Violators unlikely to be ticketed!

run100 wrote:
In order to stay alive, I have to pay very close attention to what drivers are doing. I ride public transit every day and cross several intersections on foot to get to the stations. In addition, I ride my bicycle to work once or twice a week, 6-months of every year. If I had not been paying attention, there were many occassions my life would have ended over the past 7 or 8 years. This has really heightened my awareness of driving behavior.

I'm curious if other have noticed the pattern I've observed the past decade or so. In years past, it seemed drivers tending to push the speed limits, but used turn signals somewhat regularly.

In contrast, todays drivers are more eradic with driving speed and can often be seen driving significantly below the speed limit, even on the freeways. More often than not, they are using some sort of electronic device. In addition, slow starts and fast stops are frequent.

Your thoughts and obsrvations?

I've noticed the same thing. People don't stop at stop signs, ignore yield signs, and don't obey speed limit signs. I've had a half dozen accidents in the last twenty years and in every case I was stopped when I was hit.

About five years ago I was stopped at a red light and looked in my rear view mirror in time to see a mini van bearing down on me at about 45 mph. She barely braked before she ran into the back of my pickup. After the accident I asked her what happened and she told me that the ABS light was on in her van and her husband had warned her not to do any hard braking.

Another accident occurred the same way. The driver behind me was looking at some college girls in bikinis and didn't notice the line of stopped traffic. He totaled his pickup and did several thousand dollars worth of damage to mine. He was driving on a revoked license in an uninsured and unregistered vehicle. He tried to drive away, but his truck wasn't drivable. The police took him away in handcuffs.

I had two close calls last week. In one case a woman merged onto the interstate and came all the way across 3 lanes of traffic into the fast lane and ran me off onto the shoulder. Another guy driving a delivery truck drifted into my lane on a two lane highway and ran me off onto the shoulder. Both of them were messing with cell phones at the time.

I feel like I take my life into my hands every time I drive during Spring Break around Panama City.