My neighborhood strip-mall UPS store has red-curbed & singnaged No Parking, routinely ignored and blocking traffic. (Some even activate their hazard lights, as some legal fiction)
I think local governments should vend-out ticket books to the idle Karen class, who’d do what the cops are too busy to do. Imagine the effect on parking compliance when these women go hunting their percentage of levied fines for extra cash instead of reselling Chinese tchotchkes on Etsy.
I’m in Philly burbs and have seen an increase in assholish behavior over the last several years. All across the board in types. Running a light after it’s just turned red has almost become mandatory here. Everyone gets in those situations where you have a split second to decide if it’s better to stop or try to get through the light so you’re not slamming on your brakes and there have always been people trying to beat the light. Now, people just don’t care. The light will be obviously red for a second or two and they’ll still go through without a care in the world.
I chiefly blame lack of policing. Police here just don’t really do traffic tickets unless you piss them off. I’ve always wondered why we don’t have traffic cops because with the amount of law breaking I see, they should easily pay for themselves. Years ago my first responder FIL said that it was mostly due to changes in law that sent most of the revenue from tickets to the state so the police deprioritized doing traffic stops. I tried to look up where exactly ticket revenue goes and it looks like 16% of the fine gets split between county and municipality. The rest goes to various places like EMS, Court, Judicial computer access (?), state, etc.
This has been getting worse. It used to be just the commercial trucks but now when the #2 lane is 15mph slower than everyone else it could be a Kia Sorento, Mini Cooper, Chevy Silveryado, Subaru Crapmobile, Hyundai Shitcar 400.
Just move the fuck over to the slow lane!
But hey… I need to be in this lane because I’m making a left turn up ahead!
(5, 10 miles from now)
I was going to post in this thread but I’ve been stuck behind an asshole for the last year.
correct. This is the proper procedure. They should not be speeding up or slowing down to let you in. They should maintain speed and you can then either speed up or slow down slightly to merge in front or behind them.
Question: Does all this center lane constant speed hatred justify the double-the-speed-limit fly-bys and cut offs from the right lane? I’ve seen cars do this even when the left lane is empty.
Typically that happens when the left lane was clogged 4 or 5 cars back and so the speeder notices a clear shot to pass the whole pack in the right. You’re part of that pack even though there isn’t somebody in the left lane right adjacent to you or immediately ahead or behind.
The alternative from the speeder’s POV is they swerve from lar right to far left lane to fit between you and the car behind. That’s usually the more dangerous move and to be avoided.
Max passing with min lane-changing is the optimal way to avoid collisions. Given that I’m / you’re / they’re gonna be speeding past slowpokes anyhow.
And those eighth of a mile long turn lanes can sneak right up on you.
I guess I respect that. Still, the law of the land is… pass me on the left, all is good.
Pass me on the right cutting so dangerously close to my end that I have to hit my brakes… not good.
Also, and I know that I’m the only one annoyed by this, but when I see them swinging from left lane to right lane to left lane to right lane at 90+ MPH… well I’m of the opinion that They are the problem, not me.
Who’s talking about the center lane ? This was a discussion of merging from an on ramp to the slow lane
If any maneuvering driver makes somebody else touch their brakes, they screwed up. Although some people seem to think that any car entering their lane less than 1/4 mile in front of them constitutes being “cut off” and requires urgent braking. Even if said car is pulling away from them as it enters their lane.
Driving significantly faster than the rest of traffic is illegal, or at least piggish. No question there.
Around here, people moving to pass on the right is just as likely as someone moving to pass on the left. For example, If a car is going too slow in the center lane, and both the right and left lanes are clear, it’s 50/50 which lane a faster car in the center lane will move to.
If the faster car in the center lane decides to tailgate for a mile before moving to pass, then 100% they move to the right lane.
I used to choose a road trip over any other form of transportation.
(I would often pick seminars to attend based on “Can I get there in a day’s drive?”… while my coworkers were sitting in a long security line at O’Hare.)
But that was when I could set my cruise control for 7 mph over the limit, camp out in the middle lane, and relax. Now, with crazies riding my bumper before they fly past me at 90 in the right lane, it’s almost as stressful as a plane.
So, my last road trip… I took the train. Still peaceful…
(until some kid in a souped-up hand car bumps the caboose and tries to pass…)
This, 100%. Do not pull in front of me if it means I have to hit the binders. If you can’t time your entrance or lane change to not interfere with others, you don’t belong on the road.
Where 7 over the speed limit is less than the speed of everyone else, you belong, as a matter of law, in the slow lane. Move over.
If people are passing on your right, you’re too far to the left. It’s that simple. At least here in FL, that’s also in the vehicle code. Keep moving right until nobody is passing you there.
I drive the equivalent in South Africa, a Toyota D4D Raider truck (it is big but not “American truck” BIG) - which alongside BMW drivers have a really bad reputation for poor driving.
I try to make amends, but it is easier to note and remember an instance of arsehole behaviour than that one time some big truck driver allowed you to merge in heavy traffic. So some observer bias in play, I think.
I like this idea!
One of my pet peeves is going to a place like Starbucks and watching young healthy people use the handicapped spot near the door as their personal parking spot.
Sure, it’s illegal and there is a fine printed right on the sign, but unless someone in the store makes a complaint, I doubt anyone will ever be ticketed.
The blatant entitlement and arrogance annoys those of us who try to follow the rules.
So give busybodies a special ticket book that allows them to write tickets for handicapped spots (no HC hang tag or HC plate…you get a ticket).
In my area, I can be sitting at a red light, and some bozo will pass on the right.
I’ve also seen them swing into an empty left turn lane to blatantly, deliberately, run a red and continue straight ahead once they’re around the law-abiding who actually stopped for the red.
I live in a very entitled area. With no local shortage of Jersey ex-pats.
One thing I don’t see is folks abusing the handicapped spaces. Not even “just for a minute” as they run in to pickup something.
Now that you point out the phenomenon I’m sorta surprised I don’t see it more often.
I’ve seen that around here occasionally too. Pisses me right off.
Looking at the cars and drivers it seems to be gangsters and or folks wasted on uppers, not merely entitled “red lights are for little people” drivers.
I had that same thing happen a few years ago in another city. Car zooms past in the left turn lane and blows through the red light. They definitely could not have had time to look for, or stop or swerve if, anyone was crossing the other way. Fortunately nobody was.
Followed about 15 seconds later by a long string of police cars in hot pursuit. I did not see the finale of that play, but I sorta wished I could’ve.