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fordgirl15 - Place your phone out of reach. My wife leaves her phone in her purse & places that on the back seat. If anyone calls, the in-car Bluetooth lets her answer. Texts, Twitter & Facebook updates, etc. all wait until she's at her destination.
Ah, got it to work. I had to edit out the link from the block quote.
Cool. See? These tech guys aren't complete numbskulls after all!
I understand that more accidents are caused by texting drivers than drunk drivers, by a huge factor. Unfortunately you will be picking up plenty of texting drivers in your ambulance, as well as their innocent victims. Locally the retired fire chief was killed at his mailbox by a texting kid. All handheld cellphone use is illegal in NH now. Sad for the fatality, but hooray for the no-handheld-cellphone-use law that resulted soon afterwards.
Handheld cellphone use by a driver needs to be illegal nationally especially due those many drivers who are soooooo addicted to texting while driving.
I see it constantly, even here in NH where it's illegal: People still do it wherever they think they can get away with it, such as rolling/braking up to a red light. or when they are in a tall SUV, so they think nobody can see their eyes looking down at their phone.
Related example: Remember back in the "old days" when the family would take a driving vacation & you'd play a game spotting oddball cars? My wife & I do a variant on it nowadays: spot the expired plates. Almost every time we're out driving together we spot one or more cars with expired plates, sometimes expired by over a year. Why has there been no enforcement on those folks?
With all these cities & states having budget issues you'd think they'd go after the easy money.
Actual (expiring) plates or stickers are going the way of the 8 track cassette. It also has the capability of turning cheap tickets into WAY more EXPENSIVE propositions.
Some states, if not all, will send out reminders before DLs expire but I'd rather rely on myself to know to renew.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Why is this topic not going to the top of the lists, as ALL OTHER topics do?
I have to look at page 4 now to see this...
??
I don't know what you mean, sorry.
All I'm saying is, I follow several different topics on this site. When someone posts to that topic, it moves to the 1st in queue...all of them...except THIS one.
The only way I can see if a new post is there is to scroll to page 4 now.
Seems weird, that's all.
Yeah, and it is behaving like this for months now. I wonder if it is just one of those oddball rogues that defies all programming... ?
Anyway, while his behavior was inconsiderate, you would have been at fault since, as the person merging onto the highway, you have to yield to those already on the highway.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S
On the other hand, if his vehicle was basically alongside you and he was accelerating, then just let off of your accelerator and slip in behind. It's a pretty simple maneuver either way.
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Haha; this reminds me of a scenario that happened on Wednesday morning when I was merging onto my local highway. There was a Subaru Legacy wagon (old late 90s one, the stereotypical slow Subaru) going probably about 50-55 in the right lane on the highway. He was a little ways ahead of me, so I figured I would just merge in behind him. Well, this first-gen (~98-02) Durango, which was driving along behind him, decides that I was NOT going to merge between them, and he rides up on the Subie's rear (about five feet off his rear).
At this, point, I would either have to hit the brakes to drop behind, or just gun it. So, I just gunned it (I'm not a fan of hitting the brakes on the highway), slipped in ahead of the Subie, who then slammed on his brakes (didn't need to, but typical reaction from the genre) which was followed by the Durango driver swerving onto the shoulder to avoid rear-ending the Subaru.
Instant. Karma.
fordgirl i'm not sure what you mean about the semi drivers . I've driven about 1.5 million miles, mostly on interstates/big-roads/highways and have observed they are crazy/inconsiderate drivers at a rate maybe 1/1000 compared to car drivers. For every 1 crazy/inconsiderate bigrig driver, I've seen 1000 crazy/inconsiderate car drivers. The rate might be even more. like 1:10000 rather than 1:1000. One reason is that cops give no mercy to commercial drivers of any kind. Semi drivers and other commercial drivers are held to a much more stringent standard. For example, a bigrig driver bagged in his private non-bigrig vehicle at 0.05 alcohol level has provided prima-facie evidence that he is guilty of DUI, even though the limit for others is 0.08, and even though he wasn't driving bigrig at the time.
also fordgirl, the question about when you were merging and truck towing trailer appeared in your blindspot, that was on you. it is uneasonable to expect any bigrig or any truck towing anything to change lanes or slow down to allow a merge. if they can do it safely/reasonably/without-losing-speed-uphill, they may well do it, but always assume they will not or cannot. if you can't punch it to get way ahead of the highway bigrig, decelerate and tuck in behind the bigrig. same is true for all highway traffic you are merging with, but bigrig drivers have considerations way beyond what you would imagine unless you have a bigrig license or had Isaac Newton as your driving instructor (I did.). it figures that the truck stayed at the same speed when you merged - the driver was driving consistently, smoothly, and fine. if he had to brake *whatsoever* due to you 'cutting him off', then you needlessly put your life in danger due to the unavoidable Newtonian physics of a 50,000 lb vehicle and the unavoidable limits of technology/brake-reliability.
as for bigrig drivers "enjoying" holding up cars, that's only true when the cars are being driven by obviously inconsiderate ^#@$*. Been there done that! Decades ago, 3 bigrigs blocked me in for 50 miles on the NY thruway, blocking me from passing or taking exits, while allowing other cars to pass or exit. Their skill/cooperation level was impressive - they did it with ease. I deserved it!
fushigi, apparently the 'distracted driving' laws are totally insufficient for cops to detain/cite texters or other handheld device users. the new laws allows cops to detain anyone reasonably suspect of texting, even if the cops don't see the phone first. the texting behavior is *obvious* even without seeing the phone. turns out plenty texters are also driving while impaired. hey, also, that "spot the expired plates" game sounds pretty cool! A buddy at work has been driving on expired plates for a couple years, so far. In california you don't need plates at all, you can drive on the dealer-advertising-plates for years if you do it right. also you don't need to buy insurance in california, as long as you put up an $80k escrow bond with the state to cover your risk. The rich folks in Cali never need to register or insure their $100k cars, if they just pony up for new cars and the escrow bond.
speaking of games, i'm thinking of establishing a pool on when mine & Andres3's next traffic citation will happen. everyone picks a date in the next year, and whoever is closest without going over, wins half of the money. separate pool for me and A3. detention/written-warning wouldn't count - only citations.
then if me and A3 go an entire year without a citation, all the money goes to charity.
Would you agree, Fin?
In the US speed limits are set low enough to make it easy to generate revenue via ill gotten gains, rather than setting them at the safest and most efficient possible number.
That was last year's ticket; no tickets so far in 2015; though I was ineligible for traffic school since I went within the last 18 months.
In other States signage may vary, but in CA the highways are littered with "Slower Traffic Keep Right" Black and White Signs. They are black and white for a reason, as that means it is law, and not advisory as Yellow and black signs would indicate.
If you look in your rear-view mirror and someone behind you is gaining on you and catching up to you, then by definition they are "Faster" and you are "Slower!" That means you must yield to the faster traffic by moving right, since you are slower, and they are faster. This is all that is required, and is not subject to interpretation or looking at one's speedometer, as all that matters is relative speed to one another.
Just move over. Nothing more should need to be said.
The speed limit is indeed the speed limit, but slower traffic shall still keep right to faster traffic. Two wrongs don't make a right; remember that from elementary school myself.