Does the ticket also come with an ass whippin’?
In Colorado:
Drivers who insist on staying in the passing lane are risking tickets as the State Patrol has begun enforcing a law requiring motorists to use the left lane for passing only.
Since the patrol started enforcing the “Left Lane Law” three months ago, troopers have written about 460 tickets or about an average of five a day to drivers who dawdle in the left lane.
Update: In local news, if you’re one of those asshats who waits until the last minute to merge in a construction zone, you’ll be getting fined for it:
Tennessee Highway Patrol Troopers are launching a new effort to make construction zones in Tennessee safer. Drivers who don’t merge in a timely manner could face hefty fines.
It’s a big frustration for a lot of drivers. Traffic is merging into one lane, then someone suddenly cuts in front of you.
T-DOT and THP want the practice to stop. Starting immediately, troopers will issue tickets to anyone who merges past the intended zone.
I still advocate an ass-whippin’.
April 5th, 2005 at 9:40 am
I don’t know. it is annoying, i agree, but it seems like they are just looking for an excuse to ticket (in both cases).
Essentially they are just ticketing people for being bad drivers, that seems a little far.
April 5th, 2005 at 11:02 am
Well, isn’t it better to ticket people for being a bad driver than simply to raise revenue? I’d far rather see tickets issued for that kind of driving than simple speeding as bad driving causes more accidents than simple speeding (which is what most of us do).
April 5th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
I don’t know about the late-merging thing… if they want the road to be closed half a mile ahead of where it’s closed, then they should close it there. I’ll use all the road until it’s closed. (Unless the traffic’s actually moving, then I’ll merge early. If one lane’s stopped and the other’s moving, then I’ll use the one that’s moving.)
April 5th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
I agree with Nate. I don’t really know how they can defend this practice in court. As long as people aren’t driving in a lane thats closed, I don’t see how they can force them to merge earlier.
The solution – if they are worried about safety – is probably to place the merge farther away from the construction project. But of course, if they were really concerned with safety they would do that as well as limit construction to the evening (when there is less traffic – and hence less of a need to try to stay in the “moving lane”) and increase the police presence around construction sites – but that costs more and we all know they aren’t about spending revenue, just collecting it.
April 6th, 2005 at 11:54 am
They could also design the roads better.
They are doing a lot over verying intresting work with road desgins that help acdidents.
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/12/anarchy_in_the_.html
http://wired-vig.wired.com//wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html
of course that would take more money also