Speeding
I've had only a handfull of tickets in my life, but the 1's I've gotten were at utterly stupid and pointless times, which highlighted how tickets are scam used to generate tax revenue that you can't fight or avoid without some effort or time off from work.
Why is speeding on a highway an offense?
Seriously. If my trip is 80 miles long, and a cop catches me doing 80-85, say passing some big trucker or slow mom-mini van over the course of 1000 feet, is that my EFFECTIVE speedlimit, or just my INSTANTANEOUS speedlimit? I'm no inclined to say...No I was not doing 80, maybe for 1000 feet, but my car says the average speed I was doing was 72 officer. Is that ok?
I've never understood how several hundred dollar tickets that are handed out like newspapers are legit, when trips lasted hundred of miles. If you want ticket INSIDE cities, communities, etc, go for it. Drop the speed limit there, too. I think 30-35 is probably TOO high for cars to be whipping around near homes. I saw a poor girl get hit, her shoes going flying onto the roof of a nearby house b/c some girl was crossing the street at an angle and the oncoming car couldn't see that well around a curve. Yet she was likely doing the speed limit. What gives? On the highway...there biggest danger isn't me speeding, it's everyone else. Even in bad weather, bad weather is ok...so long as no one else is around, if they are, everyone goes slower anyways, or they just don't travel.
This will probably never get changed, unless we bump the speed limit to 80, but still. I don't like going over 75, or 80, yet I see people do it all the time. If you want to risk it, fine. Not me. I don't like the wear on my car, and I'd rather throw on Flord or DMB and chill, or listen to SIRIUS than drive like a cruise missle.
Comments...
Truckers
So I'm driving to my gf's house just before 24 comes on, just after the gym. I'm nearly late because 20 or more 18 wheelers decide it's time to leave the rest area and go wherever they might be going. My first thought was..."this must be what it was like when LITTLE dinosaurs travelled alongside Brontosauraus', and T'rex's. I was totally surrounded for 2 lanes. It's illegal in MA for a trucker to TRAVEL in the 3rd left passing lane. Their passing lane is the middle 1. YET, the truckers dominated the 1st 2, making it DAMN near impossible for people to get on, AND, harder for people to just CRUISE, because these guys were moving like freightrains. For vehicles carrying HEAVYloads, they sure do press the metal to the floor.
And that's when I wondered...why is it ok for these COMMERICAL trucks of this size, which are as big or bigger than 1 freight train car, and probably more dangerous, to travel with passengers like me? I don't have a private plan, and if I did, I'd need special licensing, money, etc to do it. I don't have my own train to run alongside Amtrak. I don't have my own bus. Yet, these HUGE trucks, which have nearly 5x the wheels I do, that barrel to and fro, in neighbhorhoods that are bit too small for them, over highways at extreme speeds, taking up the space of 4 cars+, are allowed to travel with the general population.
Not only was I squeezed to the 3rd lane and had to blast off to pass the group at 85+ miles to make my exit, or risk getting boxed in in the right 2 lanes, but this gets to point 1. They're rather nuts, and I always wonder... are they tired? could they be drunk? It wouldn't take much for them to nudge me off the highway and send me into the afterlife. All I hear on Sirius radio are ads for trucking jobs. I realize, it's the main vehicle for transport of goods, but there must be another way. It doesn't make sense that commercial transport of THAT size is allowed with small class vehicles. Otherwise, they should specify a CERTAIN time such vehicles can drive, like 2-5am or something, or a special HIGHWAY lane built on to the main throughfare. It's bad enough when a trucker spills oil on the highway, jack knifes, gets stuck under a bridge, or just 'taps' a car, but their presence is dangerous to all. They make getting on tough, they make passing tough, they make getting off the highway tough, they fling up TONS of dirt, rain, and snow at cars next to them and behind them.
What gives? I'm sure some of you have family that may be truckers, as they get paid ok, but still. It would be like having nuclear reactors or chemical factories in every town, and we know how well that goes over.
/rant off
A-Unit
I've had only a handfull of tickets in my life, but the 1's I've gotten were at utterly stupid and pointless times, which highlighted how tickets are scam used to generate tax revenue that you can't fight or avoid without some effort or time off from work.
Why is speeding on a highway an offense?
Seriously. If my trip is 80 miles long, and a cop catches me doing 80-85, say passing some big trucker or slow mom-mini van over the course of 1000 feet, is that my EFFECTIVE speedlimit, or just my INSTANTANEOUS speedlimit? I'm no inclined to say...No I was not doing 80, maybe for 1000 feet, but my car says the average speed I was doing was 72 officer. Is that ok?
I've never understood how several hundred dollar tickets that are handed out like newspapers are legit, when trips lasted hundred of miles. If you want ticket INSIDE cities, communities, etc, go for it. Drop the speed limit there, too. I think 30-35 is probably TOO high for cars to be whipping around near homes. I saw a poor girl get hit, her shoes going flying onto the roof of a nearby house b/c some girl was crossing the street at an angle and the oncoming car couldn't see that well around a curve. Yet she was likely doing the speed limit. What gives? On the highway...there biggest danger isn't me speeding, it's everyone else. Even in bad weather, bad weather is ok...so long as no one else is around, if they are, everyone goes slower anyways, or they just don't travel.
This will probably never get changed, unless we bump the speed limit to 80, but still. I don't like going over 75, or 80, yet I see people do it all the time. If you want to risk it, fine. Not me. I don't like the wear on my car, and I'd rather throw on Flord or DMB and chill, or listen to SIRIUS than drive like a cruise missle.
Comments...
Truckers
So I'm driving to my gf's house just before 24 comes on, just after the gym. I'm nearly late because 20 or more 18 wheelers decide it's time to leave the rest area and go wherever they might be going. My first thought was..."this must be what it was like when LITTLE dinosaurs travelled alongside Brontosauraus', and T'rex's. I was totally surrounded for 2 lanes. It's illegal in MA for a trucker to TRAVEL in the 3rd left passing lane. Their passing lane is the middle 1. YET, the truckers dominated the 1st 2, making it DAMN near impossible for people to get on, AND, harder for people to just CRUISE, because these guys were moving like freightrains. For vehicles carrying HEAVYloads, they sure do press the metal to the floor.
And that's when I wondered...why is it ok for these COMMERICAL trucks of this size, which are as big or bigger than 1 freight train car, and probably more dangerous, to travel with passengers like me? I don't have a private plan, and if I did, I'd need special licensing, money, etc to do it. I don't have my own train to run alongside Amtrak. I don't have my own bus. Yet, these HUGE trucks, which have nearly 5x the wheels I do, that barrel to and fro, in neighbhorhoods that are bit too small for them, over highways at extreme speeds, taking up the space of 4 cars+, are allowed to travel with the general population.
Not only was I squeezed to the 3rd lane and had to blast off to pass the group at 85+ miles to make my exit, or risk getting boxed in in the right 2 lanes, but this gets to point 1. They're rather nuts, and I always wonder... are they tired? could they be drunk? It wouldn't take much for them to nudge me off the highway and send me into the afterlife. All I hear on Sirius radio are ads for trucking jobs. I realize, it's the main vehicle for transport of goods, but there must be another way. It doesn't make sense that commercial transport of THAT size is allowed with small class vehicles. Otherwise, they should specify a CERTAIN time such vehicles can drive, like 2-5am or something, or a special HIGHWAY lane built on to the main throughfare. It's bad enough when a trucker spills oil on the highway, jack knifes, gets stuck under a bridge, or just 'taps' a car, but their presence is dangerous to all. They make getting on tough, they make passing tough, they make getting off the highway tough, they fling up TONS of dirt, rain, and snow at cars next to them and behind them.
What gives? I'm sure some of you have family that may be truckers, as they get paid ok, but still. It would be like having nuclear reactors or chemical factories in every town, and we know how well that goes over.
/rant off
A-Unit
