# Police Pulling Over Cars With Families In Them **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 15, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080 "2023-05-15T14:00:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2023, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/61 "2023-05-30T02:51:45Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > When I was driving in Los Angeles some years ago, I thought the drivers were very courteous. I regularly saw a driver pause to let someone else in, but if the other driver didn’t take advantage of the gap right away, the first driver would speed up and close the gap. As you say, a dance, and if you watched and learnt the steps, it was quite pleasant. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I grew up in Los Angeles. As greater LA has gotten more and more crowded, the legendary patience and courtesy of 1970s LA driving has given way to a rather more aggressive style. You’ll still be offered a gap … usually. But you have exactly 6 milliseconds to take it. After that if you snooze you lose I’ve only been to LA once, and maybe I caught the city on a good few days, but the driving there wasn’t at all bad. Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio / Austin (for traffic purposes it’s one big city connected by an especially nasty section of I-35) are all a lot worse. LA was about as challenging as my hometown of Corpus Christi. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/62 "2023-05-31T05:53:54Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, I don’t get Wisconsonites on that. If they think Illinois drivers are bad (and some sure are), they haven’t left the Midwest. I find it positively polite and serene compares to, I dunno, Boston, Philly, Southern California, Houston, I have driven in all 50 states and every major city except San Diego. While I agree they all have their share of rude, aggressive drivers, I found the density of traffic itself to be more of a factor there than the bad driving alone. What you need to take into account is that I live and work in southeastern Wisconsin. So 90% or more of the “out of state” drivers I observe and pull over are from Illinois. Also, I find myself down in the flatlands at least twice a month and observed them on their own turf. I don’t even know if the ISP enforces speed limits. I’ve never seen them do it. I mean it. In 62 years of life I have never seen a speed set up on an Illinois freeway. Wisconsin is not a member of the National Drivers License Compact. So many times an Ill-annoy driver won’t have a cite show up on their record. No demerit points, no insurance premium increase. Just pay the fine and it’s done. Good incentive to drive like a nut. Can’t tell you how many of them have this shocked look on their face when they get pulled over going 68 in a 55. (I don’t have a 70 zone in my jurisdiction). ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/63 "2023-05-31T07:04:25Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > a dance, and if you watched and learnt the steps, I have driven motorbikes in India and Indonesia, which have similar traffic styles. As you say, it is a dance… but more of a crowded rave party type dance. Totally scary but incredibly fluid. A friend who rode a motorbike in Laos was told, firmly, do not use the rear view mirrors, concentrate on what is ahead, the guys behind will manage themselves. Though, I think this is getting off topic… I once got stopped in notoriously corrupt Zimbabwe with my 1 year old daughter in her car seat. I was speeding, but not by too much, about 10km/h over the limit. The policeman saw my out of country plates and certainly imagined a big bribe… but when he saw my tiny daughter he was much, much softer, and let me off with a cheery wave… not even a warning. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/64 "2023-05-31T12:05:08Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Can’t tell you how many of them have this shocked look on their face when they get pulled over going 68 in a 55. (I don’t have a 70 zone in my jurisdiction). I believe your experience, but it does surprise me, as all the times I’ve been pulled over and gotten tickets or warnings in Illinois (almost always the former), it’s been for speeds less than 15 mph over the limit on a highway. I was taught not to exceed 10% over the speed limit. (When there’s no cops about, though, traffic as a whole can fly up to 90 mph if it’s clear, as you know.) I’ve never much worried about my speed in Wisconsin. Never got a ticket there and it’s my most-visited state. Ohio, on the other hand, I have to make sure I set the cruise or I’ll get pulled over in a second. That said, all those tickets were from about a decade to two decades ago. It does feel like while I do see cops and pulled over vehicles here in Illinois, it’s not quite as common as before. I wonder if the numbers bear this out, though. I can’t imagine any state passing up revenue like that. The best thing about driving in Wisconsin is that, for the most part, the drivers have a Germanic sense of lane discipline. Like they actually will use only the right lane in a two-lane-in-each-direction highway except to pass. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/65 "2023-05-31T18:01:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > The best thing about driving in Wisconsin is that, for the most part, the drivers have a Germanic sense of lane discipline. Like they actually will use only the right lane in a two-lane-in-each-direction highway except to pass. That drives me nuts. There’s this wide open left lane, but every time the cars approach an entrance ramp, every one of them needs to pull into the left to let drivers in, and then every one of them goes back to the right, blocking access. If they spread out over both lanes, or heck, traveled in the left, the right lane would have enough room for cars wanting to enter and exit the highway. They do this even when there are 3 lanes, and they could travel in the middle and leave the leftmost lane open for passing. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/66 "2023-05-31T18:31:36Z")
Weird. Never noticed any issue like that. And it’s standard driving discipline in much of Europe and I feel far more predictable and stress-free than the free-for-all lanes are here in the US, where some jackass always wants to park their ass in the left lane at the speed limit (or, worse, below) and refuses to move. And I hate people passing me on the right. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/67 "2023-05-31T18:50:29Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > They do this even when there are 3 lanes, and they could travel in the middle and leave the leftmost lane open for passing. It’s a complex problem. Move right except to pass, except that the right lane is varying speed because cars don’t know how to merge properly… I’ve had people scold me on _this_ board because I talked about cruising in the center lane, “get to the right!” My thought is in that situation, with exits and entrances, the center lane is the proper through lane (unless passing). Here I’ve got a much trickier stretch of freeway. The left lane is an HOV lane now, but it will be the left lane in one mile. That means the center lane is the “real” left lane, so drive in the right lane? Except the right lane is going to exit in two miles… ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/68 "2023-05-31T19:54:06Z")
Lotta edge effects one we get lanes beginning and ending. Not really fair to tar the steady state cruising scenario with that brush. Whether there are 2, 3, or 10 lanes, “slower traffic keep right” would be all the rule we needed if only _all_ drivers would follow it. And if all entrance and exit lanes were long enough that speeds could equilibrate _before_ people needed to merge because they’re running out of lane or needed to slow in a through lane to make the exit cornering maneuver safely. “Keep right except to pass” is the dumbed-down and two-lanes-assumed version of “slower traffic keep right”. And by providing an easy enforcement criteria for the highway patrol, it make it more practical for them to slowly, ever so slowly, teach everyone what “Keep right except to pass” means. Of course it doesn’t help that in the USA we have 50 sets of road laws. I lived my first 30 years before I saw my first “Keep right except to pass” sign. Which I assumed just was a weird way to say “slower traffic keep right”. A nice highway patrolman disabused me of _that_ silly notion within my first 3 months in that benighted state. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/69 "2023-05-31T20:02:15Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > When I was driving in Los Angeles some years ago, I thought the drivers were very courteous. I regularly saw a driver pause to let someone else in, but if the other driver didn’t take advantage of the gap right away, the first driver would speed up and close the gap. As you say, a dance, and if you watched and learnt the steps, it was quite pleasant. Damn right! > [@LSLGuy](#): > > And if all entrance and exit lanes were long enough that speeds could equilibrate _before_ people needed to merge because they’re running out of lane or needed to slow in a through lane to make the exit cornering maneuver safely. Yeah, ever try getting on the Arroyo Seco Pkwy in South Pas? A real skill. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I lived my first 30 years before I saw my first “Keep right except to pass” sign. Which I assumed just was a weird way to say “slower traffic keep right” Me, too. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/70 "2023-05-31T20:17:56Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Yeah, ever try getting on the Arroyo Seco Pkwy in South Pas? A real skill. Not since 1981. But I knew exactly where you’re talking about. I _love_ the old Pasadena freeway and the other “fun” much-too-short ramps in/around downtown from the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/71 "2023-05-31T20:27:50Z")
Yeah. Those curves are so much _fun_. I always liked it with at least a few cars to slalom around. I had a bf in the area during the 70s and 80s, so I spent a lot of hours on that stretch. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/72 "2023-05-31T21:07:11Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Wisconsin is not a member of the National Drivers License Compact. The issue with the National Drivers License Compact is that if they tell your home state you have an outstanding ticket, you have no effective way to fight it. Errors occur, and about all you can do is pay up. Overall it is a good idea, but there are issues. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/73 "2023-05-31T21:44:06Z")
I’m not sure what you mean - as far as I know you can fight the ticket just like a resident of the state where you got the ticket. . It might be inconvenient , but it can be inconvenient to fight a ticket within your home state as well - I can drive to at least parts of eight other states in less time than it takes to drive across my state. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/74 "2023-05-31T22:02:58Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > if all entrance and exit lanes were long enough that speeds could equilibrate _before_ people needed to merge If only, but people would still find a way to cause problems. On my commute home there are _two_ entrances where each have a mile long merge lane. People still insist on moving into the rightmost through lane immediately, often crossing a solid white line to do so. That causes drivers in the through lane to have to slowdown, which backs up everything. The next possible thing to the left is the HOV entrance which is 4000 feet away for one 3500 feet away for the other. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/75 "2023-06-01T11:08:22Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > It’s a complex problem. Move right except to pass, except that the right lane is varying speed because cars don’t know how to merge properly… And then there are roads like Philadelphia’s Schuykill (pronounced Sure Kill) Expressway. Everyone is driving insanely fast and exits pop up with little warning; sometimes exiting from the right and sometimes from the left. I remember situations where I had to enter the expressway on the right, merge, then exit a short distance later on the left. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/76 "2023-06-01T11:49:22Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > On third shift they give us night vision goggles so we can pick out non-white drivers and make up some excuse to pull them over while intoxicated Caucasians weave past us. > > 🙄 Black drivers are less likely to be pulled over when it’s harder to see who is driving due to darkness, but other factors (e.g., time) are held. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0858-1](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0858-1) No doubt due to the lack of night vision goggles in other states. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/77 "2023-06-01T12:02:04Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > i do about 2% of my driving in Az and NV, I have gotten 80% of my tickets there. Wow! It’s nothing but wide open desert, isn’t it? Wasn’t there a time when many of those miles were “cruise at your own leisure”? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/78 "2023-06-01T20:38:56Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I’m not sure what you mean - as far as I know you can fight the ticket just like a resident of the state where you got the ticket. Drive or fly across the county? Usually you have to file in person. Then you have to appear in person. Then, when the case if carried over, you have to stay another day or week. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/79 "2023-06-01T21:09:44Z")
Yes, but that’s not really any different from tickets in the same state - it depends on how far away from home you got the ticket, not whether you got the ticket on the other side of a state border. I live in NYC - it’s easier for me to fight a ticket in Jersey City ( about an hour’s drive) than it is to fight one in Buffalo (about 7 hours) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2023, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080/80 "2023-06-02T12:10:25Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Lotta edge effects one we get lanes beginning and ending. Not really fair to tar the steady state cruising scenario with that brush. > > Whether there are 2, 3, or 10 lanes, “slower traffic keep right” would be all the rule we needed if only _all_ drivers would follow it. And if all entrance and exit lanes were long enough that speeds could equilibrate _before_ people needed to merge because they’re running out of lane or needed to slow in a through lane to make the exit cornering maneuver safely. My perspective is based on learning to drive in a place where all the lanes need to be used to accommodate the traffic, and there are lots of entrances and exits to the interstates. You can’t dismiss sometimes as an edge effect if there’s always an edge, your have to consider that part of standard problem. So in my ideal, all major highways would have (at least) 3 lanes, and people who just want to cruise along would stay out of the right lane unless they have just entered the road or are preparing to exit it. And in the other lanes faster traffic would stay to the left. Of course, in my actual day-to-day driving, there’s one two-lane road where i stay to the right so i don’t get stuck behind cars trying to make a left-hand turn, and thus i break both my rules, cruising in the right hand lane and zipping past cars in the left. But that’s the real world. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-pulling-over-cars-with-families-in-them/984080.md?page=5)