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I also see no reason why such vehicles shouldn't require license endorsements.
Today's winners - hilariously stereotypical suit in an xDrive 328i with a phone to his ear (shouldn't these have bluetooth), and a big lifted Dodge 4 door 4x4 making a right turn from the left lane, cutting across 2 lanes. Nothing else, traffic was even moving along well enough.
First off, heading down a hill, 35mph 4 lane road, I am in the left lane going ~38. From a commercial driveway, an XC90 slowly wobbles out and hits about 15mph, vacuous well kept middle aged woman driving, of course. I pass on the right and dodge her like a pylon.
Second, same road, a mile later. Still in the left lane (cars in left lane often slowing to turn), going about the speed limit, Venza comes over from a parking lot on the left, and sits in the middle/turn lane. Fine, as it is a common procedure to merge. Instead of waiting for traffic to pass, she just dawdles out at about 22mph. I flash my lights several times as I hit the brakes, and she quickly moves right - and goes even slower.
Third, heading down another hill, 30mph zone, 2 lane road, I am going the speed limit. Girl wearing one of those stupid knit caps with ear covers, in a Q5 pauses at an intersection to my right, rolls through the stop sign, pulls out right in front of me. She's not even looking, rather distracted by I think her passenger. Hopefully next time she pulls that one, the texter in the Excursion will be coming, and she'll have some time to reconsider her attention gaps.
And it was all topped off by idiotic irresponsible negligent traffic controls - you'd have 20 cars waiting to cross an empty street that had green. I went into the wrong part of the workforce, should have gone untouchable public sector.
I was in the #1 lane, and got a little concerned about how much the guy in front of me might slow down because the #2 lane looked a bit loaded up. And then I saw why... an Odyssey had come to a full stop, because he needed to make a right turn... nothing like being 2 lanes out of position.
Why can't people think past the end of their hood? I guess I should just be thankful that the Odyssey hadn't stopped to make that right from my lane.
Can't wait to see what's next, now that it's raining.
The rain here is fun too - only rains say 400 days a year, and a light rain will often bring freeway traffic to a crawl, like the "drivers" have never seen it before. A rainy morning can make a 20 mile drive take 90 mins or more.
Out today in the old car. 35mph road, RAV4 is ahead of me in lane to my right, turn only lane. Veers over in front of me, then slows way down. I pass on the left, teenage girl with a phone to hear ear. I wave at her and make a put down the phone gesture, she gives me the finger. Hopefully her errant driving will eventually get her off the road, and not voluntarily.
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One of a series of cartoons about BMWs and their drivers:
Then not 60 seconds later at the same intersection, guy in a W211 E-class makes a left turn from the far right lane, so cutting across the left lane and the turn lane, no signal.
And when jogging over a bridge, on the off-ramp below, saw a late 90s Jetta that had rear-ended an early 00s F-series maybe a few minutes earlier. Truck had no apparent damage, Jetta wasn't going to be leaving under its own power.
Nobody moves to western WA for quality drivers.
Second one, going home, same road but opposite direction, and road is now 2 lanes each direction with left turn lanes. On cross street ahead and to the right about 200 feet, a school bus is stopped with its STOP arm out. Cars queued up behind it... completely blocking the intersection. Fortunately, the bus moved in time so most of the cars cleared the intersection before the light turned green.
Have seen lots of other cases of inconsideration/incompetence over the past few days, mainly failing to clear windows of snow/ice (a biggie on Sunday), failure to put lights on (also on Sunday), failure to signal, and driving at a ridiculous speed on an ice-coated freeway (all those folks were in SUVs, which makes sense as we all know an SUV is immune to sliding on ice :P ). But I thought the first two were extra "special."
As for driving on icy roads, I out-did the SUVs in my Fiesta over the weekend. The roads were initially wet/slushy as I left Wasilla, and gradually turned to mushy (ice pack on the road breaking up a bit, but not what I would consider "slush"). While in the wet/slushy stuff, I was going 65 (SL). I was passed by a couple of pickups and SUVs.
Later on, in the mushy stuff, which was a bear to drive in (for over 100 miles), I was going an average of probably 60. I quickly caught those silly 4x4s and passed them up. *shrugs*
Granted, heavy snow storms are a tough slog no matter where you live, no doubt about it.
I'm not meaning to say that anyone's winters "don't count." I'm just saying that someone who drives on ice all the time can get much better at doing it than someone who doesn't. So, I say I was driving at 60-70 on ice, and the response is that person is suicidal. That's not really the case.
I've been driving in MN winters for nearly 40 years. I've had many a winter where there's ice on roads for several months. Over the last few years, El Ninos and global warming have shortened the road ice season some. But still a lot of ice to deal with. Some people deal with it more safely than others.
It's a beautiful sunny day here (and the sun actually puts out heat) and no drivers crowded us on our walk over to the in-laws and back (we won't see the sidewalks for another couple of months so we're walking on the side of the road).
People that don't signal should be shot on site, but only after the law is changed to allow you to "stand your ground" against driver's who fail to signal.
I don't know about that. xwesx is still alive, and Dorner isn't. Driving fast in an of itself on snow and ice must not be very suicidal or idiotic.
It doesn't take much traction or friction to maintain a straight path of momentum, so if there are no turns, and no traffic, what is the harm in going any speed whatsoever?
Also, the laws of physics also state that regardless of speed, you have to have 2 objects trying to occupy the same space at the same time in order for a collision to occur. So if you simply avoid other vehicles and objects, your speed becomes irrelevant.
My problem isn't so much with camera's as it is with "automated" camera enforcement, or simply, fast revenue generation enforcement.
As long as the camera is operated by an expert in the use of that camera, and he or she will show up in court to testify as to the allegations set forth because of the camera, I'm OK with it.
My biggest problem is traffic courts would convict without any non-hearsay witness to the video tape evidence.
That argument will get you about as far as the "I didn't see the posted speed limit sign back there, and the next one wasn't within my visual distance yet," in court.
Your lucky police officers don't generally enforce laws that promote safety, like left lane camping rules.
The lack of a visible maximum speed sign does not change the speed limit from 65 to whatever I choose, and the same applies with "slower traffic keep right."
Ignorance is not a defense I'm told.
I have some close friends who live in Everett now (well, for probably eight years now). They have some fun stories. :sick:
That's your best post ever in the history of all you have written on these forums.
Congratulations! You get one vote for the Pulitzer from me.
On my way down to Palmer last weekend, I was in a 65 zoned (most of the highway is 65, with the areas around/in towns at 55 or 45) area of the highway that was reconstructed two years ago. This is beautifully smooth blacktop, complete with several passing lanes to help ease traffic congestion and wide areas on either side of the road devoid of vegetation (good visibility for spotting moose approaching the highway).
I was tooling along at probably 68 as I approached the end of this newly rebuilt area and started wondering where it dropped to 55. Now, I know from experience that the SL on this stretch is 65 to 55 to 45 as one approaches the town of Willow, but I don't know from memory exactly where the limit changes are. What's more, this stretch, being new, has a whole bunch of those "adopt a highway" signs, which are exactly the same size/dimensions as speed limit signs, only blue instead of white. (most areas of the highway have lost theirs due to crashes, snow plowing, etc, and the DOT is slow to replace them) The problem this night was that every single sign on the road was illegible due to a recent snow plow going through and covering them all with a blanket of white.
One literally could not tell one sign from the next.
Anyhow, as I approach this end area and started drifting down toward 55, I saw a Trooper vehicle sitting in a pull out, with two illegible signs just ahead of him. I thought, "Hmm... I bet that's the 55 sign."
Sure enough, on the way home I looked (it was warm that day and all the signs had melted clear) and it was, indeed, the 55 SL sign! Talk about a cheap revenue grab! :mad:
Watch out about those laws... they might also allow people who get flashed a few times to "stand their ground". :P
Lame winter here so far, no ice related incidents come to mind. If it looks even marginally bad, I just stay off the road.
Reminds me of something that happened to a friend of mine - teenage airhead ran a stop sign, hit his car pretty hard front passenger side corner, and she argued that "he should have avoided me". Didn't work. Found out later that it was her second at fault accident - that month.
(Enough of the "last clear chance" talk please, and thank you).
I have to admit I don't know how close the truck was at the start of my swerve (but I did know I had room on the right). Would have made an interesting case for the insurance companies to sort out. My only other option would have been to slam the brakes and ram him, since he pulled out in front of me at just about the worst time possible.
several years ago I discovered a windshield treatment called "Aquapel".
No, it's not anything like other products you may have tried.
It's so good, I don't even use wipers at night as it makes no difference in vision. Passing a truck with the huge spray is no problem at all.
You can find it on line, approx. 6.50 per treatment, and it lasts most all fall/winter/spring.
The trick is when you clean the windshield prior to application, when you think it's clean enough, do it again, and maybe a 3rd time.
I love the sensation of driving at moderate speed and having the raindrops simply disappear.
Also saw something funny (but not in a ha ha way) - was in traffic, heard a cop with sirens and lights coming from behind, myself and everyone but one vehicle moved over for him. He has to go around this Dodge 4x4 that simply didn't pull over (plenty of room), and then not 30 seconds later, I see the truck run a light that had been red for a good 5 seconds or more. Nice.
Or you could live in NC or VA, which are "contributory negligence" states. Just about everywhere else, they go on comparative negligence, i.e. the person who was primarily/mostly at fault for the accident is held responsible. In contributory negligence, if they can show that you were even partly at fault, the other driver's insurance doesn't have to pay for your damages.
The red light camera photos also contain a key piece of information: how long the light has been red. So if it's an issue that the light didn't change, they'll know if there is any credence to your defense.
On that note, one of the key local intersections with a stuck light finally got fixed, after months of notifications from myself and others. Good enough for government work.