License Suspended over ONE parking ticket

[lexuspilot]

I can't stand speed traps. They are revenue machines that prey on hardworking people who have a lot on their mind. I would admire a policeman who just drove in traffic, looking for the dangerous ones.

I also hate it when the construction signs are ambigous and no one knows if it is an active zone or not. If you want people driving 35 then just put up a giant f'ing sign that says 35mph construction zone. We had one here in alabama that always said "35 when workers present". But, it was a fly over and you coudn't see the workers. So instead of a safe situation, you had people slamming on brakes and speeding up, unsure as to wether it was was 55 or 35. The little city cop would sit behind the wall revenueing. Jacka$$

[hdpt73]

If i were a cop, i'd hand out tickets like they were going out of style to:
1) people who drive slow in the left lane
2) people who go under the speed limit
3) people on cell phones that hold up traffic (people on cell phones who can actually drive is another story)

in fact, i would volunteer for free to patrol the streets and hand out these tickets.

[donv]

I recently had a much nicer experience with a state cop...

Sunday Morning, ~9AM. We were late leaving for the airport and I was working to make up the time on the road driving my gf's Mazda Protege to get to Manchester, NH. Cross over from Mass to NH and crest the rise on Rt. 3 and the NH state cops (multiple) are positioned waiting in the median strip breakdown area. Immediately scrub off speed, hoping they'd pick someone else out of the traffic coming their way. Wrong. Cop walks out into the middle of the highway, points straight at us and then the median. Crap! I pull over.

Cop: License & registration please.
Me: Here you go (we already had it pulled out).
Cop: Where you going?
Me: Airport.
Cop: Wait here (walks back to cruiser).

Cop: (Comes back...) You were going pretty fast. I've given you a warning. SLOW DOWN.
Me: Thank you officer.

He could have nailed me but didn't... and I didn't have to fake tears or anything.

[BuffaloBoxster]

Originally Posted by lexuspilot

I also hate it when the construction signs are ambigous and no one knows if it is an active zone or not.

They're re-paving one side of a highway here in Buffalo. Now they only work on maybe a mile or two per day, right? Well, they declare the ENTIRE length of the highway a construction zone. Double fine double points in NY state too..

[ranbar2]

>If i were a cop, i'd hand out tickets like they were going out of style to:
>1) people who drive slow in the left lane
>2) people who go under the speed limit
>3) people on cell phones that hold up traffic (people on cell phones who can >actually drive is another story)

>in fact, i would volunteer for free to patrol the streets and hand out these tickets.


I'd add to the list people who drive in dedicated exit lanes to pass scores of cars and then try to cut back in just before the exit, blocking the exit lane. I guess those guys (and gals) think they are special.

Another pet peeve is when i put on my signal to change lanes, some a-hole sppeds up to close the gap so i can't get in.

[slogans7]

My favorite is getting stuck behind a slow driver who, as they're approaching an intersection, speeds up so they make it but you wind up getting stuck at the red light. :ah:

[BuffaloBoxster]

Originally Posted by ranbar2

I'd add to the list people who drive in dedicated exit lanes to pass scores of cars and then try to cut back in just before the exit, blocking the exit lane. I guess those guys (and gals) think they are special.

Don't forget the opposite - those who don't use the acceleration lane to accelerate and merge into trafic at a dangerously reduced speed.

[RandallNeighbour]

Man, this thread has degraded from pulling a license over a non-moving violation to cops being coniving money-makers for their townships to general ********************ing about other drivers. One should never wonder why I love this forum!

Just to insure we remain off topic here, I must tell you of an experience I had Saturday morning just west of Ft. Worth Texas.

I had a 20ish aged gal in a Ford sedan (one of those smaller econoboxes for which I cannot remember the name) who noticed she had a black boxster in her rear view mirror. She, an another older woman in another car in front of her were both travelling 70 in a 65, passing a freight truck who was in the right lane. They were putzing along in the passing lane.

I, of course, was on the last day of a 17 day driving vacation and it was petal to the metal for me, only 5 more hours of driving to get home to Houston.

Well, this 20 yr old decided that she was going to be the parent driver when she realized the old lady in front of her wasn't going to do a tick over 65 if she wasn't overtaking a truck. The 20 yr old matched the speed of the old lady who had now moved into the right hand lane. Temporarily, she was blocking me back to drive the speed of the old lady, and slowed down and sped up when the old lady did.

At first, I didn't realize she was being a total jerk to the Porsche owner and I moved closer, to the left near the yellow line, flashed my brights, you know, all the normal signs for "Hey, move it I'm travelling a lot faster than you" kind of signals.

She responds with frequent taps on her brakes and then harder braking.

(My wife is now really pissed off, shouting at her and I'm trying to fend of ideas of passing on the far right or far left shoulder... decided against it because I knew one of these drivers would flick their wheel a bit and I'd be partially in the grass and spinning out unnecessarily.)

The two lane widens into 5 lanes after about 10 minutes of this crap and I downshift to 3rd, pass on the far right into merging traffic, and the 20 year old shoots me the bird as I zoomed ahead!

I tell you, this is the reason I do not own a handgun. I must say I now undertand road rage far more than before. It's inexcusable to react to another's stupid actions, but I'd never had this happen to me before in my Porsche. Some folks are evidently pissed that they can't drive a nice car. Jealousy is a nasty little beast and brings out nastiness in others too.

You'd think this is the end of the story, but the gal actually tried to keep up with me and rode my butt all the way up to 90 mph when I hit my brakes and she realized she wasn't up for the same treatment from me at those speeds.

[SoCal]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

The two lane widens into 5 lanes after about 10 minutes of this crap and I downshift to 3rd, pass on the far right into merging traffic, and the 20 year old shoots me the bird as I zoomed ahead!

I tell you, this is the reason I do not own a handgun.

But I thought that in Texas, a defense to a homicide charge was "she needed killin'."

[RandallNeighbour]

As long as the DMV gives driver's licenses to idiots with attitudes, we will not get along.

SoCal, while your comment could not be more true about Texans, it's not the one that seems to count in our courts, but it does count on our streets.

What I try to remember for my own safety is something published a few years back in our local paper:

"Two out of five Houstonians have a loaded weapon in their vehicle and within reach while driving our freeways."

Don't forget this if you drive around my city for some reason... it's probably better to back off from aggressive drivers than to find your car or skull with a bullet in it.

[SoCal]

Originally Posted by ranbar2

Another pet peeve is when i put on my signal to change lanes, some a-hole speeds up to close the gap so i can't get in.

I thought for sure you would be from LA and then I looked up and saw Florida! Must be the same everywhere.

Out here, you cannot use your signal to "ask permission" to change lanes. You have to pick your safe spot, "serve notice" with a blink or two, and go. If you hesitate -- i.e., wait three whole blinks -- whoever is a few car lengths behind will accelerate to keep you from changing lanes. Like programmed robots -- see blinker, stomp gas.

This seems to be especially true if you are in the next-to-the-right-hand lane and are trying to exit the freeway. If you blink three times and haven't changed lanes, you can kiss your exit goodbye.

It's peculiar in Southern California. I really think we have (on average) some of the best drivers anywhere -- almost like you have to be, or else. (Best in the sense of being able to maneuver the vehicle, not in the sense of understanding cooperation and traffic flow.)

Best drivers, EXCEPT when it rains. After months of no moisture, the oil seeps out of the road surface when it rains a little, and these knuckleheads do not change their driving habits to adjust.

The few days that it rains each year, the commute from Orange County to LA goes from an hour and a half to four hours. Not because people slow down for the wet conditions, but because they don't and the freeway is littered with crashed cars.

Once about ten years ago, on a cold wet winter day, it sort of snowed/sleeted for half an hour. It was demolition derby.