Ideal enforcement - Revision history

Neumoeglich at 12:50, 21 September 2022

2022-09-21T12:50:26Z

Neumoeglich at 22:20, 15 February 2022

2022-02-15T22:20:16Z

Neumoeglich at 14:03, 14 February 2022

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Neumoeglich at 19:26, 27 January 2022

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Neumoeglich at 01:43, 25 January 2022

2022-01-25T01:43:37Z

Neumoeglich at 18:33, 24 January 2022

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Neumoeglich at 18:32, 24 January 2022

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Neumoeglich at 18:11, 24 January 2022

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Neumoeglich at 16:22, 24 January 2022

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Neumoeglich at 19:21, 18 January 2022

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 Compliance is the conscious or unconscious conformance of behavior to rules. It is a challenging concept for several reasons. First, compliance might instead be used with reference to norms (such as polite and respectful behavior) that are not themselves rules and that may (as in the case of speeding) conflict with rules. Second, compliance with rules might not be sufficient for safety; it has been suggested that perfect compliance with existing rules of the road could reduce fatalities by just over half—a gain that would be as massive as it would be insufficient. Third, it is not clear how compliance should be measured. Does a situation in which most drivers slightly speed most of the time represent mass compliance or mass noncompliance? Even the unit of noncompliance—in other words, each ticketable offense—becomes less clear as enforcement becomes more routine: Has a motorist who consistently speeds for two separate periods of 20 minutes within a single hour failed to comply with the speed limit once or twice or forty times?
-In some contexts, states recognize that perfect—that is, complete and absolute—compliance may not be ideal. Some laws expressly provide flexibility: New Jersey recognizes exceptions to a prohibition on crossing the double-yellow line, for example, and other states have an enforcement threshold for speeding. Some implicitly subordinate one legal requirement to another: The duty to exercise due care to avoid striking a pedestrian would supersede a requirement to avoid crossing a double-yellow line. At least in the criminal context, defendants could also assert defenses of necessity, protection of self, or protection of others. And in practice, much of this flexibility is provided by the lack of detection when no police officer is present and by the exercise of discretion when a police officer is present.
+In some contexts, states recognize that perfect—that is, complete and absolute—compliance may not be ideal. Some laws expressly provide flexibility by, for example, specifying an enforcement threshold for speeding. Some implicitly subordinate one legal requirement to another: The duty to exercise due care to avoid striking a pedestrian would supersede a requirement to avoid crossing a double-yellow line. At least in the criminal context, defendants could also assert defenses of necessity, protection of self, or protection of others. And in practice, much of this flexibility is provided by the lack of detection when no police officer is present and by the exercise of discretion when a police officer is present.
 The relationship between noncompliance and safety likely depends on the circumstances. In a first case, nominal noncompliance clearly increases safety or is necessary to avoid a greater legal violation, as when a motorist crosses a double-yellow line to avoid striking a bicyclist who falls. In a second case, noncompliance arguably increases safety, as when a motorist crosses a double-yellow line to give extra space for a bicyclist or to get around a parked truck. In these circumstances, the motorist could in theory follow the bicyclist until reaching a passing zone or wait behind the truck until it moves, but these decisions could introduce their own safety risks, such as being hit from behind or prompting another driver to attempt an aggressive passing maneuver. In a third case, noncompliance has an ambivalent or ambiguous relationship to safety, as when a motorist speeds on a freeway to travel at the prevailing speed or exceeds the speed limit to pass a tractor on a rural road. Not speeding on a freeway, for example, could have a negative short-term impact on safety but, in the aggregate, could have a positive long-term impact on safety by contributing to a norm of more appropriate speeds. In the fourth and easiest case, noncompliance clearly decreases safety.

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 As more inward-facing sensors and computers are added to advanced vehicles, companies may face similar enforcement choices with respect to aggressive, intoxicated, inattentive, and drowsy operation. And even when automation replaces human driving, this control may still reach other behaviors inside a vehicle that might be unlawful (such as failing to wear a seatbelt or using illicit drugs) or, in the company's view, undesirable (such as dirtying the interior or having sex).
-The powerful external sensors on advanced vehicles may also extend a company's digital awareness to far outside those vehicles. The digital version of Jane Jacobs's "eyes on the street" could identify all manner of major crimes and minor violations. Imagine, for example, that a pedestrian impedes, whether lawfully or unlawfully, the movement of an automated vehicle operated by a large Internet company. Using facial recognition or cellphone data, that company may be able to identify the pedestrian with some level of confidence. Might the company then penalize that pedestrian by temporarily restricting their use of its automated driving service, its shopping site, or its social media platform?
+The powerful external sensors on advanced vehicles may also extend a company's digital awareness to far outside those vehicles. The digital version of Jane Jacobs's "eyes on the street" could identify all manner of major crimes and minor violations (even those, such as solicitation or loitering, that have little to do with road traffic). Imagine, for example, that a pedestrian impedes, whether lawfully or unlawfully, the movement of an automated vehicle operated by a large Internet company. Using facial recognition or cellphone data, that company may be able to identify the pedestrian with some level of confidence. Might the company then penalize that pedestrian by temporarily restricting their use of its automated driving service, its shopping site, or its social media platform?
 These possibilities demand a thoughtful analysis of and approach for enforcement in service to any goal—and here the devil is in the details. Take the important goal of traffic safety. First, "traffic safety" requires a workable definition. Is it only harms from crashes or also harms from the road pollution that costs at least as many lives each year as those crashes? Is it only physical safety or also feelings of safety, including fears of police misconduct? Does it encompass or exclude equity and autonomy? Second, analysis of that safety requires an acceptable analytical scope. Some potential approaches to optimizing traffic safety—such as discouraging single-occupant vehicle trips and discouraging sprawl—might not be directly related to driving itself. And some interventions could have unintended consequences—such as depressing activity, encouraging overreliance, or displacing responsibility—that could ultimately have adverse safety impacts.

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:03, 14 February 2022
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−	Safety. Mobility. Technology. Data. Equity. Autonomy. Community. Justice. Power. Trust. These themes have resonated over the last few years across a wide range of specific issues—some that are new and others that have only recently received the broader attention that they demand. The implications of vehicle automation for enforcement capture all these issues: They meet—in the language of physics, they interfere, whether constructively or destructively—to affect both perception and reality. And so our topic, particularly its focus on automation and nongovernmental actors, is both important in its own right and useful for exploring the larger challenges and opportunities that these themes present.	+	Safety. Mobility. Technology. Data. Equity. Autonomy. Community. Justice. Power. Trust. These themes have resonated over the last few years across a wide range of specific issues—some that are new and others that have only recently received the broader attention that they demand. The '''implications of vehicle automation for enforcement''' capture all these issues: They meet—in the language of physics, they interfere, whether constructively or destructively—to affect both perception and reality. And so our topic, particularly its focus on automation and nongovernmental actors, is both important in its own right and useful for exploring the larger challenges and opportunities that these themes present.

	These challenges are numerous. Far too many people die on our roads—more now than since the pandemic began and an increasing share of whom were just walking or biking. Insights from countries with dramatically better traffic safety records—particularly the "safe systems approach" that originated in Sweden and is better known as "vision zero" in the United States—have motivated a growing recognition that every traffic death is the culmination of a series of failures and that roadway design is often foremost among these failures. Meanwhile, the tens of millions of traffic stops each year—and "traffic" includes pedestrians as well as motorists—have come under greater scrutiny in connection with prominent police shootings that range from merely preventable to outright criminal.		These challenges are numerous. Far too many people die on our roads—more now than since the pandemic began and an increasing share of whom were just walking or biking. Insights from countries with dramatically better traffic safety records—particularly the "safe systems approach" that originated in Sweden and is better known as "vision zero" in the United States—have motivated a growing recognition that every traffic death is the culmination of a series of failures and that roadway design is often foremost among these failures. Meanwhile, the tens of millions of traffic stops each year—and "traffic" includes pedestrians as well as motorists—have come under greater scrutiny in connection with prominent police shootings that range from merely preventable to outright criminal.

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 Behavior is the conduct—including both actions and omissions—of actors including individuals, governments, companies, organizations, and even machines. Behaviors are shaped by rules, by the enforcement of those rules, and by norms. Behaviors in turn shape those norms.
-Rules are public or private requirements, and norms are social or business expectations. Rules and norms can be identical, complementary, or in conflict. For example, traveling just above the sped limit is a norm that is both in conflict with a rule (the speed limit) and arguably complementary to that rule (since it emphasizes near-compliance with that rule). This relationship is even more complex: Many nonstatutory speed limits are set so that 15 percent of drivers will violate them (and 85 percent will not)—an approach that has generated deserved criticism.
+Rules are public or private requirements, and norms are social or business expectations. Rules and norms can be identical, complementary, or in conflict. For example, traveling just above the speed limit is a norm that is both in conflict with a rule (the speed limit) and arguably complementary to that rule (since it emphasizes near-compliance with that rule). This relationship is even more complex: Many nonstatutory speed limits are set so that 15 percent of drivers will violate them (and 85 percent will not)—an approach that has generated deserved criticism.
 Regulation broadly refers to ways that the behavior of actors is checked and influenced. Regulation can be public (such as speed limits) or private (such as risk-dependent insurance premiums). And it can be prospective (such as a driver's license requirement) or retrospective (such as civil liability for negligently causing a crash). Rules are one form of regulation.

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 As the safe systems approach would remind us, other forms of infrastructure can also constitute not just enforcement but a more effective form of enforcement: Designing roads as streets rather than speedways through technologies such as speed cushions, chokers, and pavement treatments (or the lack thereof) can slow vehicles far more consistently than the occasional police officer. And so, while automated vehicles might eventually offer new enforcement tools, they could also distract from the low-hanging fruit available today.
-Some governments have already recognized some arguably low-hanging fruit: Many states already require drivers previously convicted of intoxicated operation to use an ignition interlock device that prevents them from operating their vehicle when they are drunk. Congress has now directed the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to, within six years, mandate impaired driver detection in new vehicles. In a broader sense, impairment could also include drowsiness, distraction, and the influence of drugs as well as alcohol. And some advanced driver assistance systems already incorporate limited—and not necessarily effective—driver monitoring to discourage inattention. Two private organizations that rate vehicle safety recently announced that effective driver monitoring will figure prominently in their ratings.
+Some governments have already recognized some arguably low-hanging fruit: Many states already require drivers previously convicted of intoxicated operation to use an ignition interlock device that prevents them from operating their vehicle when they are drunk. Congress has now directed the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to, within six years, mandate impaired driver detection in new vehicles. In a broader sense, impairment could also include drowsiness, distraction, and the influence of drugs as well as alcohol. And some advanced driver assistance systems already incorporate limited—and not necessarily effective—driver monitoring to discourage inattention. Two private organizations that rate vehicle safety recently announced that effective driver monitoring will figure prominently in their ratings.
 Companies also play a role—likely a changing role—in enforcing laws as well as norms. This is especially evident in ongoing public debates about right-to-repair laws (including in the vehicle sector) and about the responsibilities of Internet platforms and other intermediaries. Automotive manufacturers, telematics providers, fleet operators, so-called transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft, and in some cases insurers and even employers also have considerable insight into and control—in both the practical and legal senses—over their systems. In theory, some of these companies could already prevent speeding (by implementing intelligent speed control), report speeding (by notifying law enforcement), or penalize speeding (by banning offending users).

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 Depending on the trajectories of both innovation and policy, increasing vehicle automation could revolutionize enforcement in both a narrow sense and a broad sense. In the world of thought experiments, where every motor vehicle on every road is fully automated, every motor vehicle could also be programmed not to speed, thereby wholly negating—or, somewhat ominously, perhaps merely displacing—traditional traffic tickets along with the law enforcement infrastructure that they require and the semirandom police-public contacts that, for better or worse, they facilitate. More realistically, even a smaller proportion of automated vehicles that predictably follow a lawful speed could have a calming effect on human drivers. Even today, speed governors are mandated on trucks in Ontario (the rule having survived the argument that it infringes on drivers' fundamental freedoms), and intelligent speed control is available on some European cars. Automated vehicles might also form a fleet of mobile speed cameras that generate evidence to ticket other motorists for speeding. And yet the more conventional speed camera, which has been available for decades, has experienced radically different receptions around the world, with some US states restricting their meaningful use.
 As the safe systems approach would remind us, other forms of infrastructure can also constitute not just enforcement but a more effective form of enforcement: Designing roads as streets rather than speedways through technologies such as speed cushions, chokers, and pavement treatments (or the lack thereof) can slow vehicles far more consistently than the occasional police officer. And so, while automated vehicles might eventually offer new enforcement tools, they could also distract from the low-hanging fruit available today.
-Companies may also play a growing role in enforcing laws as well as norms. Automotive manufacturers, telematics providers, fleet operators, so-called transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft, and in some cases insurers and even employers have considerable insight into and control—in both the practical and legal senses—over their systems. In theory, some of these companies could already prevent speeding (by implementing intelligent speed control), report speeding (by notifying law enforcement), or penalize speeding (by banning offending users). As more inward-facing sensors and computers are added to advanced vehicles, the same may be true for aggressive, intoxicated, inattentive, and drowsy operation. And even when automation replaces human driving, this control may still reach other behaviors inside a vehicle that might be unlawful (such as failing to wear a seatbelt or using illicit drugs) or, in the company's view, undesirable (such as dirtying the interior or having sex).
+Some governments have already recognized some arguably low-hanging fruit: Some states already require drivers previously convicted of intoxicated operation to use an ignition interlock device that prevents them from operating their vehicle when they are drunk. Congress has now directed the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to, within six years, mandate impaired driver detection in new vehicles. In a broader sense, impairment could also include drowsiness, distraction, and the influence of drugs as well as alcohol. And some advanced driver assistance systems already incorporate limited -- and in some ways ineffective -- driver monitoring to discourage inattention. Two private organizations that rate vehicle safety recently announced that effective driver monitoring will figure prominently in their ratings.
 The powerful external sensors on advanced vehicles may also extend a company's digital awareness to far outside those vehicles. The digital version of Jane Jacobs's "eyes on the street" could identify all manner of major crimes and minor violations. Imagine, for example, that a pedestrian impedes, whether lawfully or unlawfully, the movement of an automated vehicle operated by a large Internet company. Using facial recognition or cellphone data, that company may be able to identify the pedestrian with some level of confidence. Might the company then penalize that pedestrian by temporarily restricting their use of its automated driving service, its shopping site, or its social media platform?

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 Technology generally—and automated driving specifically—is often offered as a panacea that can eliminate human error and mitigate social inequity. The reality, of course, is that technologies both exacerbate and ameliorate existing problems while creating both new problems and new opportunities. The internal combustion engine, for example, was the environmentally friendly improvement over the horse—a transport mode that produces some 25 pounds of manure a day. In this way, innovation is about replacing one set of problems with a new set of problems and hoping that the new set is in aggregate less than the old. Policy, which is much the same, layers on top of innovation. Another dependent function—or, to return to physics—another set of waves capable of interference. Law in turn implements, and sometimes constrains, those policy choices.
-Depending on the trajectories of both innovation and policy, increasing vehicle automation could revolutionize enforcement in both a narrow sense and a broad sense. In the world of thought experiments, where every motor vehicle on every road is fully automated, every motor vehicle could also be programmed not to speed, thereby wholly negating—or, somewhat ominously, perhaps merely displacing—traditional traffic tickets along with the law enforcement infrastructure that they require and the semirandom police-public contacts that, for better or worse, they facilitate. More realistically, even a smaller proportion of automated vehicles that predictably follow a lawful speed could have a calming effect on human drivers. Even today, speed governors are mandated on trucks in Ontario (the rule having survived the argument that it infringes on drivers' fundamental freedoms), and intelligent speed control is available on some European cars. Automated vehicles might also form a fleet of mobile speed cameras that generate evidence to ticket other motorists for speeding. And yet the more conventional speed camera, which has been available for decades, has experienced radically different receptions around the world, with some US states restricting their meaningful use. As the safe systems approach would remind us, other forms of infrastructure can also constitute not just enforcement but a more effective form of enforcement: Designing roads as streets rather than speedways through technologies such as speed cushions, chokers, and pavement treatments (or the lack thereof) can slow vehicles far more consistently than the occasional police officer. And so, while automated vehicles might eventually offer new enforcement tools, they could also distract from the low-hanging fruit available today.
+Depending on the trajectories of both innovation and policy, increasing vehicle automation could revolutionize enforcement in both a narrow sense and a broad sense. In the world of thought experiments, where every motor vehicle on every road is fully automated, every motor vehicle could also be programmed not to speed, thereby wholly negating—or, somewhat ominously, perhaps merely displacing—traditional traffic tickets along with the law enforcement infrastructure that they require and the semirandom police-public contacts that, for better or worse, they facilitate. More realistically, even a smaller proportion of automated vehicles that predictably follow a lawful speed could have a calming effect on human drivers. Even today, speed governors are mandated on trucks in Ontario (the rule having survived the argument that it infringes on drivers' fundamental freedoms), and intelligent speed control is available on some European cars. Automated vehicles might also form a fleet of mobile speed cameras that generate evidence to ticket other motorists for speeding. And yet the more conventional speed camera, which has been available for decades, has experienced radically different receptions around the world, with some US states restricting their meaningful use.
 Companies may also play a growing role in enforcing laws as well as norms. Automotive manufacturers, telematics providers, fleet operators, so-called transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft, and in some cases insurers and even employers have considerable insight into and control—in both the practical and legal senses—over their systems. In theory, some of these companies could already prevent speeding (by implementing intelligent speed control), report speeding (by notifying law enforcement), or penalize speeding (by banning offending users). As more inward-facing sensors and computers are added to advanced vehicles, the same may be true for aggressive, intoxicated, inattentive, and drowsy operation. And even when automation replaces human driving, this control may still reach other behaviors inside a vehicle that might be unlawful (such as failing to wear a seatbelt or using illicit drugs) or, in the company's view, undesirable (such as dirtying the interior or having sex).