Posted on 12/10/2008 8:53:48 AM PST by Smogger
In these days of longer commutes and simmering tempers, nothing seems to set off already-testy motorists like the left-lane camper -- the guy or gal who drives in the passing lane and bars faster drivers from easily passing. Web sites have cropped up to educate other drivers, or to vent. There's a (somewhat painful) YouTube song called "Keep Right."
Even bigwigs get frustrated. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell, weary of having his limo slowed down by such left-lane pokies, ordered an aide to have the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission install signs a few years ago reading "Keep Right, Pass Left. It's the Law."
And now some states are cracking down on left-lane campers, both to keep traffic moving and to tamp down the road rage that goes from zero-to-60 faster than ever before.
That's not just a pretext. Last year, a driver was arrested on Interstate 79 outside Pittsburgh after allegedly brandishing a semiautomatic pistol at a driver who was on his tail.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.moneycentral.msn.com ...
a civil penelty even if it wasn’t you driving the vehicle. all about money it is...
Years ago I lived in Mississippi. Great place BTW. The people are really friendly. Many pickups had a rack with a shotgun and a rifle. Can you imagine someone with PA plates tailgating one of those?
Mississippi was the only state I saw road signs saying “No Shooting From Highway” or words to that effect. A lot of folks pulled over for target practice. The state just wanted you to pull waaay over and not just shoot from the shoulder.
Here in WV you have to have rifles and shotguns cased when in the vehicle. What a PITA.
>> I think they just have trouble paying attention.<<
Which brings up one of my “pet peaves”. I honestly believe that most “agressive drivers” are safer than the law abiding “asleep at the wheel” people. I don’t know about other “agressive drivers” but when I am driving I am thinking about driving. I am thinking about escape routes. I am thinking about what boneheaded move the driver next to me might make. I am watching minute movements in the front tires of other cars, head movements, you name it.
Meanwhile, the “safe” drivers are obliviously pushing their two tons at 60 miles an hour just praying nothing out of the ordinary happens.
Then they see my headlights flashing in their rear view mirror...
Yes, it is all about the money. We have a few of those red-light cameras around here. When I'm driving my older car, I make sure to stop on a yellow even if I have to dig into the anti-lock brakes. In my newer car, I make a more reasoned judgement - I don't want that car getting rear-ended. Don't care as much about the old one, though.
Heck yeah. What the heck do "sea lawyers" know about a living and breathing Constitution? ;-)
And they decide to teach YOU a lesson. How did we get to the place where Americans want to keep other Americans from simply driving a little faster than them? What happened to make them so insecure and stupid. Oh right, liberalism.
I’ve thought about getting one of those “move over” stickers. Wouldn’t it be a ticket magnet though? I’m thinking in the veign of a license plate frame that says “drive it like you stole it”.
You’re sort of telegraphing your driving habits.
My response to that is to put the car in park, turn it off, get out, and go to his door and ask if I had a burned out tail light. ;)
It’s fun to do stuff people would NEVER expect.
>>Tooling along in the left hand lane for no particular reason is just plain lazy driving.<<
And lazy driving is dangerous driving.
carrying a ball bat all the while....lol...
NO, I’m not, sir, so don’t jump to conclusions! I’m usually one of those in the slow lane because I baby my cheap-ass car by keeping it at 60. Also, there’s no need for me to even be in the passing lane much since where I live and work are only a few miles apart.
>>Many drivers are heavily influenced by the speed of other drivers.<<
This is true with me. One of my faults, and I admit it is a fault, is that my subconscious perception is that if I am going the same speed as everyone else, then I am standing still.
by golly, yer right, I should encourage people to break the law whenever I can!!
Around Pittsburgh, especially on going up Greentree hill out of the tubes on the Parkway West, I’ve seen trucks pulled over by Da ‘Burgh’s finest and ticketed for being in the left lane. Its forbidden on some hills here for trucks to go in the left lane for any reason, (unless the right lane is closed), regardless of how it screws with their shifting....and rightly so.
I’m sick of their arguments. My highway taxes are just as good as theirs, and most aren’t even from in state.
Yes, it is hard to avoid. The last time it happened to me (about 12 years ago) I played dumb. My goal is to get as much distance as possible between me and the other “target car(s)” and then play dumb. I then skedadle and get “lost” as fast as possible. If I am the first to be pulled over and he waves others over while outside his car, I don’t have a chance, and if I am the last to be pulled over after he has already successfully gotten the others, I also don’t have a chance.
But the idea is that if my method still gets me pulled over, I am the ONLY one pulled over. The one time it happened to me, he lost me.
I’ve only successfully outrun cops twice in my life and that time it was accidental...
The more truckers I see driving slowly in the left lane, the faster I run to the voting booth to ban them from the left lane.
You really need to utilize the rumble strips on the left of the roadway - it works - people don’t look in their mirrors, most have no idea you are there...
I’ve seen cops use them all the time - I’ve used them for years.
Just make sure it’s kindof clean looking - no need to tick off the guys in back of you with road spray or get a flat tire...
I’ve been through that area by Vancouver. It is notorious.
A lot of ticket avoidance is spending most of your time on roads you are familiar with and knowing where the likely traps are. It used to really irritate my stepson when we’d be hitting 90 on I-90 and I would say, “This looks like a good place for a speed trap” before we got out of the mount Baker tunnel. I’d back down to the actual limit and, whadaya know, there is a radar cop. But I know it is a notorious site.
LOL!
>>but yet if you run a red light they can take a picture of the car and send the owner of the car a ticket to pay even if he wasn’t driving it at the time of the infraction....<<
That is because there is photographic evidence. And if there is not a photo of my car BEFORE it entered the intersection showing a red light, there is not enough evidence.
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