm not bitter about it.
It pisses me off when I hear about agents of the law not enforcing the laws
because they don't want to do some work, or worse yet, might get reprimanded
by their superiors, as some local FDA inspectors here have stated in regards
to the local Iowa Beef Packers plant where a worker sent the media a video
of cattle that was going through the processing line while still alive.
Hey, in Seattle I rode the 'walks too, just not all the time, and definitely
not in downtown proper where a couple of thousand people are using them, and
the cars can't get above 15 mph anyway due to the traffic. But check it
out, I have been stopped by a cop for speeding on my bicycle before, and I
have been given a ticket for J-walking before. (I was crossing at a sidewalk
on an intersection, but against the light.) Go figure.
Jeff