Posted on 03/19/2007 1:45:07 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A Broward County state senator has a message for pushy drivers who can't wait in line like everybody else stuck in traffic: Pay up.
Sen. Steven Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, wants to make it a crime for drivers to cut in at the front of the line at exit ramps, accident scenes and anywhere else traffic backs up.
His bill is probably a year or more away from getting a vote by the Legislature but it's sure to ignite passions before then.
"You want to look at what causes road rage? That is it," he says.
The "rude jerks" can spark fights and shouting matches, said Geller, who admits to almost losing his cool a few years back.
Geller and his son were waiting at an exit ramp, heading to a Marlins baseball game when a driver, "whose time obviously was more important than mine," cut in front of them.
Slapping such drivers with fines as high as $90 might make them think twice before butting in, he said.
The bill was referred to the Senate's transportation committee but won't reach the floor this year for lack of a companion bill in the House.
Geller plans to push for passage again next year.
Move your car over just enough so that it will block the strip on the side of the road.
That's particularly fun when there's a large concrete abutment there. I love the look on 'jerks' faces when they see they're quite effectively blocked from passing illegally on the right.
It's really great when you can get a big rig driver to coordinate this move. My CB radio comes in real handy for situations like that.
As a last ditch resort one can always open the passenger side door and let the fool tear it off. That'll really slow him or her down.
Not to mention the fact that it'll earn them a couple of traffic tickets.
L
Geller is going overboard, though. Like cops are going to SIT at a long line of cars handing out tickets to buttinskis? Meanwhile, while they're doing that, fifty other drivers do the same thing!
How about defining it as "reckless" driving and just allow cops, if they see it, to hand out tickets on that basis? We don't need a new law.
Broward County is the next county north of Miami-Dade County, where this all began forty years ago. (And has gradually moved north and west).
"Cutting in line" is a Miami tradition. :-(
I agree.
Usually it's impossible to block their access.
Now about getting my door ripped off, that might really ruin my day. Ha!
The next set of fines should be for rubberneckers who cause a lot of those long lines by needlessly gawking at accidents or, worse, at a car simply stopped on the side of the road.
She did indeed get a ticket, I heard all about it when she got to work about an hour late.
That's too bad. Our expressways here usually have large concrete devices and the break down lane is just large enough for one to pull over and open your car door to get out.
If you slide over about halfway into that lane it becomes impossible for these idiots to get around you. I usually try to coordinate this move with a trucker.
Of course one can always slide out of the way to allow emergency vehicles to pass.
L
So he wants to make it a crime to be rude in traffic?
Doesn't anyone object to just how incredibly absurd this is? This is WAY too meddlesome.
Why don't they make causing a traffic jam illegal instead? Probably because they'd have to arrest their entire road planning and maintenance departments. The morons go out there and create these situations and then want to blame others for trying to spend as little time sitting idle as possible.
I won't let them in either. I figure they must all be democrats 'cause they give me the finger for not letting them in here in Atlanta. I just smile and wave bye.
I'm not talking about full lanes, I'm talking about jerks who come around the side and push their cars in front of those who have gotten into the open lanes. Enough people do this so that your line almost stops.
You can defend your driving methods but I don't think it excuses driving to the front of the line and nudging others out of the way so you don't have to wait.
Rude. Rude. Rude!!
Yes it does, but I am wondering, don't most traffic laws have a law against passing on the right on a non-divided highway? I believe that passing on the right using a breakdown lane (usually marked by a solid white line) should already be illegal.
I have driven in many cities in my time but Phoeniz, Az must have the most rude, aggressive drivers of all time where stuff like this goes on at every entry and directional signals? I don't think that vehicles there have them.
I wholeheartedly agree. Only once did I see a proper reaction to it. Travelling north on Interstate 95, between Richmond and Washington, cars were flying along both shoulders passing all of the rest of us who were sitting in an endless backup, made worse by those idiots. Two truck drivers, working in harmony, pulled their rigs off on either side of the highway with their cabs joined together in the middle. Everyone in sight of them, as I was fortunate to be, began applauding them.
Waah, waaaah! Teacher, he cut in front of me and didn't give him cuts!-Sen. Steven Geller, D-Hallandale Beach (tattletale,whiner,dim)
Taking the day off from third grade?
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