Actually, I meant "with the lights off. So sorry. :o
In the town where I live, you cannot ride on the sidewalk unless it is a residential-only area. You can and will get a ticket for riding on the sidewalk in a business or mixed area.
In Cambridge, you can’t ride on the sidewalk at all.
So many offenses, I’d have to keep boxes of ticket pads in the trunk. I will need to achieve my goal of becoming Emperor of the World for some of these to be enforcable, but lookout when it happens.
- Drunk drivers. Shot when caught - there is never an acceptable excuse. Hope you had life insurance for your family.
- Tailgaters
- People who drive with obstructed views or lights. Any fool who wants to drive a car on snowy roads without first clearing the car will be walking wherever said fool needs to go.
- Non-signalers.
- Excessive speeders, where excessive speed is dependent on road conditions. Doing 85 on a moderately populated highway on a clear day…I’ll likely leave you alone. Doing 85 where you must weave through traffic, or on a rainy day…you can walk. Doing 85 where pedestrians are present…shot.
- Distracted drivers. If you want to watch porn on your LCD screen in your Road Hog, knock yourself out. Put don’t do it while rolling. And have some courtesy…at night, those things can be seen several car lengths back. Install the damn thing where others cannot see it, or if you must install it high, show some willpower and wait until you get home. (While I’m at it, enjoy porn privately in your own home or business establishments catering to the business. Playing it on your 60" TV so that anyone walking by can see and hear, and they will be given a commendation for taking an axe to the set. Keep it off of public transportation too.)
- SUVs, vans, and other large vehicles cannot park within 3 spaces of a corner. I like to be able to see if there is oncoming traffic before I venture into an intersection. (This is most likely a big, old city problem, like NYC or Boston, where there are narrow streets lined with parked cars).
That’s actully improper in California. Here, you’re expected and explicitly allowed to use any and all lanes of the road. There are simply too many cars on the road to arbitrarily reduce road capacity by 33 or 50%.
If you’ve over the age of 13, San Francisco bans bicycles from the sidewalks. And, in the absence of bicycle lanes, California law grants bicycles full use of the entire lane.
Red light runners deserve summary execution. No appeals, no waiting period.
I’m not asking you to. If you are driving slower than most traffic on the road, which you most likely are if you are going the speed limit, I am asking you to do so in the proper place, namely the right lane. Not doing so is illegal in at least some states, as others have pointed out.
Why do people who don’t go faster than the speed limit seem to think they have some holy obligation to make sure no one else does, either?
Oh yeah. I’ll nominate the Bay Area as the first place where you should do that. And something worse should happen to the ones who, when another driver stops before making a right on red, honk at them.
They should have told you to get off the sidewalk - bicyclists are supposed to ride on the road. In most countries and states it’s illegal to ride on the sidewalk. I might add that it’s extremely dangerous to ride a bicycle on the sidewalk because car drivers don’t notice anything on sidewalks, or anything coming out of a sidewalk and onto an intersection. And it’s dangerous for pedestrians.
It’s the careless drivers who make the roads dangerous for cyclists. I’m getting sick of drivers who pass bicycles with inches to spare, or try to pass bicycles where visibility is poor and they can’t be sure it’s safe to pass. I’d definitely ticket them.
Yeah, but you had it right. You wrote “without the lights on” so that’s exactly what you meant to say. I was the idiot that got confused and thought you meant with the lights on.
No, but I do have the right to expect you to move over. At least here in Virginia. Virginia traffic law states that if a car comes up behind you and flashes the lights, you must move over to let that car pass. You don’t have to speed up. You don’t have to cop a defensive or self-righteous attitude. But you do have to move over.
Actually, according to the Virginia statues that i was able to find online, the overtaking driver is meant to give an audible signal, not flash his or her lights.
It is also true that Virginia Law requires drivers to stay in the right lane whenever possible.
BUT…
It seems to me that Code of Virginia § 46.2-823 is also relevant to this discussion:
Make of that what you will.
Absolutely. But I’ll also ticket the bicyclists who:
[ul]
[li]Ride without lights at night[/li][li]Ignore stop signs or traffic lights[/li][li]Wear headphones while riding[/li][li]Ride with their hands off the handlebars. Do your stupid showing off on private property, not on the roads where it endangers others.[/li][/ul]
I would, of course, ticket car drivers for the same or equivalent offenses. Like this guy.
Oh, and I’d also ticket drivers (and bike riders) who don’t yield to pedestrians in crosswalks with “Walk” signs.
I agree with three out of four.
I don’t see why wearing headphones is such a problem. After all, we allow car drivers to turn up their stereos as loud as they want, and most states (to my knowledge) will also issue drivers’ licenses to the deaf.
Sure, being able to hear what’s going on around you is preferable, but an attentive driver (or rider) can generally drive safely without the benefit of his or her hearing.
At least some states don’t let drivers wear headphones. If we don’t let car drivers do it, we won’t let bicyclists do it, either. And I wouldn’t let car drivers turn up their stereos as loud as they want. If people in the buildings along the road can hear your stereo, it’s Too Damn Loud, and you’re getting a ticket.
Don’t even get me started on bicyclists who ride at night. Those teeny tiny little reflectors do NOT increase your visibility by any significant degree. They just provide a false sense of security.
But question of whether or not you’re annoying people is separate from the question of whether or not the loud stereo makes you an unsafe driver. And it was the latter point that you were making when talking about cyclists and their headphones.
OK, my list of people I’d ticket/arrest:
Bicyclists who ride in the oncoming bike lane: Actually, if I was driving in the right lane, I’d just pop the passenger door open as we passed eachoher. If I was on the sidewalk, I’d hold my night stick out at about the height of the bicyclist’s chest. If he evades either, he gets a ticket for being in the oncoming lane, and failure to cooperate with law enforcement. You think it’s bad when you’re in your car and someone is in the oncoming bike lane. You should try being on a BIKE when some joker comes at you headon. If I’m a bike cop, I just cheerfully say “Howdy!” as I kick him into the road.
Bicyclists in the oncoming TRAFFIC lane: They get the aforementioned fines, plus another fine for being too stupid to live.
Random point of interest for the people who hate people who flash the hi-beams at them: IIRC, quickly flashing your high beams at someone who is driving too slowly is a polite way of telling them there is someone behind them. I equate someone honking at me as an audible middle finger, as it’s far more startling for me than a moment of bright light.
Oooh, I’d also give a ticket for people who drive in the BIKE lanes when there is heavy traffic. You get this a lot in College Station. If I’m in my cop car, I just pop the passenger door open as they are about to pass me (see how versatile this response is?) and if they hit the door, they get a ticket for hitting a police car and failing to yield the right of way.
And of course, people on bikes who think that stop signs and red lights are a vague suggestion. I hit the gas for these guys, and see if they’re wearing a helmet. 
Oh, and finally, the two people on my street who think that, if the garbage truck didn’t pick up their garbage on Thursday because they got it out too late, the obvious solution is to pile more garbage next to their can (we live in a city where if the garbage isn’t in a can, they won’t pick it up. Interestingly enough, my parents live in a town where, if the garbage IS in a can at the curb, you get a ticket. And they won’t pick it up.)
I used to be a cop. I really didn’t like writing tickets, but I loved busting impaired drivers. If I could bag a DWI, it just made my day.
I thought you were about to complain about me! Yesterday morning the garbage collectors cleared my side of the street before I could get our bag of trash out there, so on my way to work I surreptitiously slipped our bag in with the neighbors across the street’s trash, because the collecters hadn’t done that side yet. I felt like I was doing something illegal. For all I know I was! :eek:
The person you quoted is named after a '60s race car so of course they’re pro-speeding. 
I would go after Soccer Moms on the Telephone.
Perferably with maximum force.
Amen! And don’t you love the people on their cell phone PULLING OUT OF THEIR DRIVEWAY? Uh, weren’t you just in your home? Couldn’t you have made that call from your land line and not annoy everyone on the road by paying oh so much attention tn your conversation rather than DRIVING? I’m sorry, but people on cell phones have made life miserable for most drivers.
Afte reading most of this post, the bottom line is there is a definite lack of courtesy in the driving world. If people were more courteous, traffic would be less of a problem. But, I find that a lot of people don’t care what is going on beyond the periphery of their car. Yes, you must get out of the left lane if someone is behind you. It’s not a matter of whether I want to speed and you don’t–it just makes life easier for everyone. Let me go on my way. I will definitely do the same for you.