🚀 go-pugleaf

E. Faubion wrote:

> DPH <76256.3632@compuserve.com> wrote:
>
> >Thanks for the insight.  They do, however, know that you're back there.
>
> Some don't.  Following some of them in a fully marked police unit in
> broad daylight has no effect on some of them.

I suspect that _some_ of _them_ DO know you're there, but don't have the foggiest idea
what to do about it, so _pretend_ not to see you.  What can they do?  Speed up to get past
someone to be able to pull to the right to let you around and maybe risk a ticket?  Pull
right immediately and acknowledge that you know you shouldn't be hogging the left lane,
and thereby validating an officer's decision to ticket you for obstructing traffic, which
the person feels is a more likely ticket than appearing to be clueless?  I mean, due to
the aforementioned technique I described, a huge number of them knoe that _I'm_ there, so
I believe that a huge number of them know that _you're_ there too, and that you are
dealing with a lot of actors...

> >Allstate is one of the few companies not to engage in what _all_ the companies know
> >to be bogus reasoning - that tickets equate to bad driving.  _Accidents_ equate to
> >bad driving, not tickets.  And...
>
> I'm glad they found a formula that works for them.  Perhaps it'll
> catch on.

Maybe.  Makes no difference to me, since I'm going to stay with Allstate.

> >I've never run over anybody.  Did come close once - idiot STANDING IN THE RIGHT
> >TRAFFIC LANE if I-10 at 5 in the moring (THAT'S STILL _NIGHT_) waving a shirt simply
> >because he was broken down and wanted somebody to stop.
>
> He's lucky he ain't dead.   Pedestrians all too often assume that
> because they can see the car that the driver of the car can see them.
> For many this has been a fatal mistake.

He was a freakin' idiot.  Scared me have to death...

> >Look at the traffic flow.  Almost _everyone_ on an interstate highway is illegal most
> >of the time.
>
> Which is why we allow some leeway before pulling someone over.

Sure - and if you _did_ nail everybody at 78 in a 70, you'd be busy writing along the side
of the road when the guy you're _really_ looking for whizzes past at +30, and is so far
down the road that A) you gotta do 130+ mph to catch him AND/OR B) he feels more certain
under the circumstances that you don't have his license number, as opposed to a situation
when you've been able to come up behind him, that he now has a reasonable chance to avoid
a really big fine by taking that Corvette or Camaro up to the 160 mph range to attempt to
get away.  Not good.

> >The limits there are lower than most people agree with.
>
> I'm not so sure this is correct.   It's been a while since I've seen
> data on this subject.  The last one I read was about two years ago and
> it indicated that nationally more agreed with the limits than opposed
> them.   Perhaps you have privvy to later data?

I say that if they say they agree with the limits, and do the limit plus 8, they don't
really agree with the limit and are hypocrites.  Since such huge numbers are at the "limit
plus something", those people don't agree with the limit, and are definitely a vast
majority.

> >Its because the politicians set the limits, rather than the traffic engineers,
> >and those limits are set to make money for the state.
>
> False.   This is an opinion shared by a few that has never been
> substantiated.   There are much easier ways to raise money than
> depending on fines which, in my city at least, are quite low.

We actually had some politicians whine about the loss in revenue if Indiana's Interstates
were put up to 65 mph when that was under consideration.  I'm not so sure that it is false
at all...

> >If you nail me for 78 in Ok when the speed
> >limit is 70, it a good ticket and an unfair bust, because I'd be driving about what
> >everyone else is driving.
>
> Doing something because 'everyone else' is doing it has never been a
> valid defense in any court I've seen.

I said it was a good ticket - it would just be unfair.

>   Several years ago a local
> judge asked a defendant who'd just used that excuse if he'd follow
> another driver over a cliff or would he think for himself.

I think I am safer at limit plius 8, because that way most people are not catching me from
behind.  I know I can avoid driving into things in front of me, but I don't trust
everybody catching me from behind to not drive into me.  To protect myself by watching
them diligently would take away from my primary task of not running into things myself.
So, I drive limit + 8.  It'd be an even better defense like that if I did limit plus 15,
but I don't because its too expensive. <G>

> >> and historically drivers (as a group) who collects
> >> tickets are historically more accident prone than the drivers who do
> >> not.
>
> >Of course.  But that does not disprove the idea that one can speed safely.
>
> Russian Roulette can be played safely.

You have a very high threshold for safe.  The first time you pull the trigger, you have a
1 in 6 chance of dying.  The second time you have 1 - (5/6) squared chance.  The next time
is 1 - (5/6) cubed.  etc.  That's if the cylinder is spun each time.  Those are way too
poor odds for me to consider something safe.

>  Stop signs and signal lights
> can be run safely.

Not by me.

>  Driving the wrong way on a one way can be done
> safely.

6 AM on Sunday, maybe.

>  We can avoid paying our income tax 'safely'... the list goes
> on.... and this is not the issue.
>
> >Ya just gotta pay attention to what you're doing in order to go
> >down the road and not hit things.
>
> And following a few simple rules makes that task much easier.

There's a point where it is soooooo dang easy that it's sooooo dang boring that one loses
focus on what one is doing, thereby making it _less_ safe.

>
>
> >It would be interesting to examine the driving philosophies of the same people.  In
> >spite of busting up speed limits most everywhere I go, I consider myself much safer
> >than average because of the other factors.
>
> The real question is whether drivers who share the road with you
> consider you safe.

They don't know me.  I've had those that _ride_ with me tell me that they believe I'm the
safest driver they know.

DPH