When I was living in San Jose, Palo Alto was (in)famous for having speed limits at least five miles per hour lower than the surrounding areas. When I would drive in PA I would amuse myself by . . . driving at the posted speed limit. Hey, if they want to drive faster, let 'em talk to their city council.
The road from US 101 to downtown was particularly egregious. It was about two miles from the exit to downtown and, being residential, was 25mph the whole way. One night about 10pm I left a movie theater I liked to go to and was tooling down that road at the speed limit with a guy riding my bumper for about half the distance. Finally, he cuts left over the double yellow and jams the throttle to get ahead of me, right in front of a dark cop car on a side street. The cop car explodes into life – scared the hell out of me and I wasn’t even the target – and nailed the guy in less than 200 yards. I passed on by, at 25 mph.
When witnessing an accident, give the party who you think is not at fault your biz card.
I have done this 5 times in my life…and EVERY TIME I have gotten a call from an attorney where the guilty party was lying about something and my information probably helped (I only heard back once from a woman who said my info helped quite a bit).
After the first time, I never waited for the cops. The one time he just seemed irritated I was there.
In the Minneapolis area, signaling means you will be cut off. I have experimented with this. If you signal, a large % of the people will accelerate to cut you off. So, around here, you signal AS you are changing lanes, not before.
Hell, even a head turn many times provokes this acceleration. I kid you not. You need to do a VERY quick head turn/look and then immediately lane change.
That’s crazy shit to me. I guess it’s time to turn into Machine Gun Joe Viterbo and blast those bastards. (Aside for one of the great movie lines of all time about Machine Gun Joe: “Loved by thousands, hated by millions!”)
More seriously, a goal of mine is to drive so I have a cushion around me (not possible in traffic jams, of course, but at speed it usually is). So if someone wants to cut me off, and I can do it safely, I let the bastard have the space. It’s easier to keep my eye on him/her, and I get where I’m going in one piece. In other words, I try to stay as far away from the crazy/stupid people as I safely can.
What’s funny is that I have lived in several areas of the county…including Los Angeles for a bit…and they look at me as crazy (local Minnesotans) when I tell them the drivers of LA were much more civilized and polite.
The Minneapolis area has been the worst for driving assholes from my experience. However, there are vast tracks of the country I haven’t lived in
In the case of a non-injury accident, (where it does not appear the other dude is drunk etc) there’s no need to “file a police report”. The police are here to work on crimes, not civil matters. Yes, maybe the other dude does give you false ID- so? Your insurance co just pays off as a uninsured driver. You are not out anything. Now, of course, there’s no reason to screw your insurance co, so getting License numbers (both tag and driver) and perhaps even a witness is a Good Thing.
Also- when you get into a fender bender- pull off the damn road! Do not block the highway unless there’s a injury or a vehicle is inoperable. It’s dangerous to you and every other driver on th eroad. Many accidents are cuased by this.
I got stuck behind this particular brand of moron in the afternoon peak hour on Monday. He forgot/missed/didn’t know/didn’t care that he needed to get into the left lane to take the off ramp. Rather than going ahead about 500 metres, he blocked the whole middle lane for about 20 minutes.
The main problem I see is that most of the drivers on the road consider that they are the sole reason we make cars, build road, sell gasoline. It is all purely for their convenience and they deign to let someone else use the roads if the don’t happen to need it at the moment. If they need to turn left and are in the right lane, whoever dares to take up the left lane had better know to get the fuck out of the way. If they missed their corner, all and sundry must stop immediately and clear a path so they can perform a 99 point U turn in the middle of the street.
They just recently reconfigured an intersection in North Las Vegas where North Las Vegas Blvd bounces* off of 2 other roads. They kinda of made a roundabout. But with traffic lights everywhere a path might cross. They have signs over all of the lanes saying which new road you will end up on if you follow it through. Yet a coworker tells me that every time she goes through after work, someone will swerve into her lane at the last possible moment before the lanes split to go their different ways. I’ve had to swerve around a semi performing the same exact maneuver. And if I were to let the collision occur, I know what their response would be to my query, “What the fuck are you doing?” “I had by blinker on, you should have moved out of my way.”
No. Your blinker is an indication of what you would like to do. You may not proceed with that action until it is safe. If I am using that portion of road, it wasn’t safe. Either speed up to an open section of road, slow down (if it is safe to do so), or take the wrong turn and find a different route. Your turn signal may be a flashing yellow light, but that does not make it a yield sign.
As far as i am concerned, my road taxes buys my the stretch of road from my rear bumper forward to the safe stopping distance as measured from my front bumper. You may use it after I am finished with it.
Yes, bounces. It is an angled intersection where the road to the NorthEast and the South are both North Las Vegas Blvd and the road to the SouthWest is Main Street and the road north is North Fifth Street.
I’d be careful with making blanket statements like this. I’m sure it varies with the jurisdiction.
For example, in Alberta you are required to call the police to attend the accident scene for any car accident with serious injuries, if one of the drivers doesn’t have their license/registration/insurance with them, if you suspect the driver is impaired, or if one or more vehicle isn’t driveable. Also, any accident that results in combined damage to both vehicles of more than $2000 requires both drivers to attend a police station to file a report.
I’d imagine if you have trouble getting the other driver to wait for the police to arrive to file a report, it would be even more difficult to convince them to go to the police station with you.
You are correct, I am mainly talking CA. But yes, in those cases: for any car accident with serious injuries, if one of the drivers doesn’t have their license/registration/insurance with them, if you suspect the driver is impaired, or if one or more vehicle isn’t driveable you often do need to call the cops. I did mention “non-injury” and “not drunk” and later I mentioned “Fender bender” and inoperable vehicle". Of course, if they fail to ID themselves, you have no choice but to call the Cops.
In Oregon, you must file a report if the damage is above the specified amount. (I don’t recall the amount of damage needed to file, it’s actually a pretty low number.) This can be done through the DMV–no need to go to the police station.
Yes, I know you mentioned “non-injury” and “not drunk” and “inoperable vehicle.” I was giving the complete definition for Alberta, even the parts that agreed with what you were saying.
However, you also said that:
In my jurisdiction, you still have to file a police report even if it is a non-injury, non-drunk driving, non-inoperable vehicle situation. If the combined damage is $2000, we have to file a report at the police station - this would seem to fit within what you describe as a “civil matter”. These days, it seems like it’s pretty easy to have that much damage - even less serious collisions can cause quite a bit of damage.
In CA, and in many states, the Report you have to file is with the DMV, not the Police, and your Insurance co usually does it for you. But in either case, you don’t need to call the police. Often the report can be done on-line.
