The American Plague of Overtaking on the Right

[diddiyo]

Pretty good article!

The United States seems to have an inability, or unwillingness, to implement and enforce traffic safety laws other than speed limits. It has become an epidemic where highway patrols are seen by many as revenue collectors from speeding tickets than actual traffic safety enforcers. Most importantly, a law that many developed countries have enforced just as rigorously as speed limits, if not more, is rarely followed and even nonexistent in most of the United States: Keep right except to pass.

I agree 100%. It's a pain in the ass day in day out. Being originally from Germany, I have driven on the Autobahn a bazillion times and have never had a "close-call-accident" or whatever you wanna call it. Every time I have friends over from Germany and we're on the highway here in the US they're like "WTF are those people doing?" I wish cops would enforce this rule a lot more than they actually do instead of pulling people over because they're waiting for only 2 seconds instead of 4 seconds at a stop sign at 3 am

What do you guys think?

[headpunter]

diddiyo i agree with you completely. nothing annoys me more then some hippy in thier 90something volvo station wagon with a kayak and a bike and a snowboard on top and a Dave mathews band sticker in thier window doing 55 in the fast lane

[drivingincamaro]

what we need is to take the idiots off the road (and ricers)


isnt it harder to get your license in germany than the usa.

[stovt001]

That is the finest example of journalism I've seen in a long time. This is a huge problem in the US. It seems to me that we have stopped seeing driving as a privilege and a skill, and rather see it as a right. Essentially, if you meet the age requirement and aren't blind, the DMV will license you. It means more revenue in the form of fees, so they'll license anyone they can. The same goes for traffic laws and enforcement. Most of the laws have no real intent of keeping traffic moving safely and efficiently. They're just designed to maximize revenue. Evidence: the new California "hands free phone" law.

[diddiyo]

Originally Posted by drivingincamaro

isnt it harder to get your license in germany than the usa.

yes it is. you have to go to a real school for several weeks. twice a week you sit in a classroom with a bunch of other people and you work together with an instructor on a book and video-samples of different traffic-situations. they even teach you how to read the tire pressure on a tire and stuff. then after you passed a test you get to the actual driving-part. you have to spend a certain amount of hours with your instructor driving in the city, on the autobahn and at nighttime before you can take the driving-test. the instructor gets to decide when you are able to take the test, so some people might have to take more hours than others.

i don't remember exactly how much my license was, but i think it was about 1500eur (about $2100).

[Congoman775]

Originally Posted by diddiyo

yes it is. you have to go to a real school for several weeks. twice a week you sit in a classroom with a bunch of other people and you work together with an instructor on a book and video-samples of different traffic-situations. they even teach you how to read the tire pressure on a tire and stuff. then after you passed a test you get to the actual driving-part. you have to spend a certain amount of hours with your instructor driving in the city, on the autobahn and at nighttime before you can take the driving-test. the instructor gets to decide when you are able to take the test, so some people might have to take more hours than others.

i don't remember exactly how much my license was, but i think it was about 1500eur (about $2100).

but then again... dont we have REAL speed limits here in America?


jk

[The_Blur]

Originally Posted by stovt001

That is the finest example of journalism I've seen in a long time. This is a huge problem in the US. It seems to me that we have stopped seeing driving as a privilege and a skill, and rather see it as a right. Essentially, if you meet the age requirement and aren't blind, the DMV will license you. It means more revenue in the form of fees, so they'll license anyone they can. The same goes for traffic laws and enforcement. Most of the laws have no real intent of keeping traffic moving safely and efficiently. They're just designed to maximize revenue. Evidence: the new California "hands free phone" law.

This is high-quality writing without any doubt.

I am disgusted that the DMV is part of the Department of Revenue. The is no reason to associate driving with state funds. It should be a bonus to the state if it can appropriate more funds each year due to traffic violations. The state should assume that crime occurs but shouldn't consider it an automatic part of the budget. This is clearly the case at the end of the month when cops are suddenly abundant and seen taking over roadsides with flashing lights and people receiving tickets.

Moreover, I also agree with what you said about not intending to keep traffic safely moving. There's this road in Missouri on the classic Route 66, Manchester Road. In Wildwood, this road is 2 lanes. Near the intersection of Highway 109, Manchester used to be 45, but the speed has been reduced to 35 between Highway 100 and Highway 109. The residential areas that branch off of Manchester are all 25 despite having wide lanes and clear visibility; normally, such roads would be 35 in Missouri. As a result, people get ticketed while driving safely, and cops in this particular area will ticket for 5 over the speed limit. There are roads like these everywhere, and they would have safer drivers if all of the drivers' attentions were on the road and not the speedometer. I can't tell you how many times I've driven on Manchester and I can't tell you how many people nearly run into one another because someone looked down and saw that they were driving too fast. This is dangerous because traffic flows better when people are looking at the road.

I'm not saying that police officers shouldn't ticket people for driving faster than the speed limit. I am saying that speed limits should be raised and that people who don't want to drive 80 on the highway should get as far right as appropriate for their velocities.

I don't want to get TAG UR IT mad, so I'm going to stop now.