That happened to me once, I was coming up on a light along with two other cars in the left turn lane. One was a regular guy, and literally right behind him was a cop car. The light turns yellow just as we're all getting to the intersection so I start slowing down, as does the cop. The guy in front of the cop car looks like he's going to stop but apparently changes his mind and makes a left on red. Right in front of a cop car. I look over and I can actually see the cop making a "wtf" face before turning on his siren and pulling the guy over. Like how stupid do you have to be.Uratoh said:
Why do people just ignore road rules?
- Thread starter Uratoh
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I will simply say I live in Massachusetts.
After the turn signal turned into a challenge for the other drivers to purposely not let you by or in, no one seems to use them anymore. The only reason I haven't been in more accidents is because I developed the jackass/D-bag/blissfully unaware 6th sense, if you don't in New England you are doomed to be hit by some asshat.
After the turn signal turned into a challenge for the other drivers to purposely not let you by or in, no one seems to use them anymore. The only reason I haven't been in more accidents is because I developed the jackass/D-bag/blissfully unaware 6th sense, if you don't in New England you are doomed to be hit by some asshat.
That's because you don't understand how absurdly and unfairly they operate where I live. [rant]They deliberately flock areas where the penalty for speeding is the highest so that they can give out the most expensive tickets possible, regardless of the how dangerous that area actually is. There will be 5 or 6 police cars all parked together in the same 100 yard stretch of road simply because that's where tickets cost the most money. It's not about safety, it's about money, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.lacktheknack said:
They also give out false tickets for violations that didn't really occur. I was pulled over by a cop once so she could search my vehicle, when she found that there was nothing illegal in it she wrote me up for tailgating, which I hadn't been doing. And I'm not just a rare case, my brother once got into an accident and was given a speeding ticket by the first police officer to arrive at the scene, despite the officer not even witnessing the event.
The worst part is you can't even fight tickets that are handed out unfairly because the courts will always side with the officer, and the price of hiring a decent attorney is significantly higher than actually just paying the tickets.
My city prides itself on low taxes, but our local government still wants to make lots of money, so they make up for the low taxes with enormous profits from traffic violations, among other things.
You know how I said you can get a ticket for being caught on camera for speeding? Well imagine you're driving down a road going 5 miles over the speed limit and you pass 7 intersections on the way to your destination. Each one of those intersections will have a separate camera and give you a separate $100 ticket for going through them, meaning you'd rack up $700 in speeding tickets without even REALIZING it. Now it takes about a week and a half for those tickets to arrive in the mail, so imagine this goes on for 10 days, by the time the tickets arrive in the mail notifying you that you've been driving too fast you already have $7000 in speeding tickets.
And yet this whole time the cameras have failed to do the one thing that speed limits actually exist for, make you drive slower.
I'm not making this stuff up, I know people who've lost thousands of dollars overnight from camera tickets.
It's like an arms race, the police get aggressive with traffic enforcement, so in response the people start driving more carefully. Then because this causes them to make less money from violations the police have to get even MORE aggressive, so then we drive even MORE carefully, so then in order to keep handing out lots of tickets the police start getting stealthy and creative. The end result is everyone in the city having a paranoia of cops and driving long distances in general.
It all comes down to a fundamental conflict of interests our traffic enforcers have, they don't want us to drive safely, they want us to be as reckless and illegal as possible, because that's how they make money.
[/rant]
Oh so very wrong. An irresponsible cyclist can cause a huge chain reaction just like any driver/pedestrian/Bengal tiger could. Just a few months ago I managed to just barely avoid a rather serious crash. I'm a cyclist, and a fellow two-wheeler cut me off, right on a busy intersection too! We both nearly got hit by a car because of this..OuroborosChoked said:
Everyone is involved in keeping traffic safe, but mistakes do happen of course.
That being said, I do run traffic lights sometimes.. But only when I have a clear line of sight and am 100% sure there's nothing coming.
And there's no cops about
Shhhhhh! Don't you know about the Cyclist's Pyramid of Humanity?BloatedGuppy said:
I believe I have this beat. Around 5-6 in the afternoon, I'm the first car in the left-most lane stopped at a red stop light with my parents in the back seat on our way to dinner. A truck in the oncoming lane of traffic opposite of me eases as it approaches its own red light. To my left, the light for the road perpendicular to my road turns green and the cars prepare to cross both lanes of traffic to turn left with the road I plan to drive on. Almost immediately the truck opposite me guns it across the intersection, swerving onto my lane of traffic (keep in mind I'm the first car in line too) to avoid the other oncoming cars trying to cross lanes. Just before it hit me, it swerved onto the lane to my right (luckily it was empty), and then rejoined its own proper lane now that it was across the intersection. This took place roughly a half mile away from my front door.Uratoh said:
Cyclists not obeying traffic laws also run the risk of hurting pedestrians they collide with, as well as initiating car accidents when cars attempt to stop or swerve out of the way to avoid hitting them. As NearLifeExperience put: Everyone is involved in keeping traffic safe.OuroborosChoked said:
OuroborosChoked said:
The first major car-totalling accident I was in was colliding with a van that did exactly that. The driver claimed that he had a green arrow; the witnesses said he just took off the moment the light turned green. (The insurance company's investigator coming back with "Yeah, that light never turns into a green arrow" was one of the more vindicating moments of my life.)Uratoh said:
It varies a lot from place to place and state to state. I start being on the lookout for aggressive driving and "turn signals are a sign of weakness" attitudes whenever I near Seattle. I have a vivid memory of pulling over for a cop near L.A. when I was going about ten miles an hour over the speed limit- only to have the flashing car hurtle past me to go after someone going a good thirty miles an hour over the limit.
Some people drive like they're the most important person on the road; others just zone out when they're driving rather than paying attention. Being aware, driving defensively, and generally assuming that the people around you may not do what they're supposed to do is just, well, part of living around motor vehicles these days.
How would I know it? I don't drive in my country, let alone know rules of the road in a country I have never been to. To be honest, I would feel pretty bad if I did know it before this topic.Spanishax said:
I have also been told twice before your comment but thanks for the attempt at education anyway.
I think Olas already elaborated but traffic enforcement is now a scam. We have 4 lane highways where the speed limit drops from 65 to 35 with no change in road condition other than you switched to a podunk town that decided they'd be a speed trap. Or the local one where they really get you is this long straight 2 lane hwy where it goes from 55 to 40( the 55 section is curvy and in woods) State troopas sit in a pack at an overlook while a motorcycle cop radars ppl they wave cars in for tickets by the groups. My little county gets 4x as many citations as the next door county despite being less than half as big 160k ppl vs 441k.lacktheknack said:
I mean I guess you could pay hyper attention and not speed but its a battle unless you live in the area cause it appears each locale sets their own speed. Miss one sign then boom out 210 bucks despite not being any kind of danger.
Yikes, that sounds scary.
It's people like that that made me the most nervous wreck learning how to drive. I'd take obscenely long at a stop sign or slow down at a green light just to make sure no one was careening around a corner to take me out.
Anyway.
Sounds like you got it worse than me. I live in a town near Seattle and we got some pretty safe roads. No one drives to fast, everyone's polite (at least everywhere I go), so on. The most daring things you'll see are pushing the speed limit a little bit or quick burst of speed to clear that yellow light. I got it pretty good. I pass a somewhat dangerous intersection (oddly placed stop signs) going to my college but I always slow down, make sure no one's coming.
It's people like that that made me the most nervous wreck learning how to drive. I'd take obscenely long at a stop sign or slow down at a green light just to make sure no one was careening around a corner to take me out.
Anyway.
Sounds like you got it worse than me. I live in a town near Seattle and we got some pretty safe roads. No one drives to fast, everyone's polite (at least everywhere I go), so on. The most daring things you'll see are pushing the speed limit a little bit or quick burst of speed to clear that yellow light. I got it pretty good. I pass a somewhat dangerous intersection (oddly placed stop signs) going to my college but I always slow down, make sure no one's coming.
Well, yeah, if you're driving on the left side of the road, then the sides would be reversed. XDNearLifeExperience said:Not if you live in the UKSpanishax said:
Unless you mean you can't go left on red either... though I'm not sure why that would be.
This thread is the reason why I bike everywhere. Normally I tell people its because its more healthy, but I genuinely don't trust anyone (myself included) behind the wheel of a car.
Right, cops giving tickets to people for recklessly endangering other drivers is totally corrupt. Going 7 miles (11km) over the speed limit is alright on the highway, but when you're in the city, it's just plain wrong and you deserve to be punished for it. I'm glad you got the ticket, though it doesn't seem you learned your lesson. You know what I've noticed? The only people who seem to badmouth their city's police force are the ones who have trouble following the rules of the road.OlasDAlmighty said:
OT: I really don't know why people do some of this shit. It's extremely easy to obey the rules of the road yet I constantly see people doing dumb things. It's like they think laws are just suggestions and not actual rules.
Nope, red light shows, you can't go anywhere. Of course, taxi drivers always assume that that doesn't apply to them...Spanishax said:Well, yeah, if you're driving on the left side of the road, then the sides would be reversed. XDNearLifeExperience said:Not if you live in the UKSpanishax said:
Unless you mean you can't go left on red either... though I'm not sure why that would be.
Really? Oh wow, why is that? If there's no one coming from the right, and no pedestrians crossing, there should be no reason why you can't turn left on a red... I'm very confused. lolBlackStar42 said:Nope, red light shows, you can't go anywhere. Of course, taxi drivers always assume that that doesn't apply to them...Spanishax said:Well, yeah, if you're driving on the left side of the road, then the sides would be reversed. XDNearLifeExperience said:Not if you live in the UKSpanishax said:
Unless you mean you can't go left on red either... though I'm not sure why that would be.
And actually, if you come across a red during your driver's test here in America, and you DON'T turn right when he tells you to take a right (assuming there is no oncoming traffic), you'll get docked marks. Apparently it's very important to do the opposite of what the people in the UK do.