Driving, Licensing, and Other Things That Are Bothersome About Using a Vehicle

Well I don’t want to be behind a drunk driver when he crashes. I try to get away from them altogether… not just like one car length ahead where they could still crash into me.

Yes, they use this tactic to catch speeders flying by them on the interstate.

When I moved to a new state and had to take the DL written test to get a new license in that state, even though I had originally gotten my DL in that state, I missed that question.

Question gave a number of scenarios when you might want to go faster than the speed limit and asked which one was allowed. One was when passing another vehicle. That was what I answered. The actual answer was that it was never legal to exceed the speed limit. Basically none of the above.

I tried to argue that if a truck was going 53 mph in a 55 mph speed zone on a 2 lane (one lane in each direction) with a passing zone, I might not be able to see far enough down the road to ensure I could safely pass the truck and return to my lane. The examiner said, “then you better not pass.”

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i would think a scenerio where increasing your speed would avoid an accident is the only LEGAL reason to speed

There is no left lane on a two lane highway. There is only one lane in either direction.

Do you only drive at the speed limit because you are uncomfortable going faster? Or are you afraid of getting a ticket?

I go the speed limit for the same reason I pay my taxes and don’t jaywalk.

I tend to drive as a speed at which I’m comfortable. Usually it is at the pace of the other traffic on the road. Many times it’s around 10 mph over the speed limit, which, for around here, is the unofficial speed limit. “Oh, a cop won’t pull you over unless you are going at least 10 mph over the speed limit.”

However, the lower the speed limit, the more exaggerated 10 mph over seems. If I’m doing 40 in 30 zone it seems like I’m driving fast. But 70 in a 60, not so much.

Again, a lot of it revolves around the existing traffic. Sometimes doing 80 on the freeway is keeping pace with most of the other cars and feels natural. At other times, 65 int he same area is just fine.

When traveling largely alone on the road, I probably gravitate to about 5 mph over. Not as a conscious maneuver, but most of the time that’s what feels just right.

Because you are uncomfortable with breaking the rules or you fear the repercussions like a fine?

Has anyone ever really been ticketed for jaywalking?

I could understand if someone was weaving in between cars crossing the street. But if there’s no one coming, and the next crosswalk is like 500 feet away, then I see no problem crossing the street.

All the time, in the area around my office.

Neither one. I think rules are essential to living in a society. Not all rules are good, not all rules should be followed, but, with limited exceptions such as human rights violations, when I don’t like a rule, I’ll try to change it rather than act like my situation and my comfort supersede anyone else’s.

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So, you are a letter of the law person vs spirit of the law person

Around downtown Louisville the police would spend about 2 weeks ticketing people after every pedestrian death.

Why do you care what someone’s motives are for not wanting to break laws?

I swear. People get so panty-wadded about other people not breaking traffic laws. I don’t need to justify why I follow the law.

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I believe this is generally legal, so long as the pedestrian yields to vehicles in the street. It was certainly legal in Ohio when I was learning to drive and had to know such things for the test.

The letter of the law is the speed limit is the limit

The law is enforced to give 10% (or more) margin.

So what’s the real limit? The letter, or what’s enforced?

Is this a trick question?

If the speed limit is 70 and you are going 71 then you are speeding and breaking the law. You won’t get a ticket until the cop clocks you going at least 75 and frequently 80 due to some combination of their equipment not being precise enough to definitively prove in court beyond a reasonable doubt that you definitely were speeding and also the community just not caring / having bigger & more important problems to worry about.

If the cop clocks you going 71 mph and his equipment is only accurate to within 3 mph then it would be foolish to give you a ticket. But if he clocks you going 78 mph then there’s really no question that you were going faster than 70.

Why would you need to know this for a driver’s test? The driver is probably not encouraged to hit them if they don’t yield, or are if they are within 500 feet of a crosswalk. And it the distinction that within 500 feet of the crosswalk you’re free to hit them in the road, even if they try to avoid you?

Apocryphal or not, I remember reading a long time ago, the reason for the “10 mph” buffer is because analog speedometers were not that accurate and someone’s dial could read 35 when they were really going 40. Add to that, radar technology was that precise either. So, they built in this supposed 10 mph cushion.

That, and fines are higher at 10 mph and higher over the limit, and it wasn’t really cost-effective for the officer to miss time on the beat and be in court for low-level (under 10 mph) speeding violations.

Not to jinx myself, but I’m often around the 10 mph over level and the handful of times I’ve been pulled over for speeding (in my reckless, younger days) has be for at least 15 or 20 over.

:woman_shrugging:

We had to learn traffic laws.

We also needed to know things like how long driver’s licenses and license plates are good for, which is completely unnecessary. The expiration date is printed right on the license. Although knowing that license plates expire ON your birthday, not at the end of the month probably saved my mom a ticket. She was used to them expiring at the end of the month, but in Ohio it’s actually on your birthday. So she was driving around with expired plates when I said something to her. She argued and two of my stepbrothers joined in “oh no, it’s definitely on your birthday”. She knew better than to persist in her challenge when we were all in or recently completed driver’s ed. Later when she looked at the registration it was definitely already expired.

She ended up getting in a minor-but-bad-enough-to-call-the-cops accident like a week later (after her birthday but before the end of the month), so it was good that her plates were current.