How is it even possible/practical to obey traffic laws?
I'm talking specifically about obeying the speed limit, doing a full stop at stop signs, etc. After receiving a speeding ticket for doing 53 in a 50, As an experiment I went a full day obeying all traffic laws 100% and it caused so much road rage. For example, there is a 2 lane road near me with a speed limit of 50 (where I got the ticket), traffic usually moves at about 60/65. There was a huge line of cars behind me and nowhere to pull over. As soon as an opening came up on the shoulder I was about to pull over and one of the cars behind me blew past me on the on the right blaring their horn. Then another truck passed me at the next opportunity and brake checked me. Both of these cars proceeded to run a red light about 1/4 mile ahead of me endangering others. By far the worst part of driving on this 2 lane road was the 25 mph work zone which is completely ignored by everyone else. It effectively resulted in me doing 25 mph in a "60" which is very dangerous.
Having needed to spend the entire day pulling over at every opportunity to let people pass I inevitably picked up a drill bit and got a flat tire.
Even matters as simple as stopping completely at a stop sign for 1 second cause immediate anger and dangerous behavior from other drivers.
What on earth are we expected to do? All I want is to avoid speeding tickets and drive safely.
Speed limits are one of the many transportation issues that have been researched with findings that the US has ignored and the EU has implemented.
Drivers go at the speed they're comfortable with regardless of any posted speed limits. They dont work. What does work is road design to make it uncomfortable to go faster. Narrower lanes, less vision on intersections, raised crosswalks, among other things.
It is fairly easy to obey the road rules. The problem is that if over time the laws aren't enforced then it is easy over time for thos laws to erode, and then suddenly it feels weird to obey them.
Realize that a lot of traffic laws are more or less designed to make everyone a criminal. That leaves it up to the cop to decide who they like to pull over.
Sprinkle in a little racism and bam! This is America.
One time when I lived in Utah, I literally got pulled over for driving the speed limit. Literally. The cop told me that I needed to go with the flow of traffic instead. He didn't give me a ticket, but it was still an annoying interruption to my day, and I assume it gave him a power boner of some sort.
But another time, living in the same area, I got pulled over by a different cop for going with the flow of traffic, because speeding isn't justified even when everyone else on the road is.
As another comment said, you're fucked if you do and fucked if you don't. Although, I do prefer the alternative of going with the flow of traffic to avoid road rage incidents as you've pointed out.
Do it anyway. If a driver crashes into you because you're obeying traffic laws, they're at fault, and their life gets ruined because they're an awful person. If someone blows through a red light, same deal. If traffic gets backed up for several miles because nobody wants to travel at the speed limit, fuck 'em, they should have left earlier. I enjoy the impotent fury that other drivers feel towards me when I'm going 35 in a 35.
It might be "immoral" and "sociopathic" for me to think this, but if someone is gonna get themself killed because they can't stand to come to a complete stop at the stop sign, GOOD, I hope they die. The world is better off without them in it. Of course, never block someone from passing you even if they have to break the law to do it. You never know when someone is bleeding out from a chainsaw wound.
In Germany, it's against the law to not do a full stop at traffic signs. You will fail your driving test doing this and you'll definitely get pulled over when you're seen doing it.
You should obey the basic rules such as speed limits, stopping for red light, etc. Driving faster is associated with higher rate of road fatalities.
The real solution is that our society must abolish the reliance on cars. We should opt for safer modes of transportation that do not make it necessary for us to trust every random person to have the patience and skill for operating a car that can kill people so easily.
All I'm getting from this is that, on the day you obeyed all traffic laws, you were the good driver and the others were bad. Things didn't run smoothly because the others didn't obey the traffic laws, not because you obeyed them.
A ticket for 53 in a 50? Either you were using a GPS speedo instead of the mechanical one in the car or you were actually going faster than you thought.
Here in the UK speedometers are required to read fast and all speed cameras have 5mph dead zone to account for errors in the reading so doing 53mph on the speedo wouldn’t even set off a camera. Obviously idk about the US but it seems a bit stupid not to have a system similar to the UK one.
You mean pulling over as in stopping at the side of the road to let people pass because you were abiding by the speed limit? That sounds so wild to me.
I absolutely love driving the speed limit exactly when someone behind me thinks I want a longer trunk, maybe a tiny bit slower if they're persistent.
They're usually able to keep a bigger distance all of a sudden.
That said, the speed is usually at most at 10kmh above the limit so I guess it's not too bad yet. Aside from the occasional idiot that thinks curves with little visibility are superior to straight sections where you can see the next 500 meters for taking people over.
I follow all traffic laws to a tee, just to be the change I want to see in the world. Pedestrian deaths (negligent manslaughter IMO) by cars are at an all time high in my country. As a bonus, I usually end up right next to the asshole speeding and weaving in and out of traffic at the red light
I've been driving for about a decade and a half now, including a few years here and there working jobs with a lot of wheel time. Either pizza delivery or cable technician or driving around a box truck.
I have never gotten as much as a speeding ticket. I typically don't speed more than 5~10 mph over the limit. If it's a 35 or 40 in a city area though I will typically stay the speed limit. Sometimes I go a little ham on country roads in the middle of nowhere. I drove through central Florida once at like 4am and I peaked at like 120mph because I hadn't seen another car for at least an hour.
I think it probably depends on your jurisdiction, but nobody really respects the laws. On the interstate near my house, the speed limit is 65 but it might as well be 80. Cops will pass you and people will pass the cops and nobody cares.
I think the speeding laws are just to give the cops a reason to pull you over if they want you - OR a way to get people that are really being crazy. For example if you're going 110 in a 65 you deserve to get pulled over and given a ticket or worse, depending on context.
Sometimes you get nailed for something fucking stupid like 53 in a 50. (Maybe that is worth contesting). Sometimes you deserve it (like me doing 40 in a 25 one time). But there's no justice. Loads of people get away with breaking loads of laws all the time before they finally get caught.
So it's a game for us. But actually it's a money maker for the government doing the enforcing.
One thing works well for me: using Google maps to navigate everywhere I go has the benefit of speed trap notifications.
It's incorrect to think of most road laws as being in place for safety, instead recognize that it's largely a tax by another name. It is never safe to drive 20mph below prevailing traffic, regardless of what the sign on the side of the road instructs.
To avoid fines, pay attention and try to avoid routes where there are often cops collecting a toll, especially during quieter times when you're one of a smaller number of commuters (and more likely to be the sucker who gets pinged). If you're white, congratulations, you're way less likely to be the unlucky party who gets pinged.
Also be aware that police tend to be a bit more stringent with enforcing traffic rules if you're traveling through a small town. I read an article long ago (so take this with a grain of salt) that the police department of a small town gets a large portion of its funding through speeding tickets, so there's a huge incentive for police in those areas to enforce traffic laws as tightly as possible.
In any case, the highest that I'll do is speed limit + 5 mph when there's not that many other cars around, and if the other cars want to pass by me, no big deal
I think traffic laws in many cases cause more issues than they solve, though I don’t know enough to really say which types of laws are problematic.
I do notice that a lot of drivers which go over the speed limit because it’s too low tend to overdo it, driving too fast instead, for example.
On roads where the speed limit is fairly high most people seem to drive at a speed close to it.
I also read a study a few years ago which claimed that removing speed limits actually causes most people to drive slower, but I can’t find it right now.
Getting a speeding ticket while going 3 miles over the speed limit sucks so I can see why you’re upset.
I’ve never had a problem just going with the flow of traffic. Sometimes almost everyone is going over the speed limit. I go with that. I’ve lived in Minnesota most of my life. I’m more comfortable than most driving in snow and ice. Sometimes in snowy conditions the flow of traffic seems slower than necessary. Yet, again, I just go with the traffic flow and end up driving a bit slower than I would otherwise. If there’s little to no traffic I just go the speed limit. If someone wants in my lane I let them in whenever possible.
I'm not sure where you live, but in many places if the speed of traffic is faster than the speed limit, you're expected to follow that, if you can do so safely, because driving slowly causes the reckless behavior you mentioned and can actually be more dangerous
The last ticket I got was from parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant. There's no sign or marker indicating where 15 feet is, so I had to basically eyeball it and hope that I was far enough from the hydrant. Yeah, that's one that's almost impossible to practically obey.
I can’t believe you got a ticket for speeding 53 in a 50! What state do you live in that police are that eager to give a ticket? Cops will only be that strict where I live in 25mph zones, usually school zones or a place where the highway goes through the middle of town.
They say something around here like: +8, you’re great. +9, you’re mine. And that is actually pretty low for how much I’ve seen people speed here (+15 sometimes, even on 2-lane highways like you’re talking about). I got ticketed for a +13.
I was going ten to fifteen over in the right lane on a major street and I literally felt fear for my life the way people around me were driving. People were raging at me for not running red lights! It was insane.
It's been like 20 years that, at least where I am there is automatic speed camera and a zero tolerance policy, people get fine and loose points even for small speeding so if you want to keep your licence, no choice
Not stopping at a stop? This looks dangerous like hell. Please think about the kid on a bike who might have the right of way, let her live
I also follow traffic laws. People often rage at me completely unprovoked, and I've been in more collisions than I can count.
What matters is you are not responsible for the actions of others. Yes driving 60 in a 25 is incredibly dangerous. See what happens when you slam on the brakes for the work zone sign, it's absurd.
But it's not our job to police that. The best we can do is follow the law, try to avoid the idiots, and collect the insurance money when they do hit us and move on.
Uh, what? This whole post feels like rage bait or you live in a very angry and unsafe area. I don't experience any of this.
No one gets a ticket for a 53 in a 50 and if you actually did it would get thrown out in court. Definitely fight that.
2 Lane roads. I hate em. But but that's all I have within 10 miles of me. I pass people, people pass me, no one is blaring their horn and brake checking (which is extremely dangerous) at all, much less daily.
Never in my 30 years of driving have a had someone lose their shit over stopping at a stop sign or a red light. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen someone run a red light.
And while people do speed in work zones, doing 60 in a 25 work zone will lose you your license here. That would be an exceptionally stupid thing to do.
This reads like an angry exaggerated rant by someone pissed they got a ticket. If it's not, I'm sorry you live in an area full of unsafe angry people.
When I was in drivers' ed they told us that even if the speed limit is, say, 35 mph, it's safer to go 45 mph if everybody around you is also going 45 mph. I think most cops are also aware of this, so I wonder if you were just picked on to fulfill a ticket quota or something. Also differences that small in mph are very questionable for a ticket because speedometers can vary wildly and most if not all speedometers have a very minor margin of error. For example you could have been radar tracked at 53 but your speedometer could have been closer to 51 or 50
After receiving a speeding ticket for doing 53 in a 50
This sounds too ludicrous not to be made up.
I've received a LOT of speeding tickets in my life. The only time I've EVER gotten a ticket for doing <5 mph over the posted limit is when I was actually doing +14 over the posted limit but the cop wrote it for 10 less than actual because he had to write a ticket but didn't want it to be excessive....so the final ticket ended up being 54 in a 50 zone.
I can't imagine anyone not being able to beat a +3 over speeding ticket in court. I probably wouldn't even call my attorney for that and would just fight it myself.