The lack of observation and forward planning by the majority of drivers is appalling. During my driving lessons in the UK I was continually told that observation and anticipation based on what you see as the keys to being a good driver.

Had another great example of this last night in a construction zone on a freeway. Remarkably, the contractors had a sign out in plenty of time warning of the right lane (mine) was going away. Check mirrors and find two vehicles creeping up behind, about 200-300 yards back. Fine, signal left, and move over in plenty of time. Why? Because if I don't I run the risk of those coming from behind trapping me as the lane goes away. How much of this Vegas "sport" is deliberate or through lack of forward planning I've yet to determine. So, to avoid having to either accelerate or brake harshly, I get into position early. I'm the vehicle in front, so I'm the one who gets to set the stage.

PSA: If that last sentence gives you heartburn, 1) check your local traffic laws and 2) if after checking you still have heartburn, your local DMV will be happy for you to return your license.

Apparently, planning ahead didn't suit either of the people behind me. Now we are far enough up the road to see the cones beginning to close off the right lane and a HUGE flashing set of arrows indicating move left. The first joker gunned it and passed on the right. The second one continued creeping up, moved out from behind me when very close and, OMG!, the right lane goes away, so he had to duck back left.

Had this maroon missed all the previous signs? Had they read them and then their goldfish attention span forgotten the signs? Are they terminally myopic such that they could not see the flashing arrow sign? I don't which/how many of these applies, but I cannot call what they were doing driving.

Here's some shocking news for many drivers: there is a world that affects you beyond the tail lights immediately in front and beyond the light and stop sign you can see. Taking a good look at it and acting and what you see can make your journey much smoother.

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Release the Kraken

I never was afforded the luxury of attending the Mount Olympus Driving School so I learned to just swim with the rest of the salmon.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Can you believe they changed the law on that for left turns in Nevada? We have many three lane surface streets, so if you are required to "establish" in lane one after the turn, then it is impossible to legally enter many lots on the corner from a left turn.

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Release the Kraken

It works ... Till you find yourself surrounded by carp

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it just needs more voltage

I am one with the bottom feeders.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

We see what you did there.

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Release the Kraken

Am old and easy to entertain. if bored will go the speed limit through town playing bumper bingo. Follow too close behind my bumper and win a prize.

Having almost been run over several times walking my dog, have decided to be civilly disobedient. The county hwy through town has speed limit of 25, but it steps down abruptly from 55 just north of me.

Fortunately the State/County Police have decided to enforce the traffic laws occasionally, while the local police chief is trying to grow his hair as long as possible and staying out of site during the tour pest holidays.

We have only had several serious accidents this weekend, and a traffic light system knocked over at major intersection. Tomorrow most of them go home.

Morrison,Colorado...Well known in the past for speed traps. They're at it again on steroids. Ten thousand tickets at $40 a pop in a two week period.

To be fair it's a small town with some tourism and they're trying to protect their residents/visitors. Heck,they even posted signs well in advance to warn drivers of the photo radar.

One thing that ticks me off is when you have a lane closure for construction that has been going on for months. We're told to allow traffic to blend in like a zipper where the closed lane ends.

I say screw it...Let them get in line like the rest of us. I'd bet that 99.9% of the traffic on this road travels it daily. You know there's a closure ahead but you're better than everyone else. I've seen many drivers that barge into line rather than wait to be let in. It can be aggressive at times.

I have found that while not scientific but rather a visual observation that a lane of traffic moves better if in a straight line. The stop and go for letting others move over can be the difference of catching another red light and sometimes more.

The "zipper in" thing does not work in the US because everyone tailgates, at least by the standard I was taught. As a result drivers have to slow for the car merging in unless they like their following distance measured in angstroms.

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Release the Kraken

The zipper merge is often debated.
You're right, it doesn't work here. Not only for the reason you stated but also that the entire concept is entirely contrary to defensive driving principles.
One must assume everyone around you is going to screw up, and you drive in a manner to avoid becoming subject to their decision making prowess.
Zipper merge requires that you suddenly have a change of heart and invest absolute faith in them to execute this process with absolute precision and professionalism.....
That right there may be the funniest thing I say all day.

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it just needs more voltage

Around here those entering the highway bunch up as they merge forcing those already on the roadway to yield to them. Not exactly how it’s supposed to work.

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Sure you did

I've got a sticker on the left, top portion of my tail gate which reads "THE CLOSER YOU GET THE SLOWER I DRIVE". People pull up behind me real close to my ***, and drop about 2 car lengths back immediately. But I've slowed to a stop on a couple occasions to accommodate non believers. (Never on X Ways)

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SOS USA

Wow, that a new one on me. Never saw that by group!

Getting on high speed roads with a loaded diesel big truck can sometimes get interesting. (Been there did it) You get your speed up as good and fast as you can do. You got two choices on your approach ramp with a big truck if things get bad, pull over to the shoulder or use your size and bully in.

Turn signals on a big truck on a road like that does not mean I would like to get in line please, its telling you I'm getting in!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

LEO needs to Enforce All traffic laws. I know many judges will let offenders go but LEOs should be writhing more tickets. Most drivers today are driving close to what drivers in some Asian cities drive….

Yep, you can see them entering the roadway, tailgating one another, without even looking to their left to see if it’s safe.
Sort of like the next couple cars in line following closely the guy making a left turn IFO you.

I use a dash cam nowadays to protect myself from the he said he said folks.

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Sure you did

It is the same people that go down grocery aisles in the right or center land; stop to talk in the middle of an aisle blocking everyone and go thru cross aisles without bothering to look.

Around here (Illinois) they think a merge sign means the thru lane has to back off and let them in even is they are next to or slightly behind. I don't know what they teach them here but I have actually seen a car ahead of me come up to a place where it merges to one lane , nobody ahead or next to them, me way behind and if they are in the thru lane as soon as they get to the merge sign they move over into the merging lane and stay there until it ends then merge back to the thru lane.

My wife was in a thru lane once (stopped at a light I believe) where the right lane was blocked for construction. Along came Mrs. entitled who pulled up next and a little behind her after going around several cars and started screaming at her to let her in as it says merge so my wife was supposed to back off and let her in. Then she told me wife that her car was worth a lot of money while my wife's was a cheap one so the wife would need to pay if there was an accident. She just started nosing over anyway when traffic started moving only to go back into her own lane when there wasn't a hole. The icing on the cake was when I noticed that my wife had a smear of paint from the loudmouth's car at about the gap between the front door and front fender. Wife just said Karma's a bitch.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

I think it's too late for that on some levels.
Laws are good if everyone follows them.
Law says do "blah" everyone does "blah" and we can all expect to see "blah" and even rely on the uniform execution of "blah"
That's no longer the world we live in.
Drive for survival first, legal compliance is secondary.

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it just needs more voltage

LEOs enforcing traffic laws are becoming scarce around here. Don't blame the LEO rather his political master.

My BIL was a deputy sheriff in the hills of rural Albany County in the 70s-88. He disliked writing tickets!

He did give lots of warnings and unless some one was being a idiot most times that was where it ended. Give him a hard time and he would write. The local judges kind of got to know him and his ticket philosophy and that affected their fine or sentence.

One judge even said you had to work hard to get a ticket out of Deputy ######. Only a couple times in his career did he use the underline your badge number code on the ticket. That was a unofficial note to the judge/DA that this person needed the full power of the law to come down on them.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

Not in Michigan.
There is too much money involved to stop doing it.

Fun fact, Michigan State Police stopped their motorcycle division at the end of 2022 after a couple troopers died, this year they are bringing it back, and we all know what a motorcycle unit is for.

Another reason to dispute what you are saying is all the 4x4 Tahoe's on traffic duty in this area. We all know those are not the most economical option for traffic duty, nor is paying cops automatic overtime to go to court for ticket disputes.
The local departments here keep most of the money from traffic fines, especially on the tickets lowered to impending traffic, double parking, etc.

Here the officers have financial incentives to write as many tickets as possible.

I paid for my first small town cop job by writing tickets, not for the financial incentive, but because the scofflaws were utterly out of control and never slowed down. Small towns are often full of little kids, old folks, and others who are placed at risk by the folks who stay at rural speeds in the 30 MPH zone. I did not write anything less than 10 over, and I think the record was 68 in a 30. I had done my own testing in the squad car and my own, and one had to consciously try to be speeding given the RR overpass at the edge of town. Not long after I left, a little kid was killed by a speeder.

Here in WA, everyone in the process loses money on enforcement, even with the court costs imposed.

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NHI, 10-8.

Maybe Michigan figured out something different. I have several family members that are cops and none make less than $100k per year (with the cost of living here that is good money), mostly due to overtime pay even if they only work 1 day a week they get overtine for court.
I am in the largest population county in the state, but those I know in areas of the state see the same.
Here it's a money thing.

Ask yourself, what us a cheaper vehicle to operate, a Tahoe or Impala?
If it's about safety and money the impala wins both, but yet we see Tahoe's all over.
The more tickets written the more money the city, court, department and individual officers makes.

ETA: I'm in the same county as Detroit, maybe other states do different but here its been this way as long as I can remember.

When I was stationed at Carswell AFB Texas the speed limit was nation wide 55 mph. Everyone drove around 60-65. IH-35 was a 4 lane highway. Now days Texas 2 lane side roads are generally around 70 except for towns and if you get on the interstates or toll roads expect to put the pedal down. IH-10 is usually 80 mph, toll road 130 is 80 to 85 and if you drive the speed limit you WILL get passed or tailgated. Since the defund the Police it seems Police are nonexistent on the highways. After the defund the Police, Austin disbanded the Motorcycle patrol and the thru town speed limit seemed to jump from 65 to 85mph.
SWCA 892

Some argue that it's not really speeding as the cars of today are in another capability league compared to even just 20 years ago. On that narrow definition, I might agree. However, we still have joke driving tests in most states, so the drivers' competence is as low as it's ever been.

Now let's throw in the fact that many of America's roads are simply incompatible with high speed driving. My trip to Texas at Christmas reinforced that for US-93 and I-40, and most towns still have narrow roads with lots of people about. Speed ain't the thing for those conditions.

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Release the Kraken

*
FWIW, this is the most expensive county east of the Cascades, and our deputies can't buy homes here and are being allowed to live out of County, but have to leave their take home cars at the SO. $100K is pretty low for here ...

And car size matters. With all their gear on, most cops have a hard time with getting in or out of most vehicles. A Crown Vic was barely big enough for me, and I was not that big. The impalas are fast, but that is of limited utility here.

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NHI, 10-8.

In my general area we see mostly Tahoe's. Come in real handy in our nasty winters, and rural back roads. Also one of our x governors like the Tahoe's as they sit higher and made it easier to see in a a vehicle if a seat belt was being worn. Seat belts in this state are in the class of law that thats the only reason needed to stop a vechicle and issue a ticket!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

I know the west coast cost of living is very different from here.
Here $100k is good money.

This is from the census web site.
City employees pay is public info (at least in this state), city council posts it on the web site every year. Keep in mind the $100k figure was about 6 years ago, so with raises they are north of that now. I stopped looking back then because all it did was make me mad.

I've lived in this area the majority of my life, they never used 4x4 vehicles until about a decade ago, it was Crown Vic's or Impala's. There are zero hills, dirt roads, etc in the area, so I'm not seeing the need to have that type of vehicle.
If they can't fit in a car, simply move the seat rails back an inch or two and make the cage thinner. Today's materials are better than years past, the multi inch think cage is no longer needed.

The department in the next city over from me where we own a couple rental properties, has an MRAP. That is laughable, they got it from the military but have to maintain it, care to guess what tires, oil changes, fuel, etc cost to operate one of those?


The above figures came from the following page.

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...e/MI/PST045222

The Pasadena Freeway, AKA Interstate 110, or “Arroyo Seco Parkway” is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as the first freeway in the Western United States.
As a result, there are no acceleration areas. People in the know do not drive in the 'slow' lane but move over into the 60-90mph lane (that is the one just to the left), leaving the on comers the opportunity to test their nerves in their attempts to merge.
The fun really starts when some tourist, or some other lost soul, is driving in this almost open lane when the 'merger' decides it is time to merge from a complete stop onto this lane.
The LA traffic reports almost always have some slowdown on the 110 due to an accident.
Only education, blind luck and the Good Lord keep many from being killed or injured on this stretch of road.

Local LE here in northern Iowa have mostly SUVs (Tahoe's or Explorers) for same reasons. Iowa Highway Patrol has a fondness for Dodge Chargers with the 5.7 Hemi.

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Super Snooper

No front plate is another way to get stopped, especially at Captree State Park on LI. There are/were car show every weekend and the NYST’s would park at the toll booths for easy pickin’s.

NCHP has Dodge hemi’s and Tahoes but are transitioning to Mustangs.

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Sure you did

Some piece of excrement drunk killed the parents of a youngster on Memorial Day here in NC.

Give him the chair.

2 killed, child in critical condition from crash on US Business 70 in Garner - ABC11 Raleigh-Durham

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Sure you did

I ran no front plate for 30 years with my Vettes, got a couple lectures but no paper. I do realize the closer you get to the big city the more carefully you are watched.

Driving a large CDL truck I most definitely have first hand knowledge about being well policed down there!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

I was caught in a DL check once. The NYS Trooper looked at my front end and said “ these cars shouldn’t have a plate bracket”, and off I went.

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Sure you did