I was driving in the left lane (going the speed of the traffic) and a guy came rushing up behind me, went to the right lane, and then cut back in front of me at a dangerous distance from me and the other car in the right lane. The car that was in the right-lane was an unmarked police car. The lights came on and he was pulled over immediately. AWWWW-riiiiight.
In Illinois at least, they can give tickets for driving in the passing lane.
I think this one wins the thread.
Ah, yes. That’s actually illegal in NY, as well, technically.
Mine just happened a couple of months ago and it was a dream come true. Every day I get on the freeway after work on a ramp with two lanes (one lane is a car pool lane) and lights, and every day there are 5-10 jackasses who feel that they can use the carpool lane even thought they have no passengers. One fine day as I get to the front of the line I notice there are about 4 cars pulled over with a cop talking to one of the cars. Right before it’s my turn one of these jerks pulls up to the light in the car pool lane and the cops pull him over. My in car celebration was such that it gets the cops attention and he gives me a dirty look, but I was in heaven. I bet it took forever to give out the tickets because the offenders just kept on coming. 
Hijack in process (or maybe it’s a carjack, eh?)
Colorado recently passed that law, too, calling it the “Road Rage Law.” My first thought was, “Great, this is gonna’ have a BIG effect on road rage!” And in fact, it has. I drive I-76 twice a week, and I’m surprised at how much smoother the traffic flow has been since that law went into effect.
End of hijack.
My husband drives a really good looking TransAm. He drives it like an old woman, but that’s just his style. So a carload of kids in a really fast machine pull up next to us at a light and give us the Rvvvvvvvvv RRRRRVVVVVVVVV. The light changes, they take off like a bat outta hell and we proceed at our usual grandmotherly pace. They flew right past a cop who turned on his lights immediately and busted their fast asses. It was pretty damn funny.
I was once in a checkout lane with my friend. The person ahead of us was trying to use a stolen credit card.l When the clerk told him “This card has been reported stolen,” he turned to run. My friend tripped him and put a gun to his head, saying “Police.”
My friend was a police detective, and it was not the crook’s day.
(waves a $50 a Tomcat)
That was beautiful. Potentially painful, but beautiful.
Offhand, I can think of two places around here that are routinely staked out by cops in marked patrol cars, watching for specific traffic violations. One of these is an intersection with several signs in place stating “right lane must turn right at signal from 6:30 to 9:00 am” or words to that effect; during this time, the left lane is also allowed to turn right or continue straight. There are enough clueless drivers who continue straight in the right lane during those hours that the county police are there at least once a month. The other location is an intersection near a highway onramp which is extremely busy during the morning rush.
This doesn’t have anything to do with either of those. I used to work in a building that was at the corner of a two-way street and a one-way street. The one way is three lanes northbound, makes a 90° turn, and becomes a three-lane two-way (two west and one east). I was walking back from lunch when I saw this car tooling along in the center lane, probably a bit over the 30 mph limit, when a sedan in the right lane–which ends at the turn–goes around and pulls in front of the first car. The driver of the first car decides he doesn’t want to be slowed down by this sedan so he guns it and shoots into the left lane. Whereupon the sedan lights up, revealing its nature as an unmarked car. I’m sure the driver got busted for at least speeding and that unsafe lane change.
Okay, time for a story from one of those idiots. Me, I mean.
Early 90s. My family had a cottage on the Delaware shore. Every Friday during the summer there is a huge influx of Marylanders and DCers who head down for some sun and fun for the weekend. Myself included. At the time, there were few arteries leading to the shore towns. These are small, 2 lane country roads (one lane each way). The local police officers found they could pad their city coffers by preying on the idiots that just couldn’t drive 55 and had to get to the beach 15 minutes faster than if they had just gone the speed limit.
So… small country roads, lots of cars, speed traps. I’m driving down the road at about 60-75 mph in a 55 mph zone. Lots of cars, so the average speed is 45-50 mph. I’m tailgating cars. Passing them on the double yellow lines. Passing 4 or 5 cars at a time, giving dirty looks to the drivers as I pass. In short, I was being a real first rate asshole.
Finally, I pass a pack of cars. Smooth sailing for a few miles until I come up to the next batch of cars. I speed around a gentle curve, and see the cops two seconds after they see me. They pull me over.
And everyone that I had passed, tailgated, and given dirty looks to for the last hour, passes me by. Many of them smiling. And pointing. And laughing. At the time, it certainly felt like the cops were dragging out the experience, so as many cars as possible could get ahead of me. I’m sitting there getting angrier and angrier at the injustice of it all. Yes, I was speeding. Yes I was driving “dangerously” But this punitive punishment was too severe for one such as I. Finally, I get the ticket and leave.
I decide I’m not gonna let that stop me from driving MY WAY. I’m speeding down the road again. Not 5 miles later… I get pulled over again. Luckily I hadn’t passed anyone in the intervening 3 minutes, so I was spared that humiliation.
Gas consumed from constantly flooring the accelerator: $15
Two tickets in 5 minutes: ~$300
Giving people stories to tell, and refusing to learn a lesson: priceless.
First one was a rolling heap of spare parts, spewing black smoke ahead of me. We come to a stoplight, and a cop car pulls up behind the car. The light turns green, the heap goes forward in a cloud of black smoke, the lights and sirens come on. At least, I think the lights did, I couldn’t quite see the cop car through the smoke.
Second one was the last light on the edge of town. It’s two lanes, with two marked left turning lanes, not arrow controlled. People frequently used the left turn lane as a passing lane. This time I was about the fourth car at the stoplight, when a woman comes barreling up behind me. The light’s just turned green, so she flies up into the left turn lane and pulls ahead of the first car just moving into the intersection. Out of nowhere comes a CHP motorcycle officer. Those of us in the other cars laughed and pointed when we passed her a minute later.
Back when Rt.18 was under construction, it was a long trip through construction to get from the RAC to Rt18 southbound. I was in a tiny hatchback. I noticed a Corvette gunning his engine and flashing his lights right behind me. (Hey, where am I gonna go, buddy? Up? :mad: ) Then he starts tailgating and horn-honking, alternating between them as he revved his engine. He did this all the way down College Avenue to the (then) left turn past the seminary building. I was at the George Street light (red) about to go down the (what was then a down ramp, I know it’s now an up ramp) ramp and I was tired of this guy on my tail. So at the green light, I gave that little Datsun every ounce of gas she had…and I left him in dust as I flew down hill on the on that ramp.
Now Mr. Corvette, he felt No one should ever drive faster than him, so he gunned his machine after me. I stayed in the slow lane and he flew into the fast lane of Rt 18 and he passed me doing severe triple digits of mph speed. Me, I took my car out of gear and coasted to the next right turn, where I saw a New Brunswick cop put on his lights and fly around the corner after Mr. Corvette down Rt. 18 South.
Near as I can tell, any day you can contribute to giving a Corvette a ticket is a Good day. 
I recently told that story to a managment coach and he told me it was a clear example of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) use. I dunno bought that, I was just messing with the guy!
-Tcat
Years ago I was standing outside a downtown nightclub. In front of the club is traffic light on a major street, so every Fridday and Saturday night people in cool cars would cruise the strip, blasting their stereos, etc.
Anyway, I was standing outside, and a souped-up Mustang pulled-up to the lights, his music was pounding, he looks over and revs his engine up. Then a few onlookers start encouraging him, so he really rev’s the engine up. So the light goes green and he just mats it, he ends up laying a huge patch and zooms through the green light.
Little did he know, right behind him was police ghost car. We watched the cop calmly reach down, flick on his lights and proceed to pull the yahoo over.
I think the funny part were most of the onlookers encouraging this guy saw the cop behind him!
Good times…
MtM
I was driving up a 3-lane one-way street the other day and was surprised (to say the least) to see an SUV heading straight for me at considerable speed. There were quite a few more cars about a block behind me. I honked long and loud and the SUV driver considerately moved a lane over :rolleyes: . I stopped dead, stared, gesticulated and honked more and she switched her phone to her other ear so she could flip me off!! I am not kidding! I looked in my rear view mirror in time to see flashing lights turned on a few cars back. Life is sweet sometimes .
This may be more of an “I got lucky” story, but I got some satisfaction out of seeing a driver get popped for doing something that had irritated me for years: turning right while staring at oncoming traffic from the left, never looking to the right.
The reason I say “I got lucky” was that I had just jaywalked across my town’s main street. I was leaving a store and my next stop was a restaurant about a block and a half north and on the other side of the street. There are no crosswalks between the store and the restaurant, so the only way to walk across the street legally is to walk about 100 yards south to the intersection and then back north. I figured I’d save time and steps and cross the street from where I was. Looking both ways, I saw I had more than enough room to cross safely — traffic in both directions was light and far away. So I trotted across the street and started walking north.
That’s when I saw that the nearest oncoming car was a city police car. The officer flipped on his right turn signal as if to pull into the parking lot driveway I was approaching. I figured, “Uh-oh, he’s gonna yell at me for jaywalking.”
And that’s when the pickup truck pulled out of that same driveway, right smack in front of me, stopped across the sidewalk, and then turned right, driver never looking in my direction.
The cop’s turn signal turned off and his red & blues came on, and I turned and watched him follow the pickup around the corner at the intersection. I let out my breath, shrugged, and continued on my way.
A few moments later I became concerned again when I spotted that same pickup truck driving toward me in the next parking lot :eek: But there was no cause for worry, it turned out. The very embarrassed-looking driver stopped beside me and profusely apologized for nearly running me down
Sometimes I wonder about drivers, some people drive so dangerouslly when only saving a few minutes. I admit I’m a fast driver, I have a really bad lead foot. However these people’s driving bothers me as much as you.
But to add my story, which was also a close call (due to my lead foot).
I was driving down I-20 right outside Atlanta, where there are 3 lanes, traffic was medium, not too heavy. There were some cars in the right 2 lanes, so I was in the left most lane passing them at my normal clip of 85mph. I looked into my rear view mirror and saw a car comming up somewhat fast behind me, so as soon as I finished passing the cars to my right, I signalled and moved over. As soon as I moved over (still going 85), the car passed me very quickly, probably going at least 100mph.
As soon as I changed lanes, I noticed a cop sitting on the side of the road by the exit to Hwy 138, he drove out and pulled the guy over. I’m glad I’m the type who signals and changes lanes, otherwise the cop might have pulled me over.
I was on a 4 lane state highway, speed limit 55, I was doing about 58, slowly catching up to a line of 5 cars doing the speed limit in the right lane. Just as I reached the rear bumper of the last car in the line, he decided that he was tired of doing the speed limit and swerved into the left lane, cutting me off. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him and he just zoomed by the rest of the line.
Right after he got past the first car in line, it lit up with flashing blues and reds, it was an unmarked state trooper. We all stayed at 55 until past the impatient driver and the trooper at the side fo the road, then the line sped up to over 60.
Ha! That almost happened to me one time, except I managed to stop just before hitting the curb.
In my defense, I was driving in a town I’d never been through before, it was night, and it was raining.
Scared the crap out of my passenger. 