Why do people just ignore road rules?

[Coach Morrison]

I live outside Memphis and to drive to my school I have to spend around 6 minutes on an interstate. In the 10 months since moving here I've almost been hit 3 times by people who change lanes without checking, one of the times it was a fucking semi! I made sure to avoid his blind spot and I had to hit the brakes to not get pushed into a concrete barrier by him. I'm not a perfect driver and I've made my mistakes, but I know to check the other lanes when I'm going 65 MPH on a crowded road.

 

[FalloutJack]

And I'm not even talking about 'oh you followed 20 feet too close, or didn't signal enough in advance/at all...' I'm talking about the rediculously dangerous stuff. Left turns on a red light, driving in BOTH lanes simultaniously (dotted line right down the middle of their car), that kind of stuff. I just see people do it all the time with no regard for anyone or anything. What's happened in the past couple years to make this get so much worse?

People are stupid.

Oh, you wanted a better explanation? Alright.

People are both empowered and imprisoned by their vehicles in a curious contradiction which can lead them desiring freedom at 50 MPH or up because they had to sit in traffic for an hour. They're also known to be selfish AND self-righteous about driving on the road, which calls in a case of an armchair rulemonger that doesn't practice what he preaches. People are also afraid of their cars sometimes, causing hell when they do something wrong and making other people angry.

But all of that is just fluff, the heresay and theresay added to the one very simple answer that people are just DUB sometimes.

 

[Athefist]

This applies to US drivers:

Why do people just ignore road rules? I think most people aren't aware what rules of the road even are anymore. I can't even begin to count how many times I've been trapped behind someone at a red light with no cross traffic and the person in front won't turn right on red because they don't know it's legal. Or people putting along in the passing lane with a mile of commuters stacked up behind them. It's called the PASSING LANE for a reason! You use it to pass slower traffic. People who drive in the passing lane are just announcing to the whole world that they're horrible human beings. Or the worst is minor fender benders on the freeway, and the drivers just sit there not moving off to the side. You honestly think holding up thousands of commuters because someone dinged your bumper is a good idea? Get off the road!

But the cops don't care about any of that. There's no money in keeping traffic moving. Stuck in a 3 mile long traffic jam because someone got their bumper dinged? Tough. Stuck in a 3 mile long traffic jam because someone got their bumper dinged and you're not wearing a seatbelt? You're the devil.

 

[bliebblob]

You're doing it wrong. The question you should be asking is why wouldn't they?

 

[gusenborge]

I drive as my driving instructor tells me, with the thought that everybody else is a fool and i gotta think for them.

 

[Aesir23]

I absolutely hate cycling on the road and do my best to avoid it. It's mostly because unless I'm in a residential area it seems like the road is an absolute deathtrap, I do my best to follow the rules but it seems like drivers in my city hate cyclists. I've had people pass almost within inches of me seemingly out of spite and I've once had someone turn into the lane in front of me and suddenly slam on their brakes for a split second before they went on their merry way, giving me a brief glance of their middle finger.

In other words, yay for sidewalks.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Because they can get away with it. Road rules aren't enforced enough as they need to be, people know they can bend and break the rules and they will only get punished for it if they are really unlucky. Speed cameras are both easy to spot, and drivers are told when they are in the presence of a speed camera, so they know when they can and can't get away with speeding. In the circumstances where they know they can get away with speeding, they speed.

Additionally, getting and keeping a driving license is way too easy, just pass a stupidly easy test and get some experience and you are good to go, you will never be tested that you actually know the rules until you are much older. As a result of this, many road rules are simply forgotten by drivers. While I believe that getting a driving license should be accessible to many people, the requirements for keeping your license are way too slack.

Also, driving a car gives people a sense of empowerment which makes their inner selfish asshole come out[footnote]Or in a lot of cases, just more of a selfish asshole then usual.[/footnote]. Its similar to the sense of empowerment people get from anonymity on the internet.

 

[Dirge Eterna]

Motorcyclist here. I tend to treat every other road user as if they're going to kill me at any moment.

I do this in the car as well as when I ride. A hell of a lot of motorcyclists develop a sixth-sense, making idiots far easier to spot....and read.

Sure I break the ruies on speeding when out away from built up areas, but if I put myself into a tree, it's my own fucking fault. I just can't stand the people that inconvenience and endanger everyone else, just because they're arseholes.

I've been paying a lot of attention to the types of car these arseholes drive. More often than not, they drive German cars, mostly BMW, VW, Audi and Mercedes. Not surprising really as they're aimed at the rude middle-classes. I see a lot of these cars come into the bodyshop I work in too. Generally they can't drive for shit and park using the 'when it bumps, I'm in the space' method. They also always want their door edges touched in from where they've opened them into other peoples vehicles in car parks.

I miss the days when it was only Volvos and Saabs we had to watch out for!

Same thing where I am, I ride to work 35 miles each way and the European cars are the worst for drivers. I have been ran off the road by people not looking where they are going, running a red light and I was crossing in the opposite direction and once ran up onto a sidewalk by a dbag who changed lanes into mine without looking.

I live north of L.A. and I moved out here about 10 years ago from Wichita Kansas, my wife was like you have to stop being so safe and careful you will get us killed, I thought she was joking as she is a local here, nope I have had to be more aggressive just to avoid getting hit numerous times. I drive 5-10 over on the freeway just to keep out of the way of the real speeders. Doing 75 in a 65 and having a big ass SUV or BMW on your ass sucks, especially when I am not even close to being in the fast lane. I see everything out here from no signals to running red lights and cross walks with people in the intersections all the time. Since I am on a bike I have to assume everyone is out to kill me. I won't speed on residential streets and that seems to really piss people off, yesterday I had a guy charge around me into the opposite lane of traffic and squeal tires cause he was mad I stopped at a stop sign. My wife got a ticket for speeding because she was being tailgated, the guy behind her got a ticket for tailgating and speeding. She was speeding to get out of his way but she still got a $400 ticket. BS

 

[MorganL4]

don't think your the only person on the road that knows what they are doing!

Actually you have this backwards.... You HAVE to think that, at all times you must assume that someone will do something stupid and or illegal... When you stop doing that is when you find yourself in a collision. It's called defensive driving.

 

[Alfador_VII]

Nope, red light shows, you can't go anywhere. Of course, taxi drivers always assume that that doesn't apply to them...

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. lol
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.

The American system seems very odd in the UK, and indeed in the rest of Europe. Here a Red Light unambiguously means "STOP"

I see how the US way can work though, but it must lead to confusion that you can turn on some lights, but not others.

 

[Tiger King]

don't think your the only person on the road that knows what they are doing!

Actually you have this backwards.... You HAVE to think that, at all times you must assume that someone will do something stupid and or illegal... When you stop doing that is when you find yourself in a collision. It's called defensive driving.

well actually thats kinda how i drive too, i NEVER assume that others have seen me or taken action to allow for space, braking etc.

i wasnt to clear i guess, im refering to people that get really angry over trivial things.

i once saw two grown men shouting and swearing over a parking space and it was incredibly childish, thats the kind of drivers im refering too

 

[Amittai]

Screw the rules. I have money.

 

[Woodsey]

don't think your the only person on the road that knows what they are doing!

Actually that's how I tend to drive...I assume everyone else is some kind of drooling maniac, seconds away from snaping and suddenly trying to sideswipe me or the like. I'm heavily paranoid about other cars @_@. I just follow the rules and stay in line so if someone slams into me at 50 miles an hour, at least I know it won't be my fault.

Pretty sure my instructor used almost that exact phrase - "assume everyone else is some kind of drooling maniac" - when I was a learner.

And before you go all "well, I've seen cyclists run stop signs and riding without proper illumination blah blah blah": yeah, I have, too. I hate them, too. But going back to my earlier point, the worst they can do is get themselves killed or dent your metal and fiberglass deathmobile. Have some fucking perspective...

Uh, yeah, or cause you to drive into an object that could give your deathmobile a run for its money. Like, I dunno, a wall. Or a house. Or another car.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Because fuck the rules man! I know how to drive, don't come preaching to me about dat shit! Ah gotta drive mah car cos dats wat da cars wer' made fo'! Neva been in an ac'den' an' neva' gon' be, 'cos ma pa taught me dat da rules a' fo losahs!

In all seriousness, it partly stems from gaining driving experience and thinking you know how the traffic is going to play out. You start to look at certain things and thinking "why do I need to do that? It's useless", and then you just start ignoring the smaller rules and forcing habits like speeding to catch the lights (I actually do that, and I've had my driver's license for only a year and a half).

By the way, do you know how bad this shit is in Russia? The oligarks there actively ignore even the most basic rules, and even worse, they believe they have a right for it. Things like parking in two spaces, speeding during rush hour, switching lanes without signaling are commonplace there. I know this because it has spread over the border here, and some of the tourists are actively behaving that way.

 

[SecondPrize]

It's just pure selfishness. I live in an area where mountains run down to the coast, so two-lane road going out is rarely straight and has many blind corners. On many stretches it's just rocks coming right up to the road on one side and a drop to the sea on the other. So one day I'm driving to Kardimili and there's a ************ parked in the right lane, just before a blind corner. Parked. His car, stopped in the road, in the right travel lane, just before a blind corner, with him nowhere to be seen.
He did have his four-way blinkers on, which Greeks will feel absolves them of anything.

 

[omega 616]

Left turns on a red light

Why left? You shouldn't be going through red lights, be it straight ahead, left or right.

You can turn right on red lights, if traffic is clear. Did you not know this?

Not if you live in the UK just a heads up

Well, yeah, if you're driving on the left side of the road, then the sides would be reversed. XD
Unless you mean you can't go left on red either... though I'm not sure why that would be.

in the uk if the light is red your ass doesn't move. Red means stop and not "you can go but only in one direction".

 

[Lilani]

Where are you from OP?
Where I'm from, St. Louis Missouri, you almost never see people breaking the law or driving recklessly. Sometimes a person will speed by 5 - 10 mph, at which point they will swiftly be pulled over by our horrible corrupt parasitic traffic control officers and given a 200$ speeding ticket. There are cameras at all our stoplights, not just to catch people running red lights, but also to catch people speeding. I've been given a 100$ ticket because I was caught on camera driving through an intersection 7 miles over the speed limit.

If people did the type of stuff your talking about over here they'd probably wind up in prison before the day is out.

Come over here to Springfield, you'll see lots of stupid stuff, as well as very stupid bicyclists. In fact just last fall we had a bicyclist killed because he didn't stop at a red light like he should have. Got run over by an 18-wheeler. Like yeah, it's sad that he died...but the only person that could have prevented it was himself.

Also, in Springfield we've got two major one-way streets downtown, Jefferson and Campbell. Twice in the last six months I have personally saved people from going the wrong way on them. I mean, I only cross those roads maybe a few times a week. You'll just be sitting at the stop sign, and suddenly the person in front of you is signaling to go down the street the complete wrong way. Both times I've done this they were about halfway through the turn when I laid on my horn, and at that point they realized what they were doing. I'm certain it happens way more than that, I'm just shocked it happens so often that little old me has been the person right behind the idiot twice.

Also...7 miles over for a ticket from a camera? That's harsh. The smallest window I've ever heard of from a camera system is 10 miles over. But wait, are the cameras still working in St. Louis? As far as I know, Missouri hasn't found a legal way to do that, at least in Springfield. The story goes that in Springfield there was a camera system for a while, but then it turns out the tickets were being issued by the camera company rather than the state. At no point were the tickets being approved by the DoT or whatever state department handles that, and the state of Missouri requires tickets to be issued and approved by the state, not a private company. This was brought forward by a highway patrolman, of all people. So they stopped issuing tickets in order to find a way to do it that was legit, and now it's been like a couple of years and they still haven't got the cameras going again. But again, maybe that problem was exclusive to Springfield.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

Cyclists not obeying traffic laws also run the risk of hurting pedestrians they collide with...

Which I mentioned... Maybe you missed it?

as well as initiating car accidents when cars attempt to stop or swerve out of the way to avoid hitting them.

I have never seen this happen EVER. Given the choice between a soft, squishy cyclist and a hard, rigid automobile and a $1000+ repair bill, drivers prefer to hit cyclists.

As NearLifeExperience put: Everyone is involved in keeping traffic safe.

I do not disagree at all. I really don't know if you thought I was opposed to this idea or what... At no point did I make excuses for bad cyclists, but the way many drivers talk about ALL cyclists, you'd think we were a menace... going around smashing their windows, running THEM off the road (which happened to me on my bike just last week, btw... I still have to get my bike fixed and finish NOT BEING BROKEN MYSELF), and generally running amok. The truth is, nobody's going to die in collisions with cyclists except perhaps cyclists when hit by automobiles. Pedestrians won't. Drivers certainly won't. THAT is the perspective I'm talking about. Cyclists are not the worst things on the road. Drivers who do not pay attention AT ALL TIMES and do not grasp the responsibility they have as drivers of metal deathmobiles are the worst. No contest.

 

[-Samurai-]

Because this is my road son. And I will drive however I like. Respect my authority.

I like you.

OT: Next time you're at a stop light, look around at the other drivers. Cell phones everywhere.

People are soo busy talking and texting about nothing, that they forget that they're piloting a 2-ton killing machine.

I never, ever use my phone while driving, and while I'm far from a perfect driver, I'm much more likely to obey the rules of the road.

Besides, I don't think I could text while shifting gears if I wanted to. Manual all the way.