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Comments
I can't believe that the other driver wasn't cited for that. I mean, the trooper clearly used bad judgement in passing at an intersection. The other driver, however, failed to yield to an emergency vehicle that had its lights activated. Man, they sure futzed that one up.
Saw a new one today in a parking lot at a strip mall. When I pulled into the lot there was a handicapped spot, a marked-off area to the right of it for passenger access, then a couple of regular parking spots. I parked in the spot closest to the marked-off area. And it was clearly marked off, hard to miss it unless you're blind or oblivious. Went in to get a haircut, came out 20 minutes later and there was a car in the handicapped spot (with proper plates), and an old 300 parked between that car and my car, in the marked-off area. Didn't give the passengers in the handicapped car much room at all to get in, nor me but fortunately I have a small car with small doors. Wouldn't have been quite as bad if the offender had handicapped plates/sign (and maybe couldn't find an actual parking spot close to where he was going), but that wasn't the case.
Then leaving the lot I was almost hit head-on by a Fusion turning into the parking lot and making a really wide right turn, clearly not caring that there's other cars using the two-lane driving lanes in the lot.
Can you believe the adrenaline junkie wasn't cited, either? When civilians and LEOs are cited at the same rate, let me know.
I am kind of surprised there is no mention of dashcam footage which notes which lights are activated - as cams should be mandatory in all LEO vehicles. It's hard to firmly say the overhead lights were on. And all to hunt down a claimed speeder (on a road that is usually sparsely populated) who apparently wasn't caught...nice use of resources, my tax payments quiver in horror.
Here's another one that I recall on the news not long ago - no citations. And really no accountability at all
The trick where dopes enter a parking lot on the wrong side is like a disease in my area. Sometimes it isn't even for speed, they just don't get how to drive properly. The same people who make wide unsignaled lane changes when turning from one street to another.
This afternoon, I saw the aftermath of something that was probably inconsiderate. Parked off a main road, there was a Mazda Protege 5 with significant front end damage, but I saw no other cars in the area other than a CRV that looked to have no damage. I wonder if the low hood and the high bumper created disaster. The Mazda definitely wasn't drivable.
Saw something that will maybe eventually become inconsiderate - a rental Caravan with a flat tire driving along like there was no problem. I was on foot, heard the "whap whap whap" noise, and it passed by at 25-30mph without a care. That might not end well.
Especially inconsiderate given a rental Caravan would be relatively new vehicle, thus equipped with TPMS. So not only are they ignoring the "whap whap whap", but they're ignoring the alert light on the dashboard. They probably also drive in the dark with their lights off, ignoring the "lights on" indicator on the dash. And hope they're near a gas station, as they've probably ignored the "low fuel" warning light too.
When inconsiderate driving kills... a 25-year old woman who went to school with my oldest son was murdered (yes, I think that's the best word for it) by a driver who didn't think it was important to look for pedestrians in the crosswalk before turning right. As a result, the life of a young woman was taken. Another pedestrian was nearly killed but was a couple of steps behind the woman.
Pedestrian fatalities like this are pushing Minneapolis to implement "bump outs" in busy intersections in an attempt to better protect pedestrians. It's too bad those kinds of steps must be taken to encourage drivers to do what they should be doing as a matter of course: driving courteously and safely, and giving pedestrians a wide berth.
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/245638651.html
Round abouts & bump outs are to be avoided. They do not enhance vehicular traffic.
Roundabouts have become the rage here and I despise them!
People who aren't paying attention charge right in and the drivers who are too timid impede traffic. I always get a bit nervous driving through one!
Good point about the TPMS. Also the same kind of brilliant mind who doesn't notice when an oil light comes on, and ruins and engine. Either that, or they were too lazy to get out and fix it, so they drove on, thinking it wasn't an issue.
Regarding pedestrians, I am on foot several days a week in a fairly busy congested area - I've seen a lot. No actual contact, but endless close calls, most of the time when a crosswalk has a green arrow. SUV/CUV type drivers seem the worst, but it isn't exclusive. Some special trouble areas for the errant are near a Wendys and a Starbucks, where food and drink seem to kill situational awareness. A simple "look twice"would do so much.
I'd rather have roundabouts and driver training than more dumbly sequenced lights, or dopey stop signs. I once lived in an area with a hideously bad 4 way stop, replaced by a roundabout. At peak times, traffic would back up for likely a half mile. Once the roundabout came in, little to no delay. If WA drivers can take the pressure, it's not too bad.
Is that on the part of the driver with food or drink or on the part of the pedestrians?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Probably mostly on the driver, who should try not to hit pedestrians when entering a driveway, or try to look for them before pulling out.
I was hoping you'd see the humor in that. I sit while my wife visits a nice clothing store in an upscale area with a Starbucks on the next block. Some of the folks walking to and from the place are in another world with their sweet treat.
Saw an Ask This Old House episode Friday from Issahquah, Washington, which looks like a nice area. The home owner had done a lot of electrical work herself but had trouble with the multiple wall switches for the overhead light and how to wire them. The lady is definitely an independent spirit!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Oh, for the lack of a continuity tester or multi meter !!!
Actually it took an indicator light and a powered tester to do it the way the electrician did it. But more-so it took an understanding of the 3 wires involved and how the two "travelers" work. It's the episode that starts with cutting a large box spring in the middle to fold it to get it up a narrow stairway. The second part is this lady who had puchased push button switches like some houses when I was a youth had. Her home is an older home, maybe called a craftsman, that those switches were a great ornamental touch in.
But I'm getting off the topic. I thought of this because of the people walking in the beautiful shot of "downtown" Issaquah reminding me of the area where my wife's favorite Chico's is located.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
You might have skipped over that part, or not understood that a indicator lamp (@ less shocking current or tester does EXACTLY that, albeit more pieces of equipment. I once had a guy (master electrician) electrocute himself to death, thinking 110 probably could not hurt him (guess on my part, didn't think to ask, as we were giving him mouth to mouth) . It was one of the last mistakes he ever made.
But yes, we digress ! Pay attention out there !!!! .
I have a friend who did that with his housemate's '91 Corolla wagon the other week. He was out in Virginia, driving back into DC, when a few miles out he hit a bad pothole and realized something wasn't right. He was able to pull over and look at the car, and the right rear tire was ripped pretty bad, but he said it was still holding air. So, he drove the rest of the way home, several miles, but it didn't take long for it to go flat.
I got a text from him asking "how far can you drive on a flat tire?" the day after it happened and my first thought was oh crap. Told him as little as possible, because you might bend the rim. In a somewhat lame defense though, this dude knows absolutely nothing about cars. And it was a very nasty night, snow and ice here and there, horribly cratered roads, and once he got on the road after checking it, there wasn't a good place to pull over.
He also wouldn't have been able to change it, anyway. Heck, I helped him out and I had a hard enough time, myself! The lugnuts were either on too tight or rusted on, and he just had one of those little 4-way tire irons to get it off, rather than the longer crowbar types that can give you more leverage. And I had to read the owner's manual to figure out how to simply get the jack out of its storage spot! I ended up having to take that 4-way tire iron, prop one end of it, and stomp on it to loosen those lugs.
Fortunately, the rim wasn't bent. And we were able to find a place that had that Corolla's tiny 170/70-something/R13 tires in stock. Oh...turns out the other three were dry rotted, pretty well worn, so he ended up getting all four replaced.
I have to admit that I once drove with a flat tire, and didn't realize it. Back in the 1990's, I had a '79 Newport that I rescued from the junkyard. I had put four big tires on it...something like 225/75/R15...but they were junkyard tires. Well, one of them went flat in the parking lot at work. I put on the spare, a tiny donut thing that made the car sit at a noticeable angle. It had air in it when I put it on the car, but somewhere on the drive home, it went flat...but I didn't even notice! Oops! I think my friend might have gotten lucky because that Corolla is a small, lightweight car. And he did say that he drove more gently, once he saw how damaged it was, and even more so as it went flat.
As for my Newport, I can't remember what I did with that temporary spare. I think I just threw it away, and used a full-sized one that I had, that would fit.
Yeah, I did that in '99 for more than a mile on the van. Remote, muddy gravel road. Thought it was just the bad road. Ruined the tire and lost a hubcap.
Miraculously, the hubcap was still on this '91 Corolla. Although my friend almost broke it, trying to pry it off...
One thing I'll definitely say for Toyota, they did a good job of designing those old plastic hubcaps, so they wouldn't pop off so easily. They had a pretty deep ring around the outer edge that took some effort, and patience, to pry loose.
Mine was an OEM hubcap. Wound up selling the other three and picking up some cheapos at a hubcap store - one of those complete set deals for $20 or so, direct from China I'm sure. A set was cheaper than an OEM replacement. After selling the remaining OEMs cheap I think I came out $20 ahead. Often wondered if the hubcap guy was able to dump them or not or if he took a loss over the years. That wasn't a super popular van model.
The replacements are beat up but have stayed on all these years.
So, now someone has decided that tires have an expiration date and the tire shops won't repair a tire that is too old according to the date code!
It's amazing how these regulations get forced on us.
The place where I have my five gallon propane tanks I use for our bar-b-que refused to refill my two tanks last summer because they too were beyond some expiration date.
They looked fine!
In my area. Starbucks addicts drive SUVs and CUVs, they don't seem to walk much. I think they save it for the nearby mall.
I actually did that too, once. I was in the fintail, years ago when I was in school. I was only going low speeds, no potential loss of control issues, but I could feel a pull and wobble. I got out, tire was flat. It was flat because the kingpins on the car were worn, which made weird tire wear. I ended up cutting my hand on a steel belt when I changed the tire. Fun night!
Hazard of the job. > @fintail said:
Yep, those were definitely worn!
Andre1969, looks like the video shows the violation was that you stopped waaaay beyond the stop-line, rather than stopping twice, once at the stopline and once in/across the crosswalk btw, I've heard of photo-radar tickets but never 'video' like that. maybe go for the frame-by-frame analysis to prove you stopped at the stopline, but on quick viewage, seems like you didn't!
Dublin CA Discount Tire (Americas Tire) refused to repair a Michelin due to its age. I bought their new tire for $122. a year later Les Schwab refused to patch a Michelin on our other car for the same reason. I took it to a local independent tire store and they patched it - for FREE! Later I returned to the local independent to have brakes renewed. Propane tanks should last longer than the regs say too.
Not to derail things too much, but I went through the "expired propane tank" ordeal this past summer when I was doing my annual re-fills as well. For the little 20# (~4 gal) tanks, recertifying them isn't really worth the expense. But, for 100# tanks, it definitely is. I think the original expiration is twelve years after date of manufacture, with re-certification allowing for an additional five years. Cost was $15 per tank.
I load my tanks up on my cargo tray, which is mounted to the Forester. Do you think other drivers would find it inconsiderate if I dropped any of those off the tray while driving down the road? (Hey, I had to say something to stay on topic!)
Yeah, the fine is kinda silly given the situational queues there, but I guess I'm not overly surprised given the strong focus lately to increase pedestrian safety. Rolling through crosswalks is a frequent contributor to such collisions (and probably an even more frequent contributor to the "near miss" category).
i've no objection to rules about expired tires and some tire shops refusing to repair old tires.
tires dry out and become unsafe after a certain # of years.
7 is a good lower-bound for that. mandating tire age/manufacture-date-stamps doesn't seem to be an example of capricious govt regulation, nor do regulations prohibiting 7 year old tires from being sold as new (or used).
The wrinkle is that properly warehoused tires aren't unsafe just because they age a few years before they are sold. The more important factors would be years in use and service conditions. Tire Aging – Part #1 (tirerack.com)
I don't think a few years kills tires necessarily - it's rot that can be dangerous. I've seen some scary cracked old tires, or what also seems like it might be iffy to me, tires that have scraped the curb so many times that they look like whitewalls.
For my steel belted flat, I was just maximizing tire life, yeah, that's it
- at the time, the car could chew through a set of front tires in ~5K miles. That incident led to me finally shelling out the money to have a new kingpin set installed - I got lucky and won a set on ebay cheap ($65 or something, insane), but the labor wasn't cheap.
Between 1941 & 1946 many were driving with recaps. Compare the safety factor of those with the tire qualities of today. Some politician mandates a life of 7 years for today's better tire. I know, the War speed limit was 35 MPH.
Yeah, I'll admit that I stopped in the crosswalk, although not in the intersection. I was always under the impression that if you could stop in a crosswalk if you were making a turn and there were no pedestrians in it and there were none nearby. I'm defining "intersection" as where the actual traffic lanes intersect, but not the crosswalk. But, apparently they can give you a ticket for stopping in the crosswalk.
I decided to just go ahead and pay the danged thing. They don't give you very long to pay it before doubling the fine. And if I tried to contest the thing and ended up having to take a day off work, I'd end up losing more in time off work than I would re-coup if the ticket was dropped.
Besides, I paid the ticket with a credit card, so I at least get 1.6% cash back on it!
I've heard you can buy some stuff in a spray can that when applied to the license plates, the photo radar cant read your plate numbers.
Probably illegal but what the heck?
Well, I've had a lot of tires that were probably ten or more years old including some I bought used at junkyards when I was young and broke. I never had any kind of an age related problem/
Sure, given enough years tires are bound to deteriorate.
The tire shops must love this!
The best way to solve the expired propane tank situation would be to go to one of the places that sell propane on an exchange basis. The kid at Home Depot won't know and probably won't care.
Now...how do I know this trick.....?
Yeah, I've heard of that stuff, along with those "Fresnel" lenses that are supposed to be illegal. But, the first vehicles I see with those lenses almost always have FOP plates on them! Do as I say, not as I do I guess. I thought about buying the spray and see if it really works. However, I've heard that one reason that stuff works is because of the angle that the camera takes the picture from. This particular camera is positioned differently from the typical red light cameras I've seen, so I don't know if it would work or not.
Anyway, I'm going into DC on Friday night. I don't intend to do anything bad, but my tailgate will be down, just in case!
I wonder, if I was to run through that same light in my Ram, with the tailgate down, if they would think to look back to see if a matching vehicle had done the same thing in the past? Anyway, I'm not going to test it out! And now that I know how sophisticated those lights are and all the little tricks they can do, I'm going to be a lot more careful. In the past, all they could do was detect that you ran a red light, and to do so they'd take three pictures...one of you entering the intersection while the light was already red, and one of you driving all the way through, and one that showed a closeup of your license plate.
Years ago, I set off a red light camera on Route 3 in Gambrills, MD. I was in my 2000 Intrepid, and it was raining. I knew there was a camera at that intersection. Well, the light turned yellow, and I sort of panicked and hit the brake too hard, and slid a few feet into the intersection, setting off the camera. I never did get a ticket for that one. However, in those days, they'd only give you a ticket for running all the way through an intersection on a red light. Nowadays, I'd probably get one for sliding over the line into the intersection.
Hahahah. Well, the folks at the propane company here (where I had my 20# tanks re-certified) told me the same thing. The guy said, "next time, you'll be further ahead to just exchange these small tanks for a pre-filled unit. They're really not worth certifying." Another guy pipes up, "yeah, but that big tank is definitely worth it! A lot of guys come in here with expired tanks that are all rusty and worse for wear, and they don't understand why we won't fill them. Yours though - it looks practically new! I can't believe it was made in 2000!"
re stopping in crosswalk, the requirment is that one stop before the line that precedes the crosswalk. the "stop line" is the name for that line, just so you know
it is irritating/inconsiderate when people stop sooooo far before the stop line. why do they do that? cluelessness i suppose. especially when the sensor isn't triggered.
as for license plate scanners, sort of a red herring there - they are unavoidable - private citizens will probably be able to deploy them soon, whether cops in various jurisdictions are allowed to do it or not. also would you believe that technology to track all vehicles in a city is available/deployed for quite a while in certain announced cities and probably some unannounced - and it works without reading license plates.
Saw a dope in a GTI make a right turn from a straight only lane, only to be quickly cut off by an equally dopey Highlander that blindly pulled out of a parking lot. Birds of a feather.
Funny how the dopes almost never seem to pay for their dopiness
Here are two suggested approaches: For Park Waiters - and for those who stand mid-aisle once you're inside Costco - or any store, for that matter - launch into "Please, Don't Just Stand There!" or "My Heart Cries Out Oblivious" in your best singing voice. Gets a laugh and results everytime.
For waylaid carts, whether you saw the [ab]user abandon it or not, a loud "Whose mess is THIS?" is entirely appropriate.
How's this for some responsible driving traffic management on the EAST side of the George Washington Bridge?
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2014/02/21/de-blasio-deflects-questions-about-drivers-actions/?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_newyork
edit
No, they would rather sit on Bellevue Way with a radar gun in their hand.
Ha, today that was on 116th. I was on foot there too - the crime fighter had parked on the sidewalk, nearly blocking it, as he hid behind his door with a radar device, trying to pick off low hanging fruit on the slight downhill grade. Oh, it's almost the end of the month, no such thing as quotas I bet.
He was alongside one of his brothers at the construction area linking 4th through 116th to 120th - moderately traveled area, but not too bad at around 0930. In the name of safety, I am sure, expenses be...darned.
Saw a young woman in a RAV4 varying her speed by ~15mph, weaving, braking and accelerating randomly, etc - texting with no shame, phone on the steering wheel. Also while in a crosswalk, had a woman slow down, I swear look right at me, and accelerated right at me. Skills.
Saw a funny post on Yahoo Answers, Car Dep't--a young driver was asking if he could "fight" a ticket he got---seems that he passed a school bus that had blinking lights and a STOP sign out, and in front of the school bus was a cop car. He was wondering if cops are "allowed to hide like that". When someone commented that he might have been just a little zoned out not to notice both a big yellow school bus AND a cop car IN a school zone, he replied "yeah, but the guy behind me did it, too and HE didn't get stopped!"
(me, smacking forehead).