Who me? I don’t know. Sometmes it’s easier to generalize a little to make your point. I mean, really - who has time to write a whole Manifesto?
I got a ticket for doing this. The citation was “Failure to dim headlights.”
I’m confident I could have beat the ticket in court, but the citation carries no insurance points in my state so I couldn’t be bothered.
I live on a street that is 25mph for no good reason, and also quite hilly. Cops will hide and point their radar at the bottom of a steep hill so they can catch you going 10 over. Really infuriating, but I have finally got used to riding the brake down every hill on this street.
And before anyone asks - if some dick was driving 90 in a residential 35, I would not be inclined to flash. I think on the highway, though, where most everyone is going 10 to 20 over the speed limit, then yes.
If you think that makes me a hypocrite, more power to you.
Amen, brother!
I second Shagnasty’s entire post. For those who say fuck the other guy, guess what, you’re the other guy. Tell my friend Karma hi when you get a ticket (and you will).
There has been a marked decline in people who flash their lights. I don’t know if it’s because it has faded from social memory or there really are more people on the road with a “fuck the other guy” attitude. If that’s the case than it is it’s own social commentary.
Since that statute applies to the use of high beams, I suppose one could always turn their low beams on and off a couple of times to provide the warning and not run afoul of the statute - it does not specify that low beams may not be used as a signal to other drivers.
The fact is, the flashing is intended to cause the other driver to slow down – to stop breaking the law. If they disregard the signal and continue speeding, they’ll still be penalized for violating the speed limit.
It’s almost as if the police have a vested interest in getting people to slow down their way (by writing them an expensive ticket) rather than having someone else warn them to slow down before the police have a chance to bust them. Hmmm…
Yes, that’s where I was going. It falls in the same category as putting a coin in an expired parking meter. Is the meter there to charge for the space or is it there as a trap for a ticket that is 100 times the amount? I like being the little guy who helps out the little guy.
Really? What is the last one?
Per the question,
I don’t. I don’t see the upside for me to stick my neck out. I used to when it was more common since I’ve benefitted from someone else doing it to me. But, I rarely see it anymore, so it’s become a potentially high cost vs. a nonexistent benefit.
I just never thought of doing this for speed traps, but will from now on.
Don’t hold back now. You’ll get ulcers.
Tell us how you really feel.
(and, ftr, I agree with you 100%)
See post 40. Speaking for myself, at least, I save it for when it matters.
A few hours ago, I saw a temporary sign placed in the middle of a downtown city street, just before a stop sign, that said, “Police radar ahead”. I couldn’t see anything like it ahead, but turned off before going very far, so maybe it meant far ahead.
Strange. Why would the police be so anxious to warn people?
I always do, when the opportunity presents itself. I figure police are being paid to police, not sit at the side of a road and collect fines from people. Yes, traffic enforcement is policing, but I have an issue with hidden police cars just over the hill, or 'round the bend waiting patiently for some normally law-abiding tax payer to come into range, and then get nailed with a $200 fine.
Radar detectors are illegal in Ontario. So, you want to ban electronic counterespionage we’ll revert to the old fashioned way, thankyouverymuch.
There was a court case here recently (can’t find link) but the driver won in court. No where in our laws does it specifically ban drivers from warning others about impending speed traps. Or so the judge ruled.
I come from a slightly different perspective. My grandfather and mother were both in law enforcement. My grandfather was a prison guard and later a sheriff’s deputy; my mother was a sheriff’s deputy (transportation and bailiff) and later a clerk of court. What started out as the “fight the good fight,” in both of their careers became, “keep yourself clean, do the right thing, because the corruption is all around you.”
My mother would tell me about the MILLIONS of dollars generated in the county where I live by tons of tickets given. (Incidentally, there are more law enforcement officers here than you could imagine.) The tickets are, quite honestly, easy money. It is easier to give Mrs. Greenwalsh a ticket for her doing five miles over the speed limit on the highway than it is to go after drug dealers, or corruption in your own department.
We have so many laws, you are right, Winston, everyone is a criminal. And yet law enforcement fails to go after the tough criminals. We here are innundated with gangs, but where are the officers? Out on the road running “license checks,” while gangs meet in parking lots to kill one another or even do some B and Es. (Breaking and Entering)
How about this: my mother flashes her lights! She is a retired law enforcement officer and said that she witnessed so many poor people exploited in the courts. Because the wealthy are able to, in most cases, pay their way out of a ticket. But I just got off the phone with her and she said, “I absolutely flash my lights. I don’t want those folks taken advantage of.”
So, YES, I flash my lights. I will continue to do so, because people have kept me from getting tickets (there are speedtraps here on the highways that have the speed limit go from 55 to 35 in less than half a mile.) and the way I figure it, we are all in this together.
But, like others on the board, if someone is going 90 in a 55, that is one thing. However, here you get a ticket for five miles over. And most of us don’t have the $300 to pay in fines and court costs.
Yeah, I’ll do it although I don’t seem to go by too many places where speed traps are effective. Most of my commute is on divided highways, and flashing lights there means “pull over and let me go by”.
Many years ago on a trip north to New Hampshire I was on a divided highway with an “S” curve. As I rounded one curve, I saw that there was a State Police car in the median strip with a radar gun aimed at the southbound lane. As soon as I passed him I flashed the high beams. I then rounded the curve in the other direction to look directly at State Police cars lined up on the shoulder. I was pulled over, made to wait for about 15 minutes until an officer asked me if the equipment on my car was defective, because that would require my car being towed to the nearest service station for a full safety check. I was eventually allowed to leave, but now I always check for the “double” speed trap before using the high beams.
Most likely, it was a good police department, more interested in getting people to slow down than writing them tickets.
Lest anybody misinterpret my aversion to the light-flashing thing, I don’t like speed traps and don’t have any objections to warnings like the old CD crowd used to do. One of my favorite (true, I think) stories was about the two enterprising kids who set up along a highway. The first one set up around a corner before the speed trap. He held a sign that said “Speed Trap Ahead.” The second was around a corner after the speed trap. He had a bucket and a sign that said “Tips welcome.”
I just don’t like the flashing lights for speed traps because it detracts from using them for serious warnings, like a car wreck around the corner or an animal in the road – something that poses an immediate threat to safety.
Yes, but only once I’m out of sight of the police officer.
I defiantly do it. I drove 100 mi of rural highway every day for most of the last year and a half. I’m in the 5 over crowd. I think its a way of being friendly to your neighbors. I don’t do it however if I’m not the first car in line because then I’m being a dick to the guy in front of me. I’d never heard of it being illegal before and I flashed as soon as I was passed the cop. I did have a passenger question me about whether I was afraid of a gang member taking it as a signal for a drive by so now I don’t flash at speed traps in town just those on the highway. As to the diluting the meaning of the flash I don’t buy it. There aren’t enough speed traps on the highways either around my new home or my old one that you would become complacent and not slow down. Whether it is a speed trap or a deer in the road does it matter the signal still means slow down so either way it is effective.
Hey thanks I’d never head that before I just flashed when I was on my bike as well. Ignorance fought.
I did it for about a year when I first started driving, then stopped.
As of today, I’m starting again.