Right-wing pundit Jordan Peterson fumed over a report that traffic deaths in Hoboken, New Jersey, had decreased.
On Saturday, the Associated Press reported that since implementing “daylighting,” the removal of parking spaces near intersections seven years ago, the city had recorded zero traffic deaths.
The news incensed the conservative psychologist, and he took to X to slam the outlet for reporting the story. “You have become pathetic beyond comprehension @AP and the woke death will soon visit you,” he wrote.
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To conservatives like Peterson, limiting parkings spaces is a dire infringement of individual liberties, and not worth the obvious benefit to public safety and human life.
Decrying the announcement that a city has become safer portrays a grim loss of perspective, not totally surprising from a culture warrior who recently displayed grave ignorance on Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who oversaw many of the city’s changes after he was elected in 2018, responded to the post on X. “Being triggered by safe streets and Hoboken’s zero traffic deaths in 7 years is certainly a mood,” he wrote.
According to the Associated Press report, Bhalla was inspired to implement daylighting, lower speed limits, and staggered traffic lights in 2015 after the death of an 89-year-old woman.
“Our seniors, who we owe the greatest duty of safety to, should be able to pass that street as safely as possible,” Bhalla said. “For her to actually be killed was a trigger that we needed to take action.”
