• FlakesBongler [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    My best traffic safety moment was thinking that I was getting pulled over for DWB, only for the cop to honk and wave at me (which I reciprocated because I was more confused than anything)

    It wasn't until I got to the store that I realized why that all had happened

    I have a Sunset Sarsaparilla Sheriff's badge sticker on my bumper

    He thought I was a fellow :the-pigs:

      • Southloop [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I got the same when I wore a SDF-1 Macross ship’s cap. I was, like, fifteen when it happened!

        Meanwhile I wear a Pukin’ Dogs shirt out, and everyone wants to talk obscure punk bands, which I suck at.

          • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            That's not necessarily good. They're reactionary anti Vax weirdos. Their original singer killed himself in the 90s after his girlfriend who was doing sex work to supply their heroin habit was killed by Joel Rifkin. It's a sad story, but also the reformed Reagan Youth are a band you could apply the name to literally.

          • Southloop [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            That’s actually super cool. They’re one of the few bands I know and enjoy their stuff.

            No, it’s super awkward for me because the Pukin’ Dogs are a navy fighter squadron with cool iconography.

        • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Yeah, it says Bridges and has the spiderweb US shape. I guess it looks vaguely like a military emblem if you're just glancing at it or don't recognize the design. The lady who gave me the discount didn't seem to speak much English.

    • MoneyIsTheDeepState [comrade/them,he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Pigs in my town will pull you over at +5 if you're a highschool girl they want to menace.

      Typing this out, it sounds like I'm trying to make a fucked up joke, but I'm not joking and it isn't funny.

      • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The great thing about speed limits lower than anyone drives is it allows the cops to choose to harass only who they want to whenever they choose

    • FlakesBongler [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's how my dad taught me to drive and since he used to be in a biker gang, I figure it was good advice

    • edge [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I always go a little too fast on long interstate trips, but I've only been pulled over once. And that was a holiday weekend on an interstate towards a popular tourist destination, so that was just the cops being opportunistic and me failing to consider that.

      • RangeFourHarry [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Only time so far was for speeding outside Coalinga. I was entering I-5 from a rest stop and got a ticket for going 85, which was bullshit since everyone goes 80 anyways

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I've literally never been pulled over for speeding but it seems like everyone I know is pulled over a few times per year. It's bizarre how often it happens. I go exactly the speed limit, maybe 5 mph extra if there's a bit of a rush.

    I mostly ride a bicycle now though. If there's a section of road without adequate bike clearance or a sidewalk, I take up the whole lane out of spite.

    • StewartCopelandsDad [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Thank you. I'd rather go slowly behind a biker who's taking a whole lane than try to give them a wide berth in the shoulder / shitty unseparated bike lane. Makes me nervous to be less than a lane away from someone not in a steel cage, I'd much rather wait til I can pass across the dashed line like you would any other slow vehicle.

    • Beaver [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's just peace of mind for me, I set the cruise control at the speed limit and zone out. Since virtually everyone else is speeding, I never have to change lanes to pass anyone.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I go exactly the speed limit. It's not worth dealing with cops or getting a couple hundred dollar ticket just to get somewhere one entire minute faster.

  • SerLava [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Car brains seething: The left lane is for me when I am passing someone, even if they are going very slowly. The left lane is not for you when you want to be the fastest boy on the highway.

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I got in a fight with someone saying that four wheel drive and awd were useless on ice and it went on for like ten minutes before I realized he actually just had no idea how to drive on snow and ice.

            • commenter [none/use name]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I would agree that it becomes effectively useless on ice at higher speeds. A lot of people where I live seem to believe having 4wd gives them the ability to drive 80 mph on ice.

        • MoneyIsTheDeepState [comrade/them,he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          We love our half-unenforced laws. They let pigs use their own discretion in hurting poor people, and every :grillman: will tell you that they use it responsibly. After all, :grillman: isn't the one they're after

        • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          Technically Orange says that people are going faster than the speed limit, Red implies that they're going the speed limit in the left lanes and if you're slower you must stay to the right.

      • edge [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, as someone who mainly drives in orange or red states, the first time I heard the insistence that the left lane of a highway was for passing only confused me.

        The law is that if you don’t want to be the fastest boy on the highway, you have to stick to the right lane.

        This is better anyway. Left lane being for passing only is pointless if all the slow drivers are in the right lane anyway.

        In half of the states

        Not even half, only a quarter of states have the left lane passing only requirement. Nationwide it's the exception, not the norm.

        • Nagarjuna [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Left lane being for passing only is pointless if all the slow drivers are in the right lane anyway.

          having a dedicated passing lane dramatically improves traffic flow. It's better for everyone to be going 60 in the right lane and occasionally using the left lane to pass or exit than for everyone to be going 12 in both lanes because a third of the drivers wanted to go 70 in the left lane.

          • StewartCopelandsDad [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Plus if you want to go 90 that means you weave in and out of the passing lane which is more fun

            • Nagarjuna [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              100% That's like 2/3rds the fun of a motorcycle, and keeping the left lane open makes that joy accessible to fuccbois in hot-hatches.

          • edge [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            than for everyone to be going 12 in both lanes because a third of the drivers wanted to go 70 in the left lane

            I'm thinking more about longer interstate trips where the roads aren't too full. Traffic in and out of a city is entirely different.

            • Nagarjuna [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              You must not be taking your interstate trips on I 5 lol.

              • edge [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                Nah, opposite side of the country.

        • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]M
          ·
          2 years ago

          The 25 states in orange have people moving slower than the speed of traffic flow (which will be faster than the speed limit) required to stick to the right lane. That's what I meant by half the states.

      • SerLava [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Looking at that graphic, it's a not about being the fastest boy. You just have to be going the speed limit or higher.

        So if I am going 62 in a 60 passing cars going 40, in seemingly almost all of the states, I absolutely don't need to slow down to 40 and get in the right lane just because some fuckstick wants to go 95. Many people act as if the left lane is a special road for fucksticks who go 95

      • john_browns_beard [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        New Jersey and the like are the best ones on here, we have signs everywhere that say "keep right except to pass". People still hardly do it but at least the thought is there.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The left lane, just like the right lane, is for going up to the speed limit and nothing more. The lane for driving faster than that is called a race track.

  • Antoine_St_Hexubeary [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Often, the lane for "going fast" and the lane for "turning left at some point" are the same lane. Inn't that great? :sus-deep:

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Boater kulak in a black Audi five centimetres behind me, angry that he doesn't get to his destination 30 seconds faster:

    :frothingfash:

    Me, going the speed limit in my old piece of shit car, chilling to music:

    :cat-vibing:

    Now tell me, who has the most Fahrvergnügung?

  • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    If going the speed limit makes you significantly slower than everyone else on the road, going the speed limit is more dangerous than speeding. Match the flow of traffic. On most roads speed limits aren’t even set based on any particular research, they’ll do it either just sort of based on the vibe of what kind of road it is, or by measuring what people do and marking the speed limit at like the 80th percentile.

    People overwhelmingly do not follow speed limits, they drive as fast as they feel safe doing. If you want people to slow down the best way to do it is with road design, not speed limits. And robust public transit that makes driving unnecessary in the first place.

    • RION [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Match the flow of traffic.

      Honestly the fact that this is (rightly) taught in schools but not considered a viable defense if you're pulled over for speeding is the biggest bullshit

      • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        If I were a conspiracy minded individual I’d say it’s because it gives the police a valid reason to pull over pretty much anyone at any time and even give a ticket if they can’t find an excuse to do more

      • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Fuck off, as I posted above, this attitude makes you as a driver safer but makes every car more dangerous to someone walking.

        • RION [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago
          1. My comrade in Christ I don't drive. I never even got my driver's license.

          2. Aren't the contexts in which you're going to have to speed in order to match the flow of traffic, i.e. highways, largely devoid of pedestrians?

          • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It should but doesn't and I live on a 50km/hr 4 lane road, so the difference is negligible in the cases I'm referring to. The Stroad is a beast.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If going the speed limit makes you significantly slower than everyone else on the road then the speed limit should be enforced better.

      I agree with everything you say about designing roads to slow down traffic but the problem is that you can easily go 150 km/H on a road that is designed to be safe at 130 km/H. Even though it's unsafe it doesn't feel dangerous. You'll be fine most times, until that one time you're not.

      But if getting a nasty ticket or even losing your license if you're being really irresponsible is a real possibility, speeding becomes a lot less attractive.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      No.

      Every extra 10mph dramatically increases your odds of dying in a crash. You can pass if you want to do 85 in a 60.

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      That makes you safer but I use my bio limbs for transport and that attitude just makes everything more dangerous to me who is more likely to die thsn another person in a car should a car hit me.

  • 7bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    me, blocking an entire lane going 10 under the speed limit on my bicycle: hit me, coward

  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    ITT fucking car drivers. Yup, cops are bad and have quotas and we live in capitalism and cops will use those quotas and small amounts of speeding to target people.

    What's bothering me here is also don't speed. I walk everywhere and am almost hit like by cars going way too fast all the time. If I called the shots of communism one of the few police budgets to be increased would be traffic cops, speed limits would be lowered as well cause you're gonna be taking public transit and not privately driven 1000lb bullets under my watch

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Me riding my boomer motorcycle: What is this 80 MPH you speak of?

  • mittens [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    I watched a video of a dude trying out Tesla FSD. Since they're legally obligated to obey the speed limit, the Tesla goes slower than the rest of the cars (the guy even remarked that not going over the speed limit was maybe a liability). It's insane that cars speeding just about everywhere is just like a normal thing, and not only in the US.

  • StewartCopelandsDad [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Wind noise is too loud to talk after 60mph in my car, I seem to be speeding a lot less recently lol

  • CarsAndComrades [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    If American drivers could learn to keep right except to pass instead of driving three abreast at the same speed it would greatly benefit my sanity