Is there an idea (law, custom, practice) in another country that you wish yours would adopt?
There are so many....
Germany has a smart law that scales traffic offence tickets to the wealth of the driver receiving them. So a ticket costs the same percentage of the violators wealth in each case.
In America all tickets are the same. Germany does that better than we do.
France has a safe, clean, efficient nuclear power system based on breeder reactor technology, recycled nuclear waste, fixed plant designs, rigid safety standards, intolerance of graft and social responsibility. Damn we need that here...
Canada has stopped putting people in prison for marijuana. Le Sigh....
Many civilized nations have ceased treating drug addiction as a crime and as a health issue. America funnels drug addicts into for profit prisons.
Guaranteed paid vacations, maternity leave, healthcare, there are a lot of ideas I wish america would borrow. What if anything would you want your country to borrow from. Other nations?
Germany and renewable energy are opposite. They closed clean nuclear power plants to open coal power plants, to protect the environnement. That is the most stupid move I have ever seen in my life. They are poisonning their country and theirs neighbourhood.
Hmm what I would like France to get from other countries ?
The right to bear weapons (2nd amemdment). I mean, seriously, if I beat a buggler in my house he may (and will) file a claim... we need the right to defend ourselves.
Elected people to behave correctly like in Scandinavia. Here in France you can steal public money, and have 20% of the votes.
People just don't care.
Oh and, more green space (greeneries) and streetcare/trolley ! I don't know for the North but the South really need those!
And eventually people to get more disciplined, like japanese. French are monkeys, I saw them fight for a sandwich at an Army show / fair. Not young people mind you, good old honourable people. Disgusting.
Scottish take on r*pe allegations (apologies for the spelling. Work filter, not trying to look edgy).
Onus is on the accused to show the alleged victim gave active consent.
If the alleged victim was drunk/stoned/unconscious etc, considered incapable of giving consent - much the same legal thinking as people under the age of consent.
So many things but talking about them would probably lead to an inevitable violation of the US politics ban.
So I'll say why the feth can't we have fewer SUVs America? The rest of the world doesn't seem to buy oversized cars they don't need. I'm not even talking about the environment or road conditions here. I'm talking about parking. You live in DC damnit why the hell does every soccer mom need an SUV? You know you're not going camping anytime soon. Stop taking up all the parking these spaces are narrow enough as it is I can barely get out of my Fiesta XD Don't even get me started on those monster trucks. Not actual monster trucks just the really big trucks that need like two whole spaces to fit into. There isn't a farm for fifty miles Tom why the feth is that thing adjacent to the Sidewalk?!
There are countless things that work better abroad than here in Italy.
I'd just go with one: I wish we had the same US or Australia policy about illegal immigration. We not only allow everyone in, but litterally send our navy and allied countries' ships to grab illegals a few km away from african shores.
Luckily things are changing (but for how long?) and even Bruxelles recognized the madness about this matter. But we should still do a lot about it.
I'd also like a different voting system that awards the party (or coalition) that gets the highest amount of votes. Here in Italy we have three major sides and without the 40% they cannot win, but that percentage is basically impossible to reach with three parties involved.
Luckily I myself moved away from that something like 3 jobs ago, but in this day and age many people end their workday past 7pm because you need to squeeze a 2h lunch break. End the presentialist BS while we are at it. Actually substitute 3/4 of the whole Spanish business management and get them the body snatchers treatment for something else. Not particularly picky, anything will be an improvement.
LordofHats wrote: So many things but talking about them would probably lead to an inevitable violation of the US politics ban.
From my point of view, it's basically the anti-US politics thread so much that you're inadvertently talking about US politics by virtue of talking about non-US policies.
So I'll say why the feth can't we have fewer SUVs America? The rest of the world doesn't seem to buy oversized cars they don't need. I'm not even talking about the environment or road conditions here. I'm talking about parking. You live in DC damnit why the hell does every soccer mom need an SUV? You know you're not going camping anytime soon. Stop taking up all the parking these spaces are narrow enough as it is I can barely get out of my Fiesta XD Don't even get me started on those monster trucks. Not actual monster trucks just the really big trucks that need like two whole spaces to fit into. There isn't a farm for fifty miles Tom why the feth is that thing adjacent to the Sidewalk?!
Looking at the average person in the area I live in, I'm guessing the use case is in transporting the farm animals they call themselves and their family. I'm not going to claim the average weight is well over 300 lbs, but I wouldn't be surprised. I dunno. they're annoying, dangerous, impossible to see around, and impossible to park next to, but at this point, I'd just settle for them actually using the third of the road on THEIR side, rather than driving down the god damned middle of the road.
And they're the limp-wristed version of the SUV anyway. A lot of them don't even have 4WD, which would make it functionally worthless for anything I would want something that large for. A few years ago, I had to drive to work during a heavy snowstorm here. The running joke is that if there's a few raindrops, you can expect SOMEONE in the city somewhere to have flipped their car. It's a joke, but it's more real than you'd hope. Anyway, I drove to work, and up a hill maybe a mile from the office, there was a suv that spun sideways in the middle of my half of the four lanes. They were frantically going back and forth trying to get the thing to move, but were utterly stuck. I got out and helped them push, and was surprised to see the damn thing was not only 2WD, but it was REAR wheel drive. I got them back down the hill and out of my way and told them that they weren't going to get up that hill, and that they should go a few blocks either way and try to get around it, and then I took my Sebring up the hill with zero issues whatsoever.
I wasn't 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure I saw them in the rearview mirror trying to go up the hill again as I got out of sight.
Elected people to behave correctly like in Scandinavia. Here in France you can steal public money, and have 20% of the votes.
People just don't care.
Oh and, more green space (greeneries) and streetcare/trolley ! I don't know for the North but the South really need those!
And eventually people to get more disciplined, like japanese. French are monkeys, I saw them fight for a sandwich at an Army show / fair. Not young people mind you, good old honourable people. Disgusting.
It will even get you into the second round for presidential elections.
Also, if "monkeys" fighting over a sandwhich represent "good old honorable people", I can't imagine what young people have done to serve the "mind you"
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LordofHats wrote: So many things but talking about them would probably lead to an inevitable violation of the US politics ban.
So I'll say why the feth can't we have fewer SUVs America? The rest of the world doesn't seem to buy oversized cars they don't need. I'm not even talking about the environment or road conditions here. I'm talking about parking. You live in DC damnit why the hell does every soccer mom need an SUV? You know you're not going camping anytime soon. Stop taking up all the parking these spaces are narrow enough as it is I can barely get out of my Fiesta XD Don't even get me started on those monster trucks. Not actual monster trucks just the really big trucks that need like two whole spaces to fit into. There isn't a farm for fifty miles Tom why the feth is that thing adjacent to the Sidewalk?!
Isn't complaining about big cars in the US basically a hate crime, very un-American. Or perhaps they need it to... ahum... compensate
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tneva82 wrote: Public transportation that isn't late all the time. Go to Japan to learn how to do it.
This is a good one, 10-20% of the time I got to work I either have to deal with cancellations or delays, on a 20 min journey!
I thought it would be nice to copy the pre-made American private homes. This would reduce the cost of building houses, make it more beautiful and better designed streets, save people time and reduce hackwork.
I mean, not a specific design of the house but in general the idea of pre-built standard houses.
Freakazoitt wrote: I thought it would be nice to copy the pre-made American private homes. This would reduce the cost of building houses, make it more beautiful and better designed streets, save people time and reduce hackwork.
Spoiler:
I mean, not a specific design of the house but in general the idea of pre-built standard houses.
It has its nice points, you wouldn't believe the speed with which American neighborhoods can be built, but combined with American cultural norms it does result in suburban sprawl and the absurdity that is the front lawn. I can't stand massive neighborhoods where the houses and the streets look all the same.
Spoiler:
I like the German Parliamentary system, maybe not the system itself but how the parties treat fringe groups as actual fringe groups and try to govern from the center. Although the taking months to form a cabinet thing. I'm not sure how to feel, if the deliberateness is good or bad.
Russian arms design. There's some things the US could borrow like the cost-effective design of the Pantsir-S1 SAM and the precursor round in the RPG-30/32.
When I was down in South Africa a few years back, I noticed every house in a poor neighborhood had a solar panel. There was some sort of gov't subsidy for installing the panels and the people could sell excess power back to the utility. It's a shame the ANC is so inept.
1. Canadian or Swiss medical system.
2. German vocational education.
3. Britain's Haggis Launcher Point Defense air defense system.
4. Brazil's Carnival.
I'd love to see Russia copy from the Netherlands an actual functional democracy that functions not just in theory but also in practice, without being ruled from the shadows by the military, secret police and organised crime syndicates. Apart from political systems I'd like to see Russia copy some Dutch Calvinist cultural attitudes, specifically their modesty, diligence and egalitarianism. Additionally the fondness for bicycles. I love bicycles and think there is no greater possible way of transportation within a city. What I'd like to see the Netherlands copy from Russia are also some cultural attitudes, specifically a more collectivist rather than individualist mindset, patriotism and love of tradition, and a more pro-active attitude in the world. Additionally, Russian food. Dutch food is gross. Basically, I want the Russians to be a bit more like the Dutch and the Dutch to be a bit more like the Russians
Finally, I'd like to see both the Netherlands and Russia adopt Switzerland's form of direct democracy. Because indirect democracy often isn't that democratic at all. There needs to be a way for the people to intervene directly if the government goes against the will of the people on an issue.
Frazzled wrote: 1. Canadian or Swiss medical system.
2. German vocational education.
3. Britain's Haggis Launcher Point Defense air defense system.
4. Brazil's Carnival.
The U.S. needs more ruins of ancient civilizations like Turkey, Greece, Rome, etc. I guess we have some cool stuff like mounds and pueblos, but we need more!
What I'd like to see the Netherlands copy from Russia are also some cultural attitudes, specifically a more collectivist rather than individualist mindset, patriotism and love of tradition, and a more pro-active attitude in the world.
Additionally, Russian food. Dutch food is gross.
Basically, I want the Russians to be a bit more like the Dutch and the Dutch to be a bit more like the Russians
Finally, I'd like to see both the Netherlands and Russia adopt Switzerland's form of direct democracy. Because indirect democracy often isn't that democratic at all. There needs to be a way for the people to intervene directly if the government goes against the will of the people on an issue.
Its going to be a cold day in hell before people stop being selfish in the Netherlands. Also the Netherlands is pretty pro-active, there is a reason foreign affairs refers to the NL as the smallest of the big countries. We're just pro-active in different ways, but for our small size we have a bit of a disproportionate influence/effect.
Bitterballen are all the food you need in the NL, the rest is like eating garden clippings.
Also when has the government went against the will of the people? Also accounting for the fact that the electorate doesn't always have the best idea of what's going on. Knowing the relative ignorance of friends and family I'd not be to comfortable with them being able to directly influence national politics based on what they read on FB the past week. How can we have a "will of the people" when 95% only has the most basic (if even) grasp of the issue?
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TheCustomLime wrote: In general I would like the EU's consumer protection laws in the US. The stuff companies can do to customers here in the states in ludicrous.
The EU also has stricter privacy laws on the books than the US. I'm surprised the US doesn't copy some as they seem very basic to protect the individual.
What I'd like to see the Netherlands copy from Russia are also some cultural attitudes, specifically a more collectivist rather than individualist mindset, patriotism and love of tradition, and a more pro-active attitude in the world.
Additionally, Russian food. Dutch food is gross.
Basically, I want the Russians to be a bit more like the Dutch and the Dutch to be a bit more like the Russians
Finally, I'd like to see both the Netherlands and Russia adopt Switzerland's form of direct democracy. Because indirect democracy often isn't that democratic at all. There needs to be a way for the people to intervene directly if the government goes against the will of the people on an issue.
Its going to be a cold day in hell before people stop being selfish in the Netherlands. Also the Netherlands is pretty pro-active, there is a reason foreign affairs refers to the NL as the smallest of the big countries. We're just pro-active in different ways, but for our small size we have a bit of a disproportionate influence/effect.
Bitterballen are all the food you need in the NL, the rest is like eating garden clippings.
I'll give Dutch cuisine that, the fast food is pretty damn good. I also like a lot of the dishes of Indonesian origin. But apart from that, Dutch cuisine is a sad, sad story. You need to start using more dill in your dishes, and sour cream. And for the love of God, please stop trying to mash everything.
Disciple of Fate wrote: Also when has the government went against the will of the people? Also accounting for the fact that the electorate doesn't always have the best idea of what's going on. Knowing the relative ignorance of friends and family I'd not be to comfortable with them being able to directly influence national politics based on what they read on FB the past week. How can we have a "will of the people" when 95% only has the most basic (if even) grasp of the issue?
Plenty of times. The list of broken campaign promises is infamously long in any country with indirect democracy. You are right when you say that people don't always know what is going on and they sometimes make really stupid decisions (brexit anyone?). But that is democracy. Stopping people from making stupid decisions means stopping them from making decisions at all (as it is in most indirect democracies) which actually isn't really democracy anymore. Democracy means rule by the people, which means that a democratic government must respect the will of the people (or at least that part of the people that elected them) even if that will is ill-informed or detrimental to the interests of the government. Currently, it is all too easy for the government to ignore the will of the people or not even ask the people about it. A truly democratic country is always democratic, and not just once every four years.
I'd love to see a system more like Switzerland, where you get a parliamentary system but in which ordinary people can intervene at any time, rather than just once every four years. The Netherlands made a really promising step towards this with the introduction of the referendum, but then it was abolished by the same party who once championed it, simply because people voted against them in the Ukraine referendum.
What I'd like to see the Netherlands copy from Russia are also some cultural attitudes, specifically a more collectivist rather than individualist mindset, patriotism and love of tradition, and a more pro-active attitude in the world.
Additionally, Russian food. Dutch food is gross.
Basically, I want the Russians to be a bit more like the Dutch and the Dutch to be a bit more like the Russians
Finally, I'd like to see both the Netherlands and Russia adopt Switzerland's form of direct democracy. Because indirect democracy often isn't that democratic at all. There needs to be a way for the people to intervene directly if the government goes against the will of the people on an issue.
Its going to be a cold day in hell before people stop being selfish in the Netherlands. Also the Netherlands is pretty pro-active, there is a reason foreign affairs refers to the NL as the smallest of the big countries. We're just pro-active in different ways, but for our small size we have a bit of a disproportionate influence/effect.
Bitterballen are all the food you need in the NL, the rest is like eating garden clippings.
I'll give Dutch cuisine that, the fast food is pretty damn good. I also like a lot of the dishes of Indonesian origin. But apart from that, Dutch cuisine is a sad, sad story. You need to start using more dill in your dishes, and sour cream. And for the love of God, please stop trying to mash everything.
Mashing is a genius attempt to try and lessen the impact of some dishes like boerenkool, which frankly is like eating nettles without doing so.
Disciple of Fate wrote: Also when has the government went against the will of the people? Also accounting for the fact that the electorate doesn't always have the best idea of what's going on. Knowing the relative ignorance of friends and family I'd not be to comfortable with them being able to directly influence national politics based on what they read on FB the past week. How can we have a "will of the people" when 95% only has the most basic (if even) grasp of the issue?
Plenty of times. The list of broken campaign promises is infamously long in any country with indirect democracy. You are right when you say that people don't always know what is going on and they sometimes make really stupid decisions (brexit anyone?). But that is democracy. Stopping people from making stupid decisions means stopping them from making decisions at all (as it is in most indirect democracies) which actually isn't really democracy anymore. Democracy means rule by the people, which means that a democratic government must respect the will of the people (or at least that part of the people that elected them) even if that will is ill-informed or detrimental to the interests of the government. Currently, it is all too easy for the government to ignore the will of the people or not even ask the people about it. A truly democratic country is always democratic, and not just once every four years.
I'd love to see a system more like Switzerland, where you get a parliamentary system but in which ordinary people can intervene at any time, rather than just once every four years. The Netherlands made a really promising step towards this with the introduction of the referendum, but then it was abolished by the same party who once championed it, simply because people voted against them in the Ukraine referendum.
Well breaking campaign promises makes sense though for two reasons. First, reality has a habit of shifting on a day to day basis, promises made a year ago might not be so great now. Second, keeping to campaign promises would be easy if you could have single party governments, but you can't. People need to be aware that campaign promises are basically wishlists for the best of circumstances, they aren't gospel. The purpose of having a representative democracy is that we elect people that can actually invest time into what the issues are, because that is what is most efficient. Look at retirement age, if you would leave that up to the, pardon my French, idiots of the public it wouldn't have been raised. Which would have meant we could have looked forward to the collapse of the entire wellfare system due to budget problems. That is exactly the problem, people are too uninformed and selfish to make hard choices. A country shouldn't be ruled by the "will of the people", 50%+1 because that means that 49.9% is basically going to get fethed over. It would also lead to incredibly scizophrenic policy every 4 years.
The referendum showed exactly why it was a bad idea. Nobody cared and those people that cared enough to vote against it were hilariously misinformed. I can't be the only one who remembers the interview with a voter who voted against the treaty with Ukraine and pointed at Russia (I mean really!) when asked where Ukraine was. And the Ukraine referendum was one of the harmless ones, what if it had been about the retirement age? People seem to think the welfare system is funded by money grown on trees.
And they didn't remove the ability to have referenda, just the part that made them legally binding because it became clear how open to abuse it was.
Easy E wrote: The U.S. needs more ruins of ancient civilizations like Turkey, Greece, Rome, etc. I guess we have some cool stuff like mounds and pueblos, but we need more!
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Scottish take on r*pe allegations (apologies for the spelling. Work filter, not trying to look edgy).
Onus is on the accused to show the alleged victim gave active consent.
If the alleged victim was drunk/stoned/unconscious etc, considered incapable of giving consent - much the same legal thinking as people under the age of consent.
"Active consent" does not necessarily produce physical evidence that can be presented in court. Declaring a man guilty by default of rape because he didn't get his sexual partner to express her consent in writing is obscene.
Things I'd like to see, however unrealistic? Or things that would be practical?
I'd like to see better mass transit in American cities. I'm not sure which nation they should work from, but it wouldn't take much to improve over the quality of mass transit in the average American city.
High-speed rail would be neat. And unlike Japan or France, we have the room available to really make high-speed rail work. Down side is we can't get either side of the Great Political Divide to actually finance fixing the infrastructure we've got, much less spend the billions needed to build and maintain high-speed rail. Maybe once the oil runs out and airliners become a luxury we can't afford anymore.
I do like the idea of making voting a legal requirement. Over here a 40% voter turnout is considered INCREDIBLY high. 20% is typical. But you better believe 100% whine about how the votes turn out, especially the ones that didn't bother voting.
There's quite a bit of other stuff too, but that would tread awfully close to the political ban.
High speed rail would be nice, but the main issue is there is no demand for it. Its not necessarily that politicians can't or wont approve it, its that there isn't a genuine need for it. And I suppose the same goes for public transportation in general in the US.
Outside of a few metropolitan areas like LA, San Fran, and New York, there just isn't really anywhere that public transportation is viable on a large scale simply because everybody in these areas owns personal transportation and is willing to use it. They've had it ingrained in their behavior that they drive themselves everywhere, and everything has been built around accommodating that. And trying to jam a good quality mass transit system into an area that hasn't been built with that in mind is a bit of a logistical nightmare.
No private company is going to want to invest in something like a high speed railroad from LA to San Francisco because they won't immediately have many customers. The idea is of course that you'd end up having commuters between the two cities, but till you have this system up and running you won't have any. And unless you have customers on day 1, then you're never going to build it because you have no revenue stream.
Really the only way to get it in place would be to build it all at once and run it at a massive financial loss for the first few years till you'd established enough consumer confidence that you'd have people living in one city begin having jobs in the other. If you build it piecemeal with public funding you're going to lose the voter's interest very quickly and just have a massive waste of tax money and nothing to show for it. Which makes it a dead issue politically.
Mandatory voting I think would be a good idea. Along with making Election day a national holiday lasting a period of at least 3 whole days, during which time employers must give all of their employees at least one day off to go vote. Enforcement of this law would be tricky.
I would also like a law limiting campaigning. Political campaigning related to an election I would confine to say 6 months prior to an election. Outside of that period, no campaigning would be allowed. No ads, no calling, etc...
Grey Templar wrote: Election day a national holiday lasting a period of at least 3 whole days, during which time employers must give all of their employees at least one day off to go vote.
Since we have permission This right here ^ Doesn't even have to be a day off. Just let them go vote and if they don't show up for work they don't show up for work oh well its one day out of 365 every couple years I don't think the world will end.
I would also like a law limiting campaigning. Political campaigning related to an election I would confine to say 6 months prior to an election. Outside of that period, no campaigning would be allowed. No ads, no calling, etc...
I just want a law that forces political pollsters to adhere to the do not call list (I have no idea if any other countries have this issue). They're currently exempt from it, and while I get that having to adhere to the list will throw off polling data I really don't care.
No private company is going to want to invest in something like a high speed railroad from LA to San Francisco because they won't immediately have many customers. The idea is of course that you'd end up having commuters between the two cities, but till you have this system up and running you won't have any. And unless you have customers on day 1, then you're never going to build it because you have no revenue stream.
Isn't Elon Musk working on doing exactly that with his hyperloop?
Nothing earth-shattering or politically edgy here, but having recently moved to UK after 10 years in Japan, I really wish we'd adopt the whole "remove your street shoes when entering a home" thing...
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Scottish take on r*pe allegations (apologies for the spelling. Work filter, not trying to look edgy).
Onus is on the accused to show the alleged victim gave active consent.
If the alleged victim was drunk/stoned/unconscious etc, considered incapable of giving consent - much the same legal thinking as people under the age of consent.
"Active consent" does not necessarily produce physical evidence that can be presented in court. Declaring a man guilty by default of rape because he didn't get his sexual partner to express her consent in writing is obscene.
Seems ridiculous, no one can prove what is said behind closed doors. That someone can point the finger at someone for something so serious and the onus falls upon them to prove a private conversation went differently is indeed obscene and somewhat impossible for them. No wonder they have the ‘guilty but not proven’ verdict to stitch people up when you haven’t got evidence.
Apparently rape trials in Scotland disproportionately end in a ‘not proven’ verdict rather than genuine acquittal compared to other crimes, amounts to a tenth of rape trials. Rather dubious.
The USA's system of residential addresses could be useful to other countries with breathtakingly archaic and complex systems. Seriously, some places' addresses can take up to five or seven lines.
Yes, I agree. I'd say the NHS but we'd just screw it up.
I think if you're in the US it's hard to say anything else other than one thing thing we obviously do way worse than every other 1st world country.
Grey Templar wrote: Along with making Election day a national holiday lasting a period of at least 3 whole days, during which time employers must give all of their employees at least one day off to go vote.
1. Gondolas. Not the boats in Venice, the overhead hanging from a cable things. Statistically, they are (by far) the cheapest, fastest to build mass public transportation. A Gondola system moving at a constant 3.5 miles per hour will get you to your destination faster than a bus or subway you wait for and could be caught in traffic. They are harder to vandalize, and require less maintenance and fewer workers to operate.
Easy E wrote: The U.S. needs more ruins of ancient civilizations like Turkey, Greece, Rome, etc. I guess we have some cool stuff like mounds and pueblos, but we need more!
I've been to those cliff villages. Some of them are crazy difficult to get to. Also those are pre-pueblo.
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Lorek wrote: If we're just freewheeling about "what would be cool", that'll fly even if you're talking about the US.
Just don't start arguing stances and such.
Speaking of stances, we should adopt hakka war dances before all birthdays and sporting events. I am trying to convince my wife's tennis team to start with a hakka.
Speaking of stances, we should adopt hakka war dances before all birthdays and sporting events. I am trying to convince my wife's tennis team to start with a hakka.
The haka is cool because of the passion the NZ teams and people have for it. Another mob just picking it up wouldn't have the same impact
Howard A Treesong wrote: Apparently rape trials in Scotland disproportionately end in a ‘not proven’ verdict rather than genuine acquittal compared to other crimes, amounts to a tenth of rape trials. Rather dubious.
Legally speaking, "not proven" is exactly the same as "not guilty", from when the two verdicts were "proven" and "not proven". However, to quote Wikipedia, "The result is the modern perception that the "not proven" verdict is an acquittal used when the judge or jury does not have enough evidence to convict but is not sufficiently convinced of the accused person's innocence to bring in a "not guilty" verdict. Essentially, the judge or jury is unconvinced that the suspect is innocent, but has insufficient evidence to the contrary." Or, as it has been put, "Not guilty, and don't do it again."
However, I'm not sure I like the idea that the law is essentially "guilty until proven innocent" in this circumstance.
I'd like to copy the idea that 27 other countries have of being part of a large multi-national grouping in Europe, but that's a subject for another thread. On-topic, I'd like to adopt France, Italy, Spain, Greece's attitude to drinking, rather than having city centre A&E departments and police cells fill up with idiots every weekend.
AndrewGPaul wrote: On-topic, I'd like to adopt France, Italy, Spain, Greece's attitude to drinking, rather than having city centre A&E departments and police cells fill up with idiots every weekend.
I could go for this. The US, especially the younger side, has an incredible unhealthy attitude towards liquor.
I don't know if any other countries have a limit on the brightness of combo LED-Halogen car headlights but good lord do they need to stop allowing these ultra bright blueish white headlights that seem to be all the rage. I'm sure the owner of those cars love them but they are absolutely blinding to oncoming traffic especially when they are on a giant SUV or lifted up DBag truck which puts them right at eye level for everybody else.
From a certain low angle they are fine if the car is driving on even ground but it's a very narrow range and if they are accelerating, on an incline or just hit a mild bump it lift that angle enough that it's a blindingly flash. It also totally sucks to have one behind you at a light or tailgating as it seems like the light is so intense you can see through your car like you're inside a xray machine.
stanman wrote: I don't know if any other countries have a limit on the brightness of combo LED-Halogen car headlights but good lord do they need to stop allowing these ultra bright blueish white headlights that seem to be all the rage. I'm sure the owner of those cars love them but they are absolutely blinding to oncoming traffic especially when they are on a giant SUV or lifted up DBag truck which puts them right at eye level for everybody else.
From a certain low angle they are fine if the car is driving on even ground but it's a very narrow range and if they are accelerating, on an incline or just hit a mild bump it lift that angle enough that it's a blindingly flash. It also totally sucks to have one behind you at a light or tailgating as it seems like the light is so intense you can see through your car like you're inside a xray machine.
On most cars they can be dimmed dipped or changed. A lot of drivers are halfwits and don't bother.
I've noticed that a lot while commuting through rural UK this winter.
A lot of the time I've been steering my car with "The Force", thanks to the amount of blinding white light in front and behind, reflecting off rain, snow or fog.
Germany's campaign laws, most of their labor laws (seriously. . . having factory worker/union representation mandatory on a corporate board should simply be a thing), the engineering behind the Autobahn, their system of traffic enforcement.
Switzerland's firearm laws
New Zealand's Rugby stance, to include the abolition of the NFL.
Norway, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Iceland. . . really I could go on here, but. . . "universal" healthcare, ffs.
stanman wrote: I don't know if any other countries have a limit on the brightness of combo LED-Halogen car headlights but good lord do they need to stop allowing these ultra bright blueish white headlights that seem to be all the rage. I'm sure the owner of those cars love them but they are absolutely blinding to oncoming traffic especially when they are on a giant SUV or lifted up DBag truck which puts them right at eye level for everybody else.
From a certain low angle they are fine if the car is driving on even ground but it's a very narrow range and if they are accelerating, on an incline or just hit a mild bump it lift that angle enough that it's a blindingly flash. It also totally sucks to have one behind you at a light or tailgating as it seems like the light is so intense you can see through your car like you're inside a xray machine.
On most cars they can be dimmed dipped or changed. A lot of drivers are halfwits and don't bother.
I have higher power lights similar ish on my car, mostly for safety so I can see further down road. My set increased headlight range dramatically. I'm also in a lower normal car. There not a danger if remotely sensible.
The bulbs Don, t cost that much from Halfords it's like a 40 quid or so max job with fitting.
I dip mine when oncoming traffic so whats the harm.
In the US it is legal in most places to turn on a red traffic light, if you're turning away from the intersection (turning right in the US, which would be turning left in Australia). I really want that to be legal here.
sebster wrote: In the US it is legal in most places to turn on a red traffic light, if you're turning away from the intersection (turning right in the US, which would be turning left in Australia). I really want that to be legal here.
I lived in NYC for most of my life and didn't know this was a thing until I was almost 30. Now I can't imagine not being able to turn right on red.
stanman wrote: I don't know if any other countries have a limit on the brightness of combo LED-Halogen car headlights but good lord do they need to stop allowing these ultra bright blueish white headlights that seem to be all the rage. I'm sure the owner of those cars love them but they are absolutely blinding to oncoming traffic especially when they are on a giant SUV or lifted up DBag truck which puts them right at eye level for everybody else.
From a certain low angle they are fine if the car is driving on even ground but it's a very narrow range and if they are accelerating, on an incline or just hit a mild bump it lift that angle enough that it's a blindingly flash. It also totally sucks to have one behind you at a light or tailgating as it seems like the light is so intense you can see through your car like you're inside a xray machine.
On most cars they can be dimmed dipped or changed. A lot of drivers are halfwits and don't bother.
I got a new car a few months ago, and it's the first car I've owned that has automatic headlights. It's nice to be able to never remember if you left your lights on, because you never have to turn them on. I have also noticed, however, that the logic it uses to determine if it should be hi beams or regular isn't as great as it could be - I noticed pretty quickly that if I was driving at night (which I usually am), sometimes it wouldn't detect oncoming headlights very fast, or sometimes at all, and switch to normal beams. I wind up toggling the brights off manually now and then when I can tell it's struggling.
I also hate getting blinded by brights but now at least I have a little insight into how it happens, at least sometimes.
Breotan wrote: The USA's system of residential addresses could be useful to other countries with breathtakingly archaic and complex systems. Seriously, some places' addresses can take up to five or seven lines.
Southern Ireland has no post code or zip code system....
sebster wrote: In the US it is legal in most places to turn on a red traffic light, if you're turning away from the intersection (turning right in the US, which would be turning left in Australia). I really want that to be legal here.
They added one a few years ago near where my folks live, big "turn left on red after coming to a stop" sort of sign. I still feel like it's a trap when I turn there. No way the road rules suddenly became logical...
Speaking of stances, we should adopt hakka war dances before all birthdays and sporting events. I am trying to convince my wife's tennis team to start with a hakka.
The haka is cool because of the passion the NZ teams and people have for it. Another mob just picking it up wouldn't have the same impact
jhe90 wrote: []
I dip mine when oncoming traffic so whats the harm.
My lights are always dipped, unless there's nothing in front of me. That means I need to remember to use full beam, not remember to turn it off.
The high-colour-temperature LEDS bug me because if I catch a glimpse of them flickering through the central barriers, it looks like blue emergency lights.
Speaking of stances, we should adopt hakka war dances before all birthdays and sporting events. I am trying to convince my wife's tennis team to start with a hakka.
The haka is cool because of the passion the NZ teams and people have for it. Another mob just picking it up wouldn't have the same impact
How about Comanche war cry?
Would probably be called racist and cultural appropriation.
Nostromodamus wrote: UK street number system. There are 8 houses on my street yet somehow my house number is 5 digits.
The US system has its benefits (as does your freeway exit numbering); the house numbers go up by 100 each block, don't they? Or something like that? That gives you an idea of how far away a property is. In the UK, if one side of the road has loads of small ouses and the other has one or two mansions or big commercial properties, you'll get the one side being numbered 1,3,5,... up to 29 or something, while the other side will be 2,4,6,8.
Still, at least it's not Japan.
sebster wrote: In the US it is legal in most places to turn on a red traffic light, if you're turning away from the intersection (turning right in the US, which would be turning left in Australia). I really want that to be legal here.
They added one a few years ago near where my folks live, big "turn left on red after coming to a stop" sort of sign. I still feel like it's a trap when I turn there. No way the road rules suddenly became logical...
Fun fact, I was pulled over for that in NYC. They saw I was from PA and let me off with a warning. Didn't know it was illegal there. I've never driven there since (not just because of that. I honestly don't know how people drive there without running out of gas).
Trust me, you don't. German highways are horrible. It is nothing but mile and mile of parts closed of for completely useless maintenance which just lasts for months and months without any apparent progress made. In the Netherlands meanwhile, they get much more work done in a single night, usually without bothering traffic and creating miles of jams, and Dutch highways are virtually always in a better condition to boot. You want Dutch highways, not German ones.
War Drone wrote: Nothing earth-shattering or politically edgy here, but having recently moved to UK after 10 years in Japan, I really wish we'd adopt the whole "remove your street shoes when entering a home" thing...
You can easily adopt that for yourself. In Russia we have the same custom, where it is taboo to enter the house wearing outdoor shoes (instead we usually have house slippers). However, despite Dutch people liking to just barge in everywhere wearing their dirty shoes, nobody ever enters my house wearing shoes. People are usually quite understanding if you ask them to remove their shoes before coming in and offer them house slippers. You just have to ask them because they don't do it on their own.
Trust me, you don't. German highways are horrible. It is nothing but mile and mile of parts closed of for completely useless maintenance which just lasts for months and months without any apparent progress made. In the Netherlands meanwhile, they get much more work done in a single night, usually without bothering traffic and creating miles of jams, and Dutch highways are virtually always in a better condition to boot. You want Dutch highways, not German ones.
Mate, I lived in Germany for 3 years. Yeah, I do. . . Specifically, I want the depth of material which can withstand the loads it bears for 30 years. I want the angle of the road as it is there in Germany, where water runs off at the "perfect" rate that there's very little standing water on the road, but there's also basically no risk of hydroplaning. On the standpoint of maintenance, sure it created some "problems" for motorists, but it was planned maintenance all the time and it actually did move quite a bit.
At any rate, this is all better than the US interstate system. The road constructors use the thinnest amount of materials to get the job done quickly (and maximize profits) with there usually being ruts and/or potholes within weeks precisely because of how thin the driving surface is.
Trust me, you don't. German highways are horrible. It is nothing but mile and mile of parts closed of for completely useless maintenance which just lasts for months and months without any apparent progress made. In the Netherlands meanwhile, they get much more work done in a single night, usually without bothering traffic and creating miles of jams, and Dutch highways are virtually always in a better condition to boot. You want Dutch highways, not German ones.
That's not far from the reality here already. Highways in some cities will have half their lanes closed for maintenance at any given time. They just alternate which side is closed. Now, that's pretty reasonable on paper, particularly for places that are the major thoroughfare between the Eastern and Western halves of the US. Those roads see heavy travel and more wear and tear than some remote highway in, like, Montana or something. The problem is when you're on it and you see that the road was clearly designed with the expectation that every lane is running at once. Suddenly then it turns into that scene from Office Space where the guy is walking faster than everyone driving in the traffic jam.
Still other places, like Illinois, will close lanes for maintenance, but not have the money to actually pay for construction, so it'll just sit there closed off for a year with nothing significantly wrong with the road other than maybe moderate wear and no actual work being performed.
War Drone wrote: Nothing earth-shattering or politically edgy here, but having recently moved to UK after 10 years in Japan, I really wish we'd adopt the whole "remove your street shoes when entering a home" thing...
You can easily adopt that for yourself.
Obviously have done, and it's not been a problem for anyone yet. Of course the homeowner/tenant has the duty to provide clean slippers.
Wasn't aware Russians do the same.
War Drone wrote: Nothing earth-shattering or politically edgy here, but having recently moved to UK after 10 years in Japan, I really wish we'd adopt the whole "remove your street shoes when entering a home" thing...
You can easily adopt that for yourself.
Obviously have done, and it's not been a problem for anyone yet. Of course the homeowner/tenant has the duty to provide clean slippers.
Wasn't aware Russians do the same.
Its done in the Netherlands to an extent, I would say 50/50. How that came to be I don't know. Might have a colonial legacy from the East Indies occupation.
Trust me, you don't. German highways are horrible. It is nothing but mile and mile of parts closed of for completely useless maintenance which just lasts for months and months without any apparent progress made. In the Netherlands meanwhile, they get much more work done in a single night, usually without bothering traffic and creating miles of jams, and Dutch highways are virtually always in a better condition to boot. You want Dutch highways, not German ones.
Mate, I lived in Germany for 3 years. Yeah, I do. . . Specifically, I want the depth of material which can withstand the loads it bears for 30 years. I want the angle of the road as it is there in Germany, where water runs off at the "perfect" rate that there's very little standing water on the road, but there's also basically no risk of hydroplaning. On the standpoint of maintenance, sure it created some "problems" for motorists, but it was planned maintenance all the time and it actually did move quite a bit.
At any rate, this is all better than the US interstate system. The road constructors use the thinnest amount of materials to get the job done quickly (and maximize profits) with there usually being ruts and/or potholes within weeks precisely because of how thin the driving surface is.
It can only bear those loads for 30 years because the damn things are closed for 20 of those due to all the Baustelle.
I agree with Iron Captain on this one. Dutch highways are superior, and I'm pretty sure they angle the same way. Both are better than Belgian highways, which are just atrocious. I've seen highways in Brasil better than the Belgian ones.
In Romania whenever I'd visit a mall, they had a business on site that was just a giant kids play area, with paid staff to supervise the children. Parents could drop the kids off, pay a fee, and conduct all their shopping while their kids ran wild and played.
I'd love to see something like that here in the US.
War Drone wrote: Nothing earth-shattering or politically edgy here, but having recently moved to UK after 10 years in Japan, I really wish we'd adopt the whole "remove your street shoes when entering a home" thing...
You can easily adopt that for yourself.
Obviously have done, and it's not been a problem for anyone yet. Of course the homeowner/tenant has the duty to provide clean slippers.
Wasn't aware Russians do the same.
Its done in the Netherlands to an extent, I would say 50/50. How that came to be I don't know. Might have a colonial legacy from the East Indies occupation.
I think it is common sense everywhere, isn't it ? I have never been in a house without someone not asking me to take off my shoes
I'd really like to see more European/Japanese style mass transit in the US. The road system in the US is a mess in most major cities, having to drive everywhere really causes lots of city planning/land/etc issues (lots of land wasted just for parking lots) and would dramatically decrease the cost of living for many people.
More to the point, the roads simply cannot be expanded through major cities in most instances, when you've got 8 lanes each way (with an HOV lane in the middle to boot) and both sides of the freeway are lined with expensive homes or shopping centers, what can you do to add capacity? Not much. Alternative transport mechanisms will have to be found.
Politically, I'd really like to see an overhaul of the US elections system. The two-party system clearly isn't working, and the Electoral College has thus far proven disastrous and has no connection nor capability to fulfill the role it was originally intended for. A single transferrable popular vote system and substantial changes to allow third parties would be amazing.
I'd also love to see truly cutting edge high speed internet and wifi deployed on the scale it is in say, South Korea.
War Drone wrote: Nothing earth-shattering or politically edgy here, but having recently moved to UK after 10 years in Japan, I really wish we'd adopt the whole "remove your street shoes when entering a home" thing...
You can easily adopt that for yourself.
Obviously have done, and it's not been a problem for anyone yet. Of course the homeowner/tenant has the duty to provide clean slippers.
Wasn't aware Russians do the same.
Its done in the Netherlands to an extent, I would say 50/50. How that came to be I don't know. Might have a colonial legacy from the East Indies occupation.
I think it is common sense everywhere, isn't it ? I have never been in a house without someone not asking me to take off my shoes
Sorry for massive nested quotes ... @Godardc: I agree with you ... it should be common sense everywhere ... but before my 10 years in Japan I lived 10 years in Germany, which (unlike Japan) has a HUGE culture of house/home parties ... and taking your shoes off really wasn't a thing ... this was ca. 1996 - 2006 ... might be different now.
Trust me, you don't. German highways are horrible. It is nothing but mile and mile of parts closed of for completely useless maintenance which just lasts for months and months without any apparent progress made. In the Netherlands meanwhile, they get much more work done in a single night, usually without bothering traffic and creating miles of jams, and Dutch highways are virtually always in a better condition to boot. You want Dutch highways, not German ones.
Mate, I lived in Germany for 3 years. Yeah, I do. . . Specifically, I want the depth of material which can withstand the loads it bears for 30 years. I want the angle of the road as it is there in Germany, where water runs off at the "perfect" rate that there's very little standing water on the road, but there's also basically no risk of hydroplaning. On the standpoint of maintenance, sure it created some "problems" for motorists, but it was planned maintenance all the time and it actually did move quite a bit.
At any rate, this is all better than the US interstate system. The road constructors use the thinnest amount of materials to get the job done quickly (and maximize profits) with there usually being ruts and/or potholes within weeks precisely because of how thin the driving surface is.
It can only bear those loads for 30 years because the damn things are closed for 20 of those due to all the Baustelle.
I agree with Iron Captain on this one. Dutch highways are superior, and I'm pretty sure they angle the same way. Both are better than Belgian highways, which are just atrocious. I've seen highways in Brasil better than the Belgian ones.
Edit: damn my thick fingers.
Cut the Belgians some slack. They really tried to build a good highway, but all of their construction equipment broke down due to the potholes.
Still not as bad as the potholes in some Russian highways though:
Some highways are so remote they virtually never get repaired.
This was touched on in the Australia thread. We don't need any of their wildlife. We are safer that it is isolated on an island on the other side of the world.
That said, I posted earlier in the thread without adding my thoughts. I like most of the additions most of the other Americans have made, but I do have one thing that hasn't been mentioned:
Maternity/Paternity leave. Right now it is not a right. We can legally take unpaid leave for up to 6 months, and most companies offer some form of maternity leave, but nothing serious for mothers (who are juggling being a parent after passing a bowling ball out of their bodies), and nothing at all for fathers. I'd like to see us adopt Sweden's policy. Mothers get 68 weeks, and fathers get 18, at 80% pay. I'd be ok with shortening paternity leave to 10 weeks or so, but most day cares are insane as far as cost, and charge more for newborns and infants.
Nostromodamus wrote: UK street number system. There are 8 houses on my street yet somehow my house number is 5 digits.
If where you live is marked out like where I live, there is actually a really good reason for it. Way easier to find 1104 N Wilson Street when you know exactly how many blocks it is from the main roads. They are 11 blocks north, 3rd house on the right. Really helps with emergency vehicles.
Edit: Also, I would like to adopt the Aussies policy of exporting bad beer (Fosters) and Importing good beer (Literally any other beer). If we could just start shipping all Budweiser and Coors abroad, we would have room for so much better beer!
Breotan wrote: The USA's system of residential addresses could be useful to other countries with breathtakingly archaic and complex systems. Seriously, some places' addresses can take up to five or seven lines.
Southern Ireland has no post code or zip code system....
Vaktathi wrote: I'd really like to see more European/Japanese style mass transit in the US. The road system in the US is a mess in most major cities, having to drive everywhere really causes lots of city planning/land/etc issues (lots of land wasted just for parking lots) and would dramatically decrease the cost of living for many people.
Breotan wrote: The USA's system of residential addresses could be useful to other countries with breathtakingly archaic and complex systems. Seriously, some places' addresses can take up to five or seven lines.
Southern Ireland has no post code or zip code system....
Hmmmm, how does your mail system work then
A combination of using the street and town address, having a population of only 4 million, everyone knowing each other (the Irish strongly refute this, but they do.) and stuff getting lost quite regularly.
Nostromodamus wrote: UK street number system. There are 8 houses on my street yet somehow my house number is 5 digits.
The US system has its benefits (as does your freeway exit numbering); the house numbers go up by 100 each block, don't they? Or something like that? That gives you an idea of how far away a property is. In the UK, if one side of the road has loads of small ouses and the other has one or two mansions or big commercial properties, you'll get the one side being numbered 1,3,5,... up to 29 or something, while the other side will be 2,4,6,8.
Still, at least it's not Japan.
Depends. Sometimes house numbers go up by 10s, sometimes by 100s. But one side of the street will always be even numbers and one will be odd numbers. So you'll always know which side of the street your destination will be on. At least most of the time. If you are in an area that had overlapping developments it might get weird.
In theory, in the UK, house numbers are even on one side, odd on the other, and increase in number as you move away from the town centre. This gets muddled in the case of roads with spurs, roads which curve back on themselves and roads with more properties on one side than the other - or with no properties at all on one side.
Also, property developers have a nasty habit of theming new streets - you'll get, say, Riverside road, drive, avenue (with no trees, so it's not really an avenue), walk (although you can drive down it), lane, etc, all next to each other. Which means posties and pizza delivery drivers get awfully confused. AFAIK, Sweden has a rule that you can only have one name in a given town or neighbourhood, to prevent that sort of thing.
AndrewGPaul wrote: In theory, in the UK, house numbers are even on one side, odd on the other, and increase in number as you move away from the town centre. This gets muddled in the case of roads with spurs, roads which curve back on themselves and roads with more properties on one side than the other - or with no properties at all on one side.
Also, property developers have a nasty habit of theming new streets - you'll get, say, Riverside road, drive, avenue (with no trees, so it's not really an avenue), walk (although you can drive down it), lane, etc, all next to each other. Which means posties and pizza delivery drivers get awfully confused. AFAIK, Sweden has a rule that you can only have one name in a given town or neighbourhood, to prevent that sort of thing.
This is also bad in my area, not because there's a Maple Street next to Maple lane and Maple avenue (for example). . . but because planners developed a grid system a long time ago, and "cannot" deviate from it now. Where I live, streets orient one way, and avenues the other (as in E-W and N-S), but there's no indication whatsoever that a street runs all the way through. For instance, I live off of 22nd avenue, but my street number also has streets connecting to 84th avenue, 96th Ave, and so on. . . they are not one solid street. Things get further complicated when bigger roads, due to following terrain end up in different places on the grid. For instance, I can usually go down 152nd street to the game shop. However, the light that I turn at to turn into the shopping center where the shop is, is 160th street (and I did not change roads).
Things are further complicated by the fact that at some invisible line, the next town over from us does their street/avenue system the opposite of us (so avenues are E-W and streets are N-S, the opposite of my area).
Nostromodamus wrote: UK street number system. There are 8 houses on my street yet somehow my house number is 5 digits.
The US system has its benefits (as does your freeway exit numbering); the house numbers go up by 100 each block, don't they? Or something like that? That gives you an idea of how far away a property is. In the UK, if one side of the road has loads of small ouses and the other has one or two mansions or big commercial properties, you'll get the one side being numbered 1,3,5,... up to 29 or something, while the other side will be 2,4,6,8.
Still, at least it's not Japan.
Depends. Sometimes house numbers go up by 10s, sometimes by 100s. But one side of the street will always be even numbers and one will be odd numbers. So you'll always know which side of the street your destination will be on. At least most of the time. If you are in an area that had overlapping developments it might get weird.
Well, it and the American system do go the same way on the last point.
AndrewGPaul wrote: In theory, in the UK, house numbers are even on one side, odd on the other, and increase in number as you move away from the town centre. This gets muddled in the case of roads with spurs, roads which curve back on themselves and roads with more properties on one side than the other - or with no properties at all on one side.
Or roads that have changed names, or just got mucked about at some point, so randomly change sides, or 1 is in the middle because someone extended the street in the "wrong" direction, or strange sub groups of counting, with a bunch of houses added in the middle in the place of a large house. Or one of the many other oddities when you have street layouts that can be 1500 years old..
Well, that's true. That's why the capital city of a major world power has streets based on Celtic cattle paths. Every other Eurpoean capital had someone with the clout to get things done (Haussmann and Napoleon in Paris, for example) - or got free urban clearance provided by the RAF and USAAF - so they've got some nice wide, straight roads. In London, there were great plans for a renewal of the city after the Great Fire, but all the uppity middle classes stubbornly refused to surrender their old plots, and rebuilt everything as higgledy piggledy as it was. Edinburgh compromised by simply building a nice new town* right next to the grotty old one.
*still called the New Town, despite being slightly older than the USA
On a related note,
Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it's all organised by the Swiss.
Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German and it's all organised by the Italians.
Techpriestsupport wrote: Is there an idea (law, custom, practice) in another country that you wish yours would adopt?
There are so many....
Germany has a smart law that scales traffic offence tickets to the wealth of the driver receiving them. So a ticket costs the same percentage of the violators wealth in each case.
In America all tickets are the same. Germany does that better than we do.
I think in some scandinavian countries they do it like this. I like this system. But this is not how it works in Germany. There is a certain amount of money you have to pay for certain violations.
No. Stop. You do not want the current Swedish education system, you want the old one that's the same as the Finnish current one. Even the people who implemented the change to the current one are slowly coming around.
Techpriestsupport wrote: Is there an idea (law, custom, practice) in another country that you wish yours would adopt?
There are so many....
Germany has a smart law that scales traffic offence tickets to the wealth of the driver receiving them. So a ticket costs the same percentage of the violators wealth in each case.
In America all tickets are the same. Germany does that better than we do.
I think in some scandinavian countries they do it like this. I like this system. But this is not how it works in Germany. There is a certain amount of money you have to pay for certain violations.
IIRC, isn't it Finland that has scaling traffic offense fines?? There was one of those chain email things making the rounds years ago about the CEO of Nokia being pulled over and having to pay a million dollar ticket.
Techpriestsupport wrote: Is there an idea (law, custom, practice) in another country that you wish yours would adopt?
There are so many....
Germany has a smart law that scales traffic offence tickets to the wealth of the driver receiving them. So a ticket costs the same percentage of the violators wealth in each case.
In America all tickets are the same. Germany does that better than we do.
I think in some scandinavian countries they do it like this. I like this system. But this is not how it works in Germany. There is a certain amount of money you have to pay for certain violations.
IIRC, isn't it Finland that has scaling traffic offense fines?? There was one of those chain email things making the rounds years ago about the CEO of Nokia being pulled over and having to pay a million dollar ticket.
Only if tge autobahn runs thru Finland. The example I heard involved 2 drivers. On the autobahn. Same offenses way different fines.
Only if tge autobahn runs thru Finland. The example I heard involved 2 drivers. On the autobahn. Same offenses way different fines.
Based on my experience living in Germany, ya don't get pulled over by police, and instead only get fined via traffic cameras. The fines scale based on speed and offence, not on your personal income. Hence why I brought up the oft cited CEO of Nokia being ticketed in Finland (IIRC).
Obviously, a lot can change in 6 years, but I doubt Germany has started using patrol cars on the Autobahn the way us Americans use highway patrol
EDIT: one of the things I do "like" about the camera ticketing system in Germany is that it gets way more expensive if you try to fight the ticket. We had a soldier in my unit try it, despite literally everyone telling him not to. He had a 30 or 40 Euro ticket turn into about 250 Euro.
Only if tge autobahn runs thru Finland. The example I heard involved 2 drivers. On the autobahn. Same offenses way different fines.
Based on my experience living in Germany, ya don't get pulled over by police, and instead only get fined via traffic cameras. The fines scale based on speed and offence, not on your personal income. Hence why I brought up the oft cited CEO of Nokia being ticketed in Finland (IIRC).
Obviously, a lot can change in 6 years, but I doubt Germany has started using patrol cars on the Autobahn the way us Americans use highway patrol
EDIT: one of the things I do "like" about the camera ticketing system in Germany is that it gets way more expensive if you try to fight the ticket. We had a soldier in my unit try it, despite literally everyone telling him not to. He had a 30 or 40 Euro ticket turn into about 250 Euro.
That sounds kinda messed up. but maybe its a euro thing
you should be able to contest a ticket. making financially restrictive just makes people compliant :/
That sounds kinda messed up. but maybe its a euro thing
you should be able to contest a ticket. making financially restrictive just makes people compliant :/
dunno that part rubs me the wrong way.
Based on the tickets I got, usually it was your face, along with your license plate. And the reason he paid more (I saw the bill afterward) was because he paid to "rent" the courtroom, the judge, and a few other associated things. Hence why it is literally just cheaper to pay your 20-30 Euro fine and move on.
On-topic, I'd like to adopt France, Italy, Spain, Greece's attitude to drinking, rather than having city centre A&E departments and police cells fill up with idiots every weekend.
