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There are low-density ideologies and high-density ideologies. When the latter kind of ideology reaches a climax state, it generates its own problems and solutions. Private car ownership in the US is at the center of one of the densest ideologies history has ever known. And there is a good reason for this density, which is almost in a climax state: if car ideology were thin, then all of the absurdities of this mode of transportation would be too obvious.

American car ideology is reinforced by powerful private enterprises (advertising agencies, car manufactures, oil companies) but also by public institutions (transportation departments, and courts). An example of the former is found in this excellent Seattle Times' piece: "Issaquah student was doing 102 mph — and didn’t get a fine. Should fellow students be the judges?" The reporter, Lynn Thompson, explains that in Issuaquah and other parts of the Eastside, excessive speeding by young drivers is not considered a serious enough matter for adult courts. It's something that youth courts can deal with. If a young person is caught driving under the influence, then he/she will have to face a real judge. But if the young person is caught driving even 60 miles above the speed limit, that is a matter for the teens to judge and punish. And the punishments are considered to not even be a "slap on the wrist."

Lynn Thompson writes:

The Issaquah High School student clocked doing 102 mph on Interstate 90 in December told the state trooper who pulled him over that he was trying to reach a friend stranded at Snoqualmie Pass.

Rather than pay a hefty fine and get the speeding citation on his driver’s record, the student elected to have his case heard in Issaquah Student Traffic Court in March. A jury of his peers — fellow high-school students — sentenced him to 36 hours of community service to be performed at a local nonprofit.

If he completes it, the case will be dismissed. The speeding ticket won’t go on his driving record and so likely won’t be reported to his insurance company. And he won’t have to pay a fine.


Thompson also mentions a case that was sent down to kids court, despite the fact the young man was caught driving 61 mph over the speed limit, driving without a driver's license and a learner's permit, and driving without any kind of instruction. More amazing still, the rationale for youth courts is that young people just do not listen to adults, they listen to their peers. But here is ideology doing its thing so perfectly. It makes driving 4000 pounds of industrial-grade materials at a speed that could wipe out a whole family the same as a teen coming home late or some such transgression.