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Comment by Maxburn | Hacker News Reader

Seems to me that enforcement throughout Covid went down. People noticed and I think drivers are more wild now.

If it seems like enforcement went down it's because it's fallen off a cliff. Some examples:

* In April 2014 San Francisco police issued 11,612 tickets for traffic violations. In April 2022 they issued 338. No, that's not a typo. It went from 11,612 to 338. (Some links here: https://twitter.com/hknightsf/status/1537100042623848448)

* NYC police issued 5,039 tickets during the third week of July 2022; they issued 19,126 during the same period in 2019. Unlike San Francisco, they haven't totally stopped writing tickets, but the numbers are down drastically. (Some info: https://nypost.com/2020/08/09/nypd-traffic-tickets-plummet-b...)

* In Minneapolis police have been making 80% fewer traffic stops each week since the death of George Floyd. (Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-minneapolis-police-s...)

That's about what I expected but it is nice to see data.

I don't leave the house much, but on the Austin subreddit, people are talking about this all the time. Enforcement seems down and wild driving is up.

Five years ago I considered Austin to have some of the worst drivers in the US. Although 99% of Austin drivers I consider to be safe and courteous the remaining 1% would drive in an absolutely reckless manner such as turning right from the far left lane, which I saw happen on more than one occasion. Disturbing to think that is only getting worse.

Possible correlation to long COVID neurological damage.

Similar to what happened with lead tetraethyl in the 50s-70s.

This is so incredibly speculative, it's borderline outrageous to even make the claim without something to back it.

The speculation on road traffic is not well supported, but neurological damage due to even mild or asymptomatic covid is well documented.

If that was true, we should see a general world trend, and not a "Exceptionally USA problem".

Long COVID Patients May Develop Nerve Damage: Study https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220303/long-covid-patients...

What are possible long-term neurological complications of COVID-19? https://www.ninds.nih.gov/current-research/coronavirus-and-n...

Does nerve damage contribute to long COVID symptoms? https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/03/does-nerve-da...

First three DDG hits for “long Covid nerve damage.” IOW OP’s speculation is plausible.

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