Holly Molly;
Your traffic is so light , that you can get up to 140 mph !!
How sweet it is.
Karma on the highway
- Thread starter twodog max
- Start date
Holly Molly;
Your traffic is so light , that you can get up to 140 mph !!
How sweet it is.
LVSteve
Member
The BMW "threat" has long been recognized. I had one in the UK in the 90s before I came to the US. I could be pootling along close to the 30 mph limit in town and have people 300 yards away in a driveway or side street wait until I had passed, even though they had plenty of time to pull out. Conversely, when driving my previous car that bore a striking resemblance to the local unmarked cop cars (radio ham antennas) I had people pull out almost under my wheels.
The fart can muffler imports are obnoxious to say the least. 
Around here it is the VW drivers. I figure they are the type that are younger (less $$), but still full of themselves - because they are driving a German "performance" oriented car... -
Earlier this summer when riding my old Goldwing, I signaled, and slowed down as I pulled onto the wide, paved shoulder of a surface street to turn into a driveway, and BAM! I see pieces of my turn signal and saddle bag go scattering down the road ahead of me on the left.
This 17 year old kid in his daddy's ten-year-old Lexus SUV wasn't paying attention and clipped my left rear saddlebag and exhaust. It didn't even knock me over, just ripped the saddle bag and its frame off the bike and bent the exhaust pipe down to where it was about an inch off the ground.
After asking if I was OK the first thing out of his mouth was "I looked up and there you were!" I was about 4-6 feet over the line and on the shoulder of the road. My question was "what were you doing looking DOWN in the first place?" He didn't have much to say, but the answer was probably that he was looking at his phone, which he already had in his hand when he got out of the Lexus. But he didn't come right out and admit that.
We exchanged insurance info, and I decided not to call the police. He was already freaked out, and saying his dad was going to "kill" him, and I didn't want to make it any worse for the kid.
But as they say, no good deed ever goes unpunished. It took nearly two weeks and me threatening to file a police report to get his parents to FINALLY talk with their own insurance company to get the claim moving forward. I had to point out that if I filed a police report his son would be charged with hit and run, because even though he supplied me with his insurance company info, under Washington law, failure to cooperate with the insurance companies involved is viewed as the equivalent of not providing the other driver with your insurance company info - i.e. a hit and run charge.
Then the insurance company made me an offer that included price quotes for two bikes similar to mine. The one that was the most comparable to mine was valued at just over $3k, but they wanted to only offer me $2,300 to total the bike. We haggled back & forth by email for a few days with me sending them multiple "comps" in that same $3k range that had I found on Craigslist.
I finally had to tell the adjuster, "look, I can go to the local courthouse and file a small claims court case against your company for just a few bucks. I'm retired so taking you to court won't really cost me anything but a little time to show up. But I GUARANTEE you it will cost you more than the additional $750 I'm asking you for to show up in court and fight me instead."
LO AND BEHOLD! I got a check for the full $3k + taxes deposited into my account the next day. So it finally worked out OK. Cell phones cause more accidents and idiot driving than just about anything other than possibly drugs & alcohol.
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OP
twodog max
Member
No it is not that light and therein lies the problem. Idiots in high performance cars, Camaros, Chargers and Hellcats seem to have taken it as a challenge here to try and outrun ASP. ASP has also willingly, it looks, to accept the challenge. I have seen high speed chase videos through construction zones, across congested 6 lane bridges and even in residential areas with traffic. IMO it is irresponsible on both ends to engage in chases under those conditions. Let it go and not kill some poor person going to the grocery store or in their front yard.
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Here in Washington they passed a law that says the police AREN'T ALLOWED to engage in any high-speed pursuits.
Guess what? That means that all the criminals have to do is START to run and the police break off pursuit and let them go.
Think that has resulted in more - or less - criminals fleeing AND GETTING AWAY scot-free? Only to do it again. Rinse and repeat.
You get two guesses and the first one doesn't count.
Sorry, but hamstringing the police from stopping and arresting criminals doesn't reduce crime or the number of victims hurt by criminals.
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You mean the pickups that won't park on the grass because the tires will get dirty?
Yeah, would be a safe bet to add VW and Mercedes to that list. German engineering. Herr Dufus Driver.
I have been rear ended twice by people not noticing the freeway has stopped in front of them.
Both times they have been texting on their cell phones.
Yeah, for my money one of the best laws our legislative bodies could pass would be that all cell phones be programmed to detect when a vehicle is in motion and DISABLE the ability to send or receive calls or texts until the vehicle stops. And it should be a feature you can't turn off.
I know, I know, it would mean that the cell phones of all passengers would also be non-functional when the vehicle is in motion. I'm OK with that. Even passengers can wait until the driver pulls over to take/make calls and texts. If their cell phones stopped working, they might even be compelled to engage in conversation or sight-seeing, instead of having their noses glued to a 5" screen while in the vehicle is in motion.
Imagine the HORROR!! Kids actually forced to engage with the other passengers in the car and/or to actually look around and SEE the countryside they are traveling through - without being electronically entertained every second of the trip!
FWIW, we all survived just fine back in the days when traveling meant being temporarily out of touch. I think we would survive it even if we were FORCED into doing that today.
There are numerous studies that have shown that cell-phone use behind the wheel is as much of an impairment as drinking and driving. So why not disable mobile communications while behind the wheel?
Seems like a no-brainer to me. The cost-benefit ratio would certainly seem to favor implementing that kind of legislation.
Just my opinion based on my real world observations and experience.
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Very good idea...
OP
twodog max
Member
I never once said no high speed chases. What I said is that sometimes some discretion and judgement should be used as to the time and place these chases are done.
Also there is a huge difference in pursuit of felons or suspected felons and some idiot just trying on the cops for an adrenalin rush.
Don't read into what I said something else
OK, guess I misread you.
lawandorder
Member
Very glad to be retired but I sure do miss...........
...........the State vehicles I drove over the last 23 years. All them were unmarked except for a department emblem on the doors.
There are an inordinate amount of tailgaters on the highways, and roads of Arkansas.
I sure enjoyed seeing the small puff of blue smoke from their tires appear immediately after my rear blue strobes came on. Their blue smoke was usually followed by an apologetic wave.
I sure miss that anti following too close device.
...........the State vehicles I drove over the last 23 years. All them were unmarked except for a department emblem on the doors.
There are an inordinate amount of tailgaters on the highways, and roads of Arkansas.
I sure enjoyed seeing the small puff of blue smoke from their tires appear immediately after my rear blue strobes came on. Their blue smoke was usually followed by an apologetic wave.
I sure miss that anti following too close device.
