Don’t @ me Libertarians, but I’m generally a big fan of laws. Yes, yes, there are plenty of dumb ones on the books, but the good laws are pretty great. I think it’s super that breaking into my house and taking all my stuff is 100% illegal, despite the best efforts of the powerful Break Into Houses And Take People’s Stuff lobby. Laws that prevent corporations from lying to us and/or harming consumers with lax safety are all examples of top-notch legislation for me, even if they don’t always work.
I also feel our traffic laws are downright reasonable, even if I do break my fair share of them on the regular. Speed limits come to mind first and foremost, and I’m sure none of us would say we scrupulously obey the speed limit everywhere and at all times. Technically – and I’m not saying you should make this argument to a police officer – breaking the speed limit is a binary thing. You are either going the speed limit (or below) and abiding the law, or you’re exceeding it and have broken it. But it’s definitely not a binary thing. True, whether you’re cruising a 75 mph highway at 80 mph or 180 mph, you have broken the law. But at 180 mph, you’ve broken it a lot more. That 75 mph speed may not keep everyone at 75, but it should hold most people to around 85. We’re just bending the law here.
What laws are you bending? I hold few sacred myself. I’m never down for anything unsafe, of course, and I’ve never done anything illegal solely to express contempt for the tyranny of lines painted on roads, or the authority of traffic cones, those smug orange pricks. And you should absolutely NOT take any of what follows as encouragement to do the same, or an endorsement that doing so is OK. However …
“No Right On Red”? Yeah, that’s “look carefully before you go right on red” to me. Related: if I’m the only car on the road and I’m inexplicably sitting at a red light for way too long, I’m just gonna go. Same goes for those highway turnarounds that are for Law Enforcement Only. It’s two in the morning, I’m lost AF, the next exit is in infinity miles, and I’m low on gas, so yeah, I’m turning around.
Spacer
I will say though, I’m a real stickler for keeping my vehicle safe for highway travel. Outside mirrors, full set of functioning gauges, all that. It’s important.
Your turn: Second To The Speed Limit, What Traffic Laws Do You Most Frequently, Uh, Bend?
Topshot: Trains, Planes, And Automobiles/Paramount Pictures
None officer.
Speeding. If traffic is going 25 over the limit, so am I. I remember seeing my mom get into some extremely close-call situations by absolutely adhering to the speed limit. She would slow down all the way to a stop on an on on-ramp vs. going over the speed limit to merge.
I’ve taken a left at a number of “no left turn” signs, especially out of the local Lowe’s parking lot. If I time it right, I reduce the return trip home from 13 minutes, to no joke, 5 minutes. The multiple lights you need to go through otherwise suck immensely, and basically lead me in the wrong direction. I probably save myself 4-5 hours a year by taking that left.
I bend speed limits on Interstates and other *open* highways when appropriate. But otherwise, I try to follow the rules strictly, including speed limits in built-up areas.
I am also scrupulous about coming to a complete stop at stop signs, because that is just about the dumbest ticket you can get, and in my misspent youth I got one for that in the middle of the night from an eagle-eyed city cop from about three blocks away. $150 I really didn’t have to waste at the time.
Jaywalking. I look both ways and all that, but yeah.
Jaywalking actually being “illegal” is actually very much the exception in the US. And most places where it IS illegal it is so for good reason.
I jaywalked once in Dallas, TX. I didn’t see the cop across the street, but he saw me and yelled. He made we walk back across the street (mid-block) and then down to the intersection. Especially irritating because there were no cars when I originally crossed, but by the time I got to the intersection I had to wait on traffic.
Congratulations, you found one.
My position on this is give me some actual goddamn crosswalks, and I’ll use them.
Well, most of the time. Near my house, it is far, far safer to cross the road away from the intersection than at it. You have the opportunity to ensure the coast is totally clear, where at the intersection, you have to trust that the Nissan Altima approaching isn’t going to take a right on red, and run over your neck with it’s donut spare.
Especially if your Canadian. Jaywalking is part being Canadian.
I do my best to not speed. I am discovering as an old man why old men don’t drive fast because we actually plan our lives accordingly and don’t have to hurry anywhere and we really do not want to bother going too many places where people may annoy us.
Can I like this twice?
No, but I’ll like your like for liking it.
Same, much of my travel is for work speeding rewards me with more time sitting at the airport or in some hotel room. Outside of that I can’t stand being late or holding up people so I’m always going to leave with plenty of time. I’ve even gone to taking the back roads to work sometimes, turns a 7 mile 55 mph commute into a 13 mile 35 mph commute, I’m a lot more relaxed when I get to work
Parking lot at my offfice has a “no left turns” at one of the exits – you have to go another block north to hang a left. Well… that’s inconvenient AND the “legal” left dumps you right into conflict with the facility on the other side of the street making right-hand turns into the same space.
Yeah, no.
I’ll take the “naughty” left because I have good views of the traffic coming up the hill to my left AND plenty of space to interleave with the folks across the way.
I try not to break any traffic laws, but invariably I do with speeding at the top and not always coming to a complete stop at a stop sign probably second. When it comes to those LEO only lanes and crossovers, those are fair game and here’s why. Police officers do not enforce laws, they apprehend law breakers and occasionally discourage law.breaking, but those are after the fact and before the fact actions that have nothing to do with actual enforcement. The only person who can actually enforce my compliance with traffic laws (or any laws, really) is me. Therefore, I am a law enforcement agent and free to use those LEO lanes. I have not tested this argument in court.
I’m fairly good on the roads, but parking lots are a whole other ball game. The wife and I call them “Parking Lot Rules”. Splitting across open spaces instead of going all the way down your row to get to the next, totally a valid option, going in the other lane to avoid the speed bump just on your lane, no problem. I do adhere to the pedestrian zones though, people in them, gotta stop.
Gr. No.
I’m probably more rule-followy in parking lots than anywhere else, mostly because they’re VERY busy, VERY low-visibility and full of VERY distracted people.
Single-direction lanes are important because there’s probably not enough room for two cars to pass. With diagonal spaces, I probably couldn’t even see a wrong-way car coming at me when I’m backing out of a space until they’d hit me.
I don’t pull through spaces because there’s a pretty non-zero chance that somebody in the next aisle that I can’t see is fixing to occupy that very same spot I’m about to pull through into.
I’m pretty much with you on this, but I make exceptions when I’m in the “way out” and it’s not busy.
I agree with both of you. Just need to read the situation.
To be clear it’s when not busy, we’re early risers so get to the Walmart early and head to the Ollie’s in the hobby lobby parking lot on Sundays, the mall on weekdays when we’re both off, We just generally plan to avoid crowds after years of learning their patterns.
I haven’t taken any of my vehicles for a state safety inspection since before Covid. During the lockdowns, VA police seemed to stop caring about expired inspections, and so far, I’m still getting away with it.
Now keeping in mind that I maintain all my vehicles well, so far skipping the inspections has been worth it. I used to be state inspector, so I know what I’m doing.
It’s like a $75 ticket and an inspection is $25 plus a half day off work to wait. It adds up enough that I’ll keep taking my chances.
I can’t think of any at the moment but I’m busy driving 120 mph on the wrong side of the road through a school zone to avoid a police checkpoint while typing this. Maybe something will come to me later.
Speed Limits.
And “California” Stops.
Tho every once in a while – after coming to a complete stop at a red light and seeing that not only is there nobody around, but no drivers or pedestrians within sight – I’ll drive through a red light.
I, of course, always follow the traffic laws to the letter when I drive, but there’s a friend of mine who doesn’t always pick the correct lane (i.e. the closest) when turning, especially if there is another turn coming up and traffic is light.
This sounds an awful lot like a sting operation.
I drive on the wrong side of the road in order to get mail out of our mailbox by reaching through the driver side window. It’s a very low traffic cul de sac, so there’s not really any risk.
same here
I park facing the wrong way in front of my house sometimes, mostly when I know I’ll be leaving within the hour again. It’s a residential street I see no harm in it.
What are you? A cop?
And if you ask an undercover cop if they’re a cop, they have to tell the truth, right? RIGHT???
I’m not falling for that one.
… Again
For several years the 407 toll road near Toronto had a problem reading my NYS plates. I do not have their transponder and they never sent me bills. I even called them to see what’s up and they said they simply had no record of my vehicle. They said I couldn’t even pay if I wanted to.
Alas I finally got a bill last month, but just for the tolls in December 2024. All good things, I guess.
Red turn arrows all over CA, always go when it’s safe to proceed. Been hit in an intersection before while sitting at red light and been rear ended by texting teen. Not going to happen again if I can help it.
Making left turns on a red arrow when it is late at night or early in the morning when there is no damn traffic around on a ruralish highway to turn onto the road that leads to my house. They have other areas in Indiana with the flashing yellow arrow and even implemented a few around me because the red arrows were causing way to much traffic and said traffic was starting to take alternate routes through town but they have not implemented it by me yet.
And the other one is not fully coming to a 4 way stop at stop signs around my house since again rural area you can see in every direction.
As a Californian, the California roll is obviously something I’m frequently guilty of, but I guess the other one is *very occasionally* crossing into empty toll lanes when I’m in bumper to bumper traffic. “I have the transponder and those pylons are made to bend. It’s fine.”
I totally support the idea of a 4-way yield sign, which can function as a four-way stop if congested, but otherwise can be rolled through if safe to proceed.
But we’re Americans, we’ll fight tooth and nail to keep roundabouts away from our children 🙂
Traffic management is one of the environment issues nobody seems to talk much about.
Unless you are in Northwest Indiana they are implementing roundabouts everywhere. I much prefer over stop signs except for when you have someone that comes to a complete stop when they should you know just go.
Same with SW FL, and I am ALL for it. Roundabouts are great. And when they are two lane and lightly trafficed you can practice your “racing lines” through them. 🙂
I got hit by an idiot tourist at the Crayton Cove roundabout in Naples probably 10 years ago. He made a left turn right into me and tried to make it out to be my fault. A crowd of people hung around for the cop to arrive to make sure he knew exactly who was to blame.
He would have probably hit you at a 4-way intersection too. Tourists are a menace everywhere. Thankfully I live in a very not-touristy corner of SW FL. Snowbirds usually know what they are doing at least. Good on the witnesses sticking around!
They’re becoming popular in the greater Atlanta area as well.
I generally do not have a problem with roundabouts but they are installing them at intersections where the distance between the entry/exit points is just too short. It’s fine a lot of the time except during the busiest travel times of the day (rush hour) they are completely useless.
No one can actually get through because of the distance issue there aren’t gaps between the cars. Traffic backs up for miles and no one seems to care. A traffic light or stop sign would be much better for a lot of intersections.
The newest elementary school in my district has a roundabout in the drive to the drop-off/pick-up zone and a very nice, relatively large roundy was just finished at the public intersection just off the driveway for the school. Fortunately, my county seems to be embracing roundys as the superior form of traffic management that they are.
Coming to a complete stop at a 4-way when nobody else is there. Making a left at a “no left turn” sign when I can clearly see in both directions. That’s about it, most road laws are there for a reason, I try to be safe.
My sister’s house is on a street that I have to take a left turn to get into. What sign do you suppose is in front of that street? If you guessed “no left turns,” you’d be correct.
If nobody is around, I’m taking that left 100% of the time. If opposite traffic is coming my way, fine, I’ll drive the extra block.
Driving while barefoot?!
These laws are pretty rare and mostly at the local level, but I’m glad to be civilly disobedient. Driving barefoot is the safest driving of all and, I would venture, could have prevented most historical unintended acceleration problems due to the additional tactile awareness and dexterity that feet allow.
If I made the laws, you’d need an exception to drive with shoes on.
Ew.
Exactly, and I don’t even know why. It’s my car and only my feet are on those pedals. I’m barefoot at home all the time so why should it be any different? Nonetheless, ew.
I’m not sure I agree with the “safest driving of all” assertion. Most of the time it won’t matter, but a driver can probably apply more force to the brake pedal in an emergency situation while wearing shoes than while barefoot.
Assuming they don’t hit the throttle by mistake 🙂
Most shoes are fine, but IMO people caught driving in flip-flops or high heels should be cited.
You can’t fool me this easily, Feds.
Ya, makes me wonder who our membership details are being forwarded to after reading the headline.
Not necessary – Elon’s 22 year olds already hacked into the membership system.
Life is going to get super weird when I’m labeled an “enemy of the state” for trashing Tesla on a car nerd website.
Yep. Farce and parody are dead because real life has become too ridiculous to be outdone by jokes.
It doesn’t matter to me, I’m probably on like a dozen watchlists already just for having an interest in and doing research of the history regarding the Gilded Age and Cold War.
My car is currently out of commission, but a good chunk of people I know don’t actually make a full stop at a stop sign. They slow down to a crawl but don’t actually stop.
*HYPOTHETICALLY* I’m prone to such behavior, but I try to come to full stop as much as I can. So many people just blow right through stop signs. Last thing I need is that at some 4-way stop intersection I get t-boned by someone, and then be blamed because I only slowed to 1mph as opposed to 0.
I was in a no-fault accident before. Dashcam footage made insurance matters fairly straightforward but I do not wish to go through that again.