On a recent Saturday, I went for my usual long run on streets I have crossed over many times before.

When I approach a crosswalk, I try to make eye contact with approaching drivers to make sure they see me, and that they will stop. I couldn’t with one such driver because his windows were illegally tinted, but he slowed down, so I proceeded. Then, as soon as I stepped into the crosswalk, he changed his mind and floored it. In frustration, I watched him as he sped away, and I threw my hands up in the air.

He turned around, because he decided he was going to make me pay for that.

Aggression from drivers toward pedestrians, runners, and cyclists has become more noticeable since the worst of the pandemic, and right when we could use an assist from law enforcement to make sure that drivers stick to the rules of the road, they can’t be bothered. All I had to do was deal with an enraged, screaming pig. But too many New Jerseyans, including a hockey star, are dying because of it.

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin is investigating claims that New Jersey State Troopers just about stopped writing tickets for traffic violations on the state highways and rural roads they patrol from July 2023 to March 2024. In that time, traffic violations by state police dropped more than 60% for things like speeding and drunk driving. 

As you might expect when drivers are allowed to offend with impunity, the number of crashes increased over that time. On the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, crashes were up 27% in August 2023 over August 2022, while tickets for speeding dropped from 2,066 to 437, the New York Times reported.

The ticket slowdown doesn’t appear to be an accident — more like a temper tantrum thrown by State Troopers over being told not to be so racist anymore.

And while my suburban streets aren’t patrolled by New Jersey State Troopers (though one lives near me and regularly ignores stop signs around the corner from his home), the general lack of caring from police when it comes to stopping reckless drivers is compounding another problem: car bloat. We have been marketed bigger and heavier cars under the guise of safety, but that safety does not extend to anyone outside of those vehicles. The driver of a car, truck, or SUV with a hood height of more than 40 inches is 45% more likely to kill a pedestrian than a normal, rational-sized car, according to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. 

As a result, drivers have been killing people at an astronomical rate. In 2024, New Jersey had its highest number of fatal crashes, with 678 deaths out of 641 traffic incidents, according to state police statistics. That’s a 13% increase from 2023. According to the same report, 218 of those deaths were of pedestrians, 33% more than in 2023. 

When police stop ticketing bad drivers, then why wouldn’t some motorists feel free to drive like no one is watching? If they aren’t going to get a citation for speeding, or rolling through a stop sign, or ignoring a crosswalk with a pedestrian already in it, what incentive do they have to stop, even if their vehicle choice is more likely to kill whoever — legally — crossed their paths? 

I didn’t need statistics to tell me how car-brained and deranged some drivers have become. I’ve been running for almost 20 years through what should be quiet, manageable suburban streets that have sidewalks and are well-marked with stop signs and crosswalks. But drivers have decided that those are now optional, often rolling through stop signs, turning right through crosswalks without bothering to look, or blasting through crosswalks on purpose when someone is already in the middle of the bright white, reflected painted lines showing that we have the right of way. I have lost count of how many times I have seen people consider a stop sign optional, even when it’s next to a school. They just can’t be bothered. 

That incident in December was the second such one I faced in the second half of 2024. Both times, male drivers made illegal U-turns and sped around to park on the wrong side of the road to scream at me. In the December incident, he spittle-yelled at me and called me a “fat c***.” He continued to follow me, driving on the wrong side of the road to do so, until I’m guessing he surmised that I was running toward a police station, after which he sped off (and since the police didn’t do anything when I reported the first such incident, I didn’t even bother this time).

But I guess I’m lucky that all he did was scream in pathetic misogyny. In August, hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, were killed while they were biking on Route 551 in Salem County — the kind of rural roads that New Jersey State Troopers are supposed to monitor — by what police say was a drunk driver.

Authorities say the driver, Sean M. Higgins, has a history of road rage, and said he had five or six beers before he struck and killed the brothers. First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County told a judge that during a jailhouse phone call with Higgins, his wife told him, “You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,” according to the Associated Press.

I don’t expect attitudes toward non-drivers to get better either. In December, police say Steven Bird, a disabled man from Tacoma, Washington, was killed by a driver of an SUV who didn’t like that Bird and his friends responded to being threatened in a crosswalk. 

If police have abandoned their duties in patrolling other drivers on the road, protecting each other is left up to us, though I’m not hopeful as so many drivers seem to take glee in “cheating” the system by doing things like obscuring their license plates or not even having a front plate at all, which is required in New Jersey. 

So all I can do is ask that if you drive, remember that you are manning a potentially lethal weapon. And if you are driving an oversized truck or SUV because of “safety!” or whatever, you are a bigger threat to the people in your community who choose to ambulate a different way. So make full stops at stop signs. Let pedestrians cross. Don’t text while driving. And leave your infotainment panel alone. None of you are going to be ruined because you have to wait a few seconds for a pedestrian or cyclist. The cops aren’t going to stop you if you do, but you’ll have a much better day if you don’t kill someone while driving your tank to Target.