Just about every day I drive a stretch of road that, at a particular T intersection, has a go-ahead lane on the left and a right-turn only lane on the right. The intersection comes right after a light rail crossing that backs up traffic in both lanes for a block before. That combination invariably means that someone doesn’t get over in time and tries to go ahead from the turn lane, hence cutting off the traffic that had the foresight to get over there earlier. It’s a minor infraction, and one that angers me with the heat of a million suns.
It’s a fact that there are certain traffic laws out there that seem stupid or not well thought out – mostly speed limits in my opinion – but some are just common sense, dammit! Whether it’s addressing your neighbor’s fart can-equipped ricer waking you up at the crack of noon, or the excessively tinted windows that prevent you seeing their reaction to your shaken fist and glare of disapproval, some of these laws are specifically car-related. Others however, regulate how they are operated on the road.
As frustrating as it is, sometimes there’s not a cop around when you need one, and hence a lot of these common-sense laws go broken by other drivers without repercussion, and often at your and my expense. Considering all the laws that could be, and frequently are broken, which are the ones that most burn your bacon? What are the traffic laws that you wish were more strictly enforced?
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Hooniverse Asks: What Automotive Law do you Wish was More Heavily Enforced?
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60 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: What Automotive Law do you Wish was More Heavily Enforced?”
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The use of those orange flashy thingies on cars!!!
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I don’t bother using my turn signals because half the time they don’t work.
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Suzuki may want a word with you – your enthusiasm contract just expired.
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Flashing yellow lights on the front of the car? What an interesting idea! What do they do? Here in Texas I don’t think I’ve ever seen them. Anyhow, if we did have them, people would probably just forget to turn them off.
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Bicycle laws in general. Bicycles can’t ride more than two abreast. I drive rural roads that are poplar with cyclists and they like to ride in large packs and block traffic. Not as bad now that I have moved, but it still happens. I used to run into a large pack on a weekly ride, You could eventually pass them, then they would also pass you again waiting on a red light and get in front of you. Also, I rarely if ever see a bicycle come to a complete stop at a stop sign.
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As someone who has commuted by bike a time or two, I’m on both sides of this one.
On one hand, I did my damnedest not to piss off the people piloting two ton lumps of metal, rubber, and glass. On the other, I tried to make my route as efficient as possible, which meant preserving momentum whenever possible because I’m the world’s laziest cyclist. If I’m rolling up to a stop sign, and I can see clearly before coming to a full stop that the intersection will be clear long enough for me to get through at a coast (leaving a margin of safety in case of an emergency like a jumped chain or abscessed toe), I’m rolling right on through that sucker, probably standing to pedal and regain my lost momentum.
Red lights, otoh, tend to be in more heavily trafficked areas. Follow the damned letter of the law there unless it’s 2am and you’re never going to trip the mag field sensor, in which case the law provides an out in most states that’s something like “treat it like a stop sign.”-
I commute regularly by bike. I did today in fact. “Sharing the road” is nonsense and it’s made worse by distracted drivers and distracted cyclists.
The Strava boys scare the crap out of me. I ride fairly rigorously, averaging around 17.5-19 mph over my whole commute that includes a decent amount of climb (1000 ft gain over 24 miles). So I do what I can to keep with traffic. That being said, I will occasionally come up on a guy decked out like he’s on the Tour, riding a bike that has more to do with NASA than Montgomery, NJ who is bombing through sections that simply do not need to be bombed through, many times with no respect for the yellow line.
I also deliberately turn down roads that will avoid schools. It’s not the kids and foot traffic I worry about, it’s the minivan/SUV crowd that scare me as they don’t stop at the stop sign leaving the campuses and have a cellphone in one hand and a Contigo coffee mug in the other.
The slow roll up to the stop sign and potentially not stopping, many times I am actually waved through by motorists. It’s a tough situation because i don’t want to stop, the driver wants me to go and the guy behind him can’t see that he is waving me through so he goes and tells his friends that cyclists suck.
It is what it is. I would love for everyone to ride their bike for 3 days a year to and from work, or to and from church, or wherever would work for them. I think it would make them vastly more aware of what is on the road around them.
I’m sure motorcyclists would agree that more aware drivers would benefit us all.-
Well said. I ride about 20 miles/week and you said what I couldn’t put into words very well.
Many motorists will wave a cyclist through (and if they do I’m sure taking it to save more pedaling back up to speed), but then others don’t see that and get upset.
And the cellphones, oh the cellphones. I’m convinced I will die under a minivan driven by a parent texting about how Johnny did at the soccer game, or what kind of Starbucks they are going to pick up.-
I died of laughter at the Family Guy take on the “Hiking” in the one where he and Quagmire form a band.
Peter: Well, this was a waste of time.I could have gone hiking with the girls.
(as an aside in the cutaway) We don’t hike. We just wear tight pants and get coffee.
Unfortunately these are the exact people I contend with on my commute. -
such a problem.i ride slimy motorcycles and bicycles in denver every week that the monsoon allows. my solution was to just obey the letter and spirit of the law and common sense. and survive to bitch about those who don’t. worked for me. still, taking my paranoia meds with a burbon chaser is also effective.
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I finally started dealing with rude cyclists by safely passing them, usually on a downhill if possible and then at the bottom of the hill, usually a valley. putting on my left turn signal and stopping. Then speed off up the hill after all the cyclists had stopped and lost all momentum.
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Oh, it’s time to air pet peeves!
– No lights on in rain. Grey and white cars, which disappear most in rain, are ironically worst offenders according to the authority of me.
– Following too closely. I know in heavy traffic literally everyone is following too closely because if you even attempt to leave a safe following distance, someone will fill that gap post haste. I’m thinking on lightly-traveled surface streets and country roads. I’ve had my ass ridden right by a cop (I think I might be leaving myself open for a joke there, but 3 hours sleep has upended my bucket o’caution into the gutter) who did nothing but take another sip of his coffee.
– I’m not sure if there’s a law for this, but I’m airin’ it nonetheless — the left lane is unofficially the “I’m doin’ at least 10 over AND at least 5 better than the lane immediately to my right” lane. Nothing irritates me more than someone who parks in the left lane next to someone who is doing the same speed in the right lane, obstructing me when I’m trying to do an Italian tune up on my modern, fuel-injected and variably-timed Honda.
There are more, because I’m both feeling grouchy and am at the best of times cantankerous, but this is getting long to the point of ain’t-gonna-be-read.
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I agree with you on the left lane camper. Nothing irritates me more than people who stay on the left lane and: a) go the same speed as everyone else; b) go less than 5 km/h faster than the rest of the traffic; c) go slower than everyone else.
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I’d amend the left lane statement to apply to all lanes. If you’re not passing, get to the right most lane. The law is, after all, keep right except to pass.
My commute is a moderately traveled 3 lane and the string of cars lined up in the center lane effectively divide it in half.
On a related note, I’m often amused by the driver who, obviously agitated by a slower left lane camper, dramatically moves right to pass, then dramatically moves left to camp in the left lane themselves.-
Try living near an urban core where all of the on-ramps are too short for anything that can’t do 60 in under 8s (if you think about non-enthusiast vehicles, that’s most of them). The right lane needs to be kept sparsely populated so on-rampers can finish getting up to speed. And so off-rampers can bleed off a bit before exiting. In such a situation (3+ lanes), it’s more helpful to think of the rightmost-but-one lane as the cruising lane, with each lane progressively left going a bit faster.
Note: this is not my theory. I learned it in one of the three traffic schools over attended over the years for points reduction.-
Where I am, ramps that short are not common. What is common here, however, is people traveling down a long, gentle sweeping ramp and getting to the end going 52 MPH trying to merge into 65+ MPH traffic. I get the desire to avoid those folks for sure.
What ends up happening when most traffic is in lane 2 and you reserve lane 1 for the entering & exiting is that you turn a 3 lane road into two. At some point the fastest way through traffic is to take your chances with the right lane. Now you’ve got your fastest drivers dealing with the entering and exiting traffic instead of the slowest. Should they be there? No, but they will be every time when everyone else crowds lanes 2 & 3.
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keep right except when passing really only works on track day. in real world transportation, filling all the lanes spaced appropriately for the speed involved is safer and more efficient than racing to the next light. speed kills faster. yes i know the argument about how nice the autobahn in germany is, been there and done that. i also have witnessed some horrific autobahn carnage and understand that capable cars are only as safe to go fast in as the operator is capable of maintaining control or the road condition, design, and other drivers allow.
but, i digress. is a bicyclist a pedestrian or what? a bicyclist operating on a side walk or bike path is a pedestrian. legally, what is a bicyclist when operating on a public roadway? is there a difference? in CO there is no law in the books stating bicyclists must obey the motor vehicle laws(stop signs etc.). is it a legal fiction that bicyclists are not operating on the public road way in CO?
statistically,(lies and damn lies noted) it has been noted that car/bike accidents faults are heavily weighted towards the cyclists being at fault. how so when no law forces cyclists to obey traffic laws?
to witness truly arrogant cyclists one simply must visit Boulder county in CO.
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Cell phones.
It’s a primary offence in NJ to drive while holding one, but it hasn’t stopped anyone from the looks of it.
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The telltale texting behavior, even more so than drifting out of their lane, is the car speeding up and slowing down repeatedly. The look down and decelerate, then when they look up and realize how slow they’re going, they punch it.
http://www.tanshanomi.com/temp/my-blood-boils-TeddyR.jpg
Left-lane campers.
In addition to all of the above of course.
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There is some hope here in Georgia: http://www.wtvm.com/story/29214157/cobb-county-police-citing-drivers-under-slowpoke-law
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I would truly hate to live in a “No” or “less than SL” state.
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On my way home tonight, I played “drunk or txting” watching a Focus weave 3 to 4 feet into the left shoulder. He had absolutely no idea there were any other cars on the road. Going 15 mph slower than the limit.
I really expected him to run into someone.
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I encountered a trifecta this morning:
-Vehicle parked in cloverleaf merge lane under the overpass for no apparent reason, shortening merge lane from full length to ~100 feet
-Through traffic in right lane, not able to move over, despite a vehicle parked on shoulder with flashers going and a move-over law
-Through traffic in left lane following too close, gaps too small for right-lane traffic to move into
Result: I got to the bottom of my on-ramp at a decent merge speed, then had to stand on the brakes when I got to the point I could see the dumbass parked under the bridge, because the right-lane through traffic couldn’t move over and I had to merge in behind them at an unsafely-low speed.
All of the above. The one that bothers me the most is parking though. Due to low crime for decades, many Norwegian municipalities are essentially without police. Parking is a no-priority where I live – and they tell that to your face. So when the lesser individuals you’ll find everywhere park their cars right in the middle of crossings – reducing vision, stopping trucks – people get irritated, but nothing happens. Until, after a couple of troublesome years, the road dpt will set up a fence or block the intersection in other ways. That’s the most positive outcome…
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Light police presence, you say? Sounds like it’s time for someone to go full A-Team on a rusty old Volvo with lots of scrap metal to start enforcing sane parking by punishment.
Parked in the middle of an intersection? Here, let me push you over to the side.-
I…eh…may have done that a couple of times with my old Volvos…but only with other cars that had grownup bumpers.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1008649892479394&id=113741208636938&refid=52&ref=bookmark&_ft_=top_level_post_id.10204583316567476
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I don’t want to stickle, but I think ptschett and Sjalabais have different definitions of “parking”
in standing traffic: letting a car sit at velocity zero, and even leave it for shopping or so.
in moving traffic: driving in a speed substantially lower than the flow of traffic suggests, or ptschett would need to carry speed into the merging area.
Since the left-lane bandit issue will be very well addressed, I wish there was something that could be done about those who seem convinced going above 3000rpm will blow up their engine, even getting on the highway. The speed limit is 100km/h around here, most people (even the transports) do a little more that that, and even with my assortment of slower vehicles, there are very few onramps too short for me to be able to match traffic. I have a hard time believing anyone (not driving an 18 wheeler) that can’t do the same is at best an inconsiderate asshole and at worse actively dangerous.
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When Michigan went to 70 mph speed limits on their highways, I was going through Drivers’ Ed. There was a huge campaign about “Finding your gap” when you were near the top of the entrance ramp and being at speed to hit it when you finally had to merge.
I wish all states pushed the same concept.-
Yup, that’s just it – the sooner I’m at highway speed, the sooner I can tweak my position and merge over without expecting anyone to significantly change their velocity.
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Folks using fog lights when it’s not foggy. Yeah, you dimmed your driving lights but that only cut your light output by 20%.
Also, the new fad here in central Cali is LED lightbars on bro trucks. Half these wankers drive with them on. I want to smash every one I see.
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When you say foglights, do you mean the lower accent lights (as they’ve become), or real-live powerful foglights?
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I mean the ones that look like a tiny binary star system hovering a foot off the ground.
Here in the Central Valley we get some genuinely insane fog for most of the winter. Good aftermarket fog lights (or bright bulbs in the stock what you refer to) are actually useful and add a little reaction time for avoiding something in the road you can’t see until you’re 50 yards from it. I got no problem with fog lights in the fog.
As with anything useful, morons tend to overuse them, and drive with ’em on on nights when you could see a candle from a mile away.-
If the lights are properly aimed, then the intrusion on other drivers is minimal.
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Turn signals are clever devices, and people should use them more often.
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I wish police would pull over and shoot those who don’t use turn signals
I hate being stuck behind people who refuse to merge at the speed of traffic. I daily a 100HP subcompact. I can utilize the full length of the on-ramp to comfortably merge, or get stuck behind you doing 40 and have to downshift and punch it to prevent an SUV from running up my ass.
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Also annoying (especially when I’m driving my pickup, which has a similar power-to-weight ratio as a 100 HP subcompact) – people whose merge ramp speed only comes out as an acceptable average because they they were creeping down the 1st 2/3rds at 20 MPH then floored it for the last 1/3rd.
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Cannot agree strongly enough. People seem to have the misconception that “faster is more dangerous”. Well, not if everyone else is moving faster than you, it isn’t. It isn’t speed that kills, it’s differential speed — you are NOT safer merging into 65 mph traffic at 40 than at 65. Thankfully my current daily has enough poke that I can get up to speed reasonably quickly, once past the offending car, but I used to drive a full-size conversion van that was, uh…considerably less sprightly. (Still sounded good, though — I do miss having a V8, even if the V8 in question made less power, and not much more torque, then my current turbo-4). If I could successfully get up to an appropriate merging speed in that thing, the rest of traffic didn’t have much of an excuse.
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You have all my empathy, Cameron.
Having owned a 125 HP, gasoline not diesel, 80’s luxury land yacht, I know exactly how crucial it is to conserve momentum. When driving it at even 11/10ths means you’re still not up to merging speed, on a decently long, mostly downhill, entrance ramp. People being ignorant, oblivious obscacles makes it that much worse.
Our 40′ diesel motorcoach usually with an additional 15′ of ’98 5.9L Jeep ZJ behind it, has all 275 horsepowers and 660 torques working most of the time.
When you’re effectively 60′ long, and 0-60 time is just a hair under a minute, but aren’t likely to get the acknowledgement of size/speed from traffic that a tractor-trailer would, it’s interesting.
Germany is already heavy on the laws and the general driving skill level is already satisfying. If anything I wish inspections were a little LESS strict. The bureaucracy involved in performance tuning sometimes exceeds the costs and efforts of the tuning itself. No easy engine swaps, no junkyard turbo conversions, half the price of an aftermarket turbo kit is for the testing certificates involved. Most people don’t tune their cars anyway, and I doubt the few that do make enough of a difference to make it such a hassle for them.
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That’s what fascinates me the most with the incredibly diverse builds presented here, particularly in the crapshoot. But would I want cars licensed like that around me? Meh….
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Here in the US it varies from state to state and even within different areas in each state on how much modifications you can get away with. Most states anything over 25 years old is open to any modifications (California is probably the only exception to this). Where I live in Georgia, if you live in one of the larger metropolitan areas you are required to pass an emissions test every year on any vehicle less than 25 years old. In the rural areas, no testing, so most anything is fair game. You MIGHT get stopped by the police for some of the crazier modifications, but generally as long as you have headlights and turn signals and maybe windshield wipers you are good to go. You might get some sort of ticket if you were running straight pipes. Over 30 years ago, Georgia did require a safety inspection every couple of years. That checked for things like functioning brakes with acceptable brake pads, non-bald tires, properly aligned and functioning headlights, etc. Also, anything with a VIN that says it is a diesel doesn’t get tested for emissions.
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wow – that sounds like getting aircraft modifications approved in the USA. You have to get Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) which are as expensive as, and almost as annoying as, STDs.
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Just a quick checklist of things you need in Germany when your performance tuning exceeds the most powerful production option. The following things up to 20% over:
– dyno test
– noise test
– full emissions certificate (not just an emissions test)
– Vmax determination
– brake test
– suitability of the tires (switch to a higher speed index both in the papers and on the car)
– handling test
– suitability of the speedometer (scale), replacement if necessary
Additionally the following things up to 40% over:
– instruments to monitor the transmission temperature
– safety measures to prevent the prop shaft from falling out
Additionally the following things when exceeding the 40% threshold:
– static test (aka chassis rigidity certificate, these things can run in the thousands)
– working order proven in long term driving test (2000 km total on closed circuits such as the Nordschleife)
– Vmax brake test
By the time you have all this figured out and paid for, you might as well have bought a faster car to begin with, hence why we build so many performance sedans. It also explains the premium prices for tuner shops such as Brabus, since they have to churn out a mountain of test certificates for every new chassis they work on.
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1. Schmuck’s who have no understanding of how highway on ramps are supposed to be utilized, such as driving down the ramp at 25 mph and then stopping at the bottom because they weren’t going fast enough to merge with traffic on the highway. (Probably not illegal per se, but definitely worthy of some sort of penalty)
2. Idiots who stop and then signal for a turn. “Hey! How about a little advance notice before you stand your whip on it’s nose to make that turn? Axxhat!
3. Engaging in any activity that doesn’t involve maintaining actual physical control of your vehicle such as reading, putting on makeup, beating your kids or being so engrossed in your cell phone that you don’t realize that you’re doing 35 mph in a 65+ mph and using all three lanes…
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The people who wait until the light turns green to signal that they’re making a left turn – that’s just cause to commit vehicular manslaughter, innit? As a juror on a case like that, I’d be voting innocent, and recommending a medal for civic heroism awarded to the driver who cleaned up the gene pool in that instance.
My commute takes me eastbound to an interchange where the rightmost two lanes peel off and go northbound. The next lane goes southbound, and the fourth lane can either go southbound or continue eastbound with the remaining lanes.
In the morning rush hour, about 70% of the traffic heads northbound, and those right lanes back up for a half mile. I head southbound, and those lanes back up for a quarter mile, because there are always a few idiots who wait until the last hundred feet to switch over two lanes, and they end up blocking the lanes that should otherwise be able to travel at posted speeds.
I could save as much as five minutes some mornings if the do not cross the lines laws were enforced.
Honorable mention: DPF tampering (i.e. removal) with late-model on-highway diesels that needed one for their emissions homologation. The right to make opaque clouds of carcinogens only exists if the vehicle is being used off the highway or as a non-road race vehicle.
There is only one answer – proper left lane usage.
Loud pipes on bikes. There is a Doppler effect; it means that your straight pipe is quiet until you pass me. So loud pipe don’t save lives, they just make other peoples’ lifespan more miserable.
Crazy speeding. Just today, I was going the speed limit (100km) on a two lane secondary highway. I realize I could go a little faster, and I’m okay with people going a little faster, but when that axxhole goes by me at double the speed limit, well that ticks me off. A little speed is fun, but I also like thigs like reaction time…
I have little use for people who run red lights, particularly when I’m making a protected left turn.
http://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3690/9630710931_cb656c834d.jpg
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Oh no! Will Britain’s motoring pride be okay?
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Upon inspection, the damage revealed some deeper structural issues. Who knew these things tended to rust? Its future is looking bleak.
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That’s unfortunate!
One shouldn’t be too hard on BL for the lack of rust-proofing though, as they simply didn’t encounter dampness in jolly old England…
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