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
I got popped for a no right on red once. Was out of town, and started to do it as a force of habit. The intersection was fairly blind, and once I realized that I felt I was a hazard and took the first chance I could to complete the turn. Explained it to the officer, but unfortunately didn’t get me out of a ticket.
It ain’t called the Quebec stop for nothing.
Though I always slow down enough to be able to do a full stop, if needed.
And if a cop catches you here and you admit to it, they’ll often drop the ticket to a generic “did not obey a traffic sign” instead of “ignoring a stop sign”. $37 and no demerit points. Umm… so I’ve heard.
I don’t break any traffic laws knowingly. I do usually travel at the same rate of speed as surrounding traffic which is generally 5-10 km over. I figure I’ve built up enough negative karma over my years to not tempt the gods.
Yeah, my wife used to joke I was a cop magnet, so I tend to ‘go with the flow’ instead of letting it rip.
She’s never been pulled over for speeding, and she’s probably the one behind you in the left lane wanting you to move over.
My wife is the same. Never uses cruise and drives like the devil is after her. She’s only had one ticket.
I’ve never had a ticket despite driving like a lunatic, street racing and general youthful hoonassery when I was younger
Speeding, certainly. I’m not the demon I was in my youth, but 95 South headed to Vacationland? Cruise control stays at 75(in a 70) during open road, almost no matter what(I slow for construction, particularly when workers ar present).
My motorcycle is festooned with LEDs in contravention of some section of the Highway Traffic Act. I’ll take the hit if some overzealous cop stops me; I’d rather be visible.
I’d say rolling some stop signs in my neighborhood late at night or super early in the morning. When it’s only me and I can see 100 yards in every direction that nobody human or animal is moving, slow roll. The obstructed ones I stop at no matter what.
Generally, speeding is the only driving law I violate. I’m a stickler for lane usage (especially swinging a turn wide into the far lane, which is illegal because it’s dangerous) and turn signals. I NEVER miss a turn signal, even for lane changes.
I have made a right on red a few times where it’s prohibited. That’s about it.
Speed limits and coming to an absolute complete stop at stop signs.
And in my estimation, that’s the case for 100% of all drivers. All drivers have bent these rules in these two areas at some point… either knowingly or unknowingly.
Rolling stops at empty intersections, or where my path and any other car’s don’t conflict.
My excuse is that I learned to drive in Michigan in the 1980s when the law on the books was that a stop sign at an empty intersection or where your path didn’t intersect with other cars could be treated as if it were a “Yield” sign — the Michigan Stop enshrined in law. It was still the Malaise era, with the oil crisis a recent memory and stricter anti-pollution laws coming into play. The idea was to reduce fuel consumption and pollution from making unnecessary full stops, idling, and taking off again. It was actually pretty sensible, especially when there were fewer total cars on the road compared to today.
Illegal: run a red arrow light.
Illegal, but not illegal: run a red arrow light that after 3 cycles has not detected your vehicle sitting at the intersection.
Had to look this one up on the BMV website because a lot of the detection rings couldn’t see my motorcycle.
Yeah, a faulty detector loop is a real pain. Theoretically, the control box should default into recall mode (on a timer) if any of the detector loops go bad. But not all control boxes are created equal, some cannot tell that the loop’s wire is broken or shorted out.
Back in the day, when I commuted on my motorcycle, you could occasionally get the sensors to trip if you put your kickstand down on the loops you could see cut into the pavement. But if the sensor is broken, then of course you’re stuck/screwed. And that’s assuming a magnetic style detector.
Yeah it’s all about disrupting the magnetic field created by the wire loop. Bikes with high aluminum content and under-500s usually don’t disrupt it enough.
A plastic or ceramic car would just sit there forever.
A friend said that back in the day, their family had such a high riding RV that they had a piece of pipe handy for rolling over the sensor loops to trigger them.
I live out on the edge of country and suburb so I run red lights all the time – not like speed through, I’m not a psychopath, but if it’s 10pm and I can stop at a light and look all 4 ways and I’m the only car in sight, I’m not waiting for the timer, I’m just doing to drive on through.
And I do go 10 over on non-residential roads, like all sane people.
Why so many cop questions? Did you all get pulled over for something stupid recently?
Haven’t had a speeding ticket in around 5 years, so.. Speed is also number one for me! When I get one again, that’s probably going to change 😉
–But besides from that, umm.. Not proper lighting (DRLs mandatory here): The 356 runs 6 volts, so I tend to save the battery for being able to start it again after a stop.
I’m at 14 years since my last ticket. The trick: drive a road-colored car (gray).
I live in Texas. Speed limits are generally viewed as guidelines/minimums, other than when passing through a rural town.
There is a stop sign on my morning commute that I run pretty much every day. At about 10mph over the limit. Unless there’s someone else nearby. It’s at 5:15am, there’s almost never anyone around, so I don’t feel bad about doing it.
The one that everyone here does- front license plate. Or lack thereof. I once was pulled over in my driveway for it.
The only good front license plate are the cool fender plates that some motorcycles could have.
And warming my car up. Its -2 in NY, yes it will warm up! Every news article is all ‘modern cars dont need to because efi and fluids and blah blah blah’. Its not that. Its the fact that the steering wheel will give me frost bite and its so cold my seat foam has become a park bench.
EV’s absolutely benefit from warming up in cold weather. It ultimately uses less energy.
Oh yeah, forgot about the front plate. I couldn’t stand sullying the front of my car with an ugly-ass yellow NJ plate. I think it’s in the trunk. Maybe.
Over two years of driving the car and I’ve gotten no grief over it.
yeah give me the ticket, the front of the car looks so much better without it.
I got one 75 dollar ticket for this and its more than worth it.
On my old car, the front license plate was starting to peel pretty badly (endemic issue from cost cutting), and as much as I’m theoretically obligated to ensure the license plate stays in good condition, I’m not wasting time because of a governmental screwup. New car came with new plates though, so that inadvertently solved that problem.
Also, I don’t accept a 100km/h speed limit on any highway in any civilized country.
I speed on the interstate with the idea that I’m going to go 5mph over so I don’t have to interact with as many cars, will inadvertently end up going +15 to get away from idiot that wants to hang out next to me.
I will say that I’m regularly a pedestrian and even a cyclist at times and almost everyone rolls through stop signs, even right in front of the police station. Naturally they are looking left and turning right so they’d have no idea they were about to hit a person either way.
I NEVER do it, I’m in a manual so I stop, shift to first and then go. I also never have my phone in my hard in the car.
I refuse to do a swerving burn-out every time a sign tells me to.
https://www.seton.com/reflective-warning-signs-swerving-car-symbol-vc1687.html
Really gets old after a few, and gas, tires. What are they thinking?
I think those signs only apply to Mustangs and Chargers.
Thanks, I sold those, so I guess I’m good.
It’s ok: I got you covered!
-11yo summer performance tires when the pavement is <40° F is like driving my old VWs in wet snow: pendulum fun 🙂
My state requires front and rear license plates and I think it’s for noble reasons but I have never put mine on. I have the plate in the vehicle along with zip ties if needed. I decided I can’t beat the no front plate gang so I joined them.
My state requires a front license plate, but I’m very close to the border of Pennsylvania, which doesn’t. I don’t know if the coppers here bother to worry about it.
Occasional stops here mainly it seems in the large Metro areas for some reason. I think I know why that is
Illinois has required a front plate forever, but now the law has been changed. I blame C4 Corvette owners.
Taking a left from a single left turn only lane into the the right lane of a 4 lane road. Obviously this is dependent on the situation, but on my commute there is a light where I turn left, and then turn right in less than 1/4 mile. About 2/3rds of the cars go from left to left, and then blinker there way over 2 lanes into right turn only lane. However the rest of us just go from the left turn signal into the right lane and then we’re ready to get into the right turn only lane. I don’t try to pass people that do it the other way, and I’m not worried about people trying to pass me, It is just one of those motions that makes the process more deliberate and lets cars around me know my intentions better than the “lawful” way.
Yup… it’s just lazy-ass driving. I hate that.
How hard is it to turn a steering wheel? Not very with power steering.
They have legal U turn on left turn arrow some places around me. The folks who don’t bother stopping before turning right on red get big mad. Thankfully there are big signs those folks ignored that indicate the U turn has right of way over right on red.
In California, you can legally make your left turn into any “available” lane. Right turns are supposed to go only into the nearest lane.
On a hypothetical basis, there may or may not be a stoplight that may or may not be all that necessary on a road that may or may not be on my way home form practicing with my band. This stoplight’s craptastic camera may or may not see my Miata at night and the light may or may not ever turn green. I also may or may not have a perfectly clear view of traffic in each direction, so I may or may not inch up, take a good look each way, note that there are NEVER cars coming, after which I may or may not proceed through the light, which incidentally may or may not be red.
Interestingly enough, in Virginia there you are legally allowed to run red lights safely if you ride a motorcycle since sensors at traffic signals don’t always see them.
Yes, I exceed the posted speed limits on the highway occasionally.
But I also always put my cart back at the grocery store, so that should, like, cancel out my speeding out and stuff.
For the purposes of this response, none. HOWEVER, speaking purely hypothetically, when you’re in traffic on the interstate that’s doing +15 to the speed limit, there is a distinct possibility that one might keep up with the flow of traffic. And sometimes, it might be a week or so after I’ve renewed my insurance for the updated card to make it into my wallet. Purely hypothetically, of course.
There is a “no u-turn” sign by my office right where I make a u-turn every commute.
Punctuation fixes all things. No, you turn.