December 4, 2012 • 33 mins
Does anyone really stay under the speed limit, all of the time? How often do drivers neglect their turn signals? From tailgating to illegal turns and rolling stops, Ben and Scott take a look at the driving laws that no one follows in this episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello everybody,
welcome to the podcast. You know me. My name is
Ben Bolan um hat smumps down to my job this week.
I am a traffic consultant. Traffic consultant, very good, very good.
(00:24):
All right. My name is Scott Benjamin. I'm the I'm
still the auto editor here. No, no new job. You're
stalwart and you're dang good at what you do, right,
it's right, Yeah, that's right. Have you You shouldn't be
getting around quite a bit. I'm kind of a jack
of all trades, master of none. Um. But yeah, I
think this, I think this traffic consultant thing will will
(00:45):
work out pretty well. It's a it's an interesting job
because well it's not real. But um, I'm sort of
working for myself from an entrepreneur. Basically, I stand at
street corners and I criticize people if I think they're
doing the wrong thing in traffic shout out advice. Uh huh, yeah, yeah,
I can see people listening to you. Well, it's constructive criticism, Scott.
(01:06):
I kind of I'm working on that to be very helpful.
It would be ideal right now. I just I just
have a very large sign that I stand in front of.
Very good Yeah, anybody following your advice? Um, no, no, no,
but you know this is how it always is in
the beginning. I've got a vision, I've got a dream,
(01:26):
and I've got a big sign. Stick with it, thanks buddy.
Um but uh, one thing. The reason that I actually
took this ridiculous job for this week. I mean people
notice by now I've been averaging like two jobs a week.
You know. Um, I'm trying to you know, in this economy.
So um, but I still get I still work here.
(01:47):
How could I not hang out with my podcast partner
in crime? And I took this job as research because Scott,
I gotta tell you, man, we we've done some podcasts
about driving laws, you know, rules regulation, and we did
that one about police chases. Um. But I got to
tell you, um, there are a lot of laws that
(02:08):
people that just are not following. Ye, that's right, there
are yeah, a lot of a lot of well yeah,
I mean you see it every day around because I
mean how many times have you been in traffic and
you see somebody do something and you say, like, where
where are the police? When something like this is going,
like what, who's who's going to stop that guy from
doing that? Um, you know whatever that is, like it's
an illegal U turn or whatever it happens to be. UM.
(02:29):
You know, they always seem to catch you when you're
going two miles per hour faster in the you know,
the school zone than you're supposed to be. But UM,
never catch the guy that's going you know, diagonal through
the intersection whatever. There's a lot of a lot of
things that I see on a daily basis that I wish,
you know, I'm like, man, I wish somebody would catch
that guy doing that, so maybe he or she would stop.
And uh, we know, we we kind of touched on
(02:52):
a nerve perhaps nerve that needed to be touched upon,
when we talked about pet peeves driving pet peeve, you know,
And I'm glad he said that. I've been thinking the
same thing because later when we talk about some of
these these more common rules that you'll see broken in
front of you often, UM, a lot of them. I
don't know if it's a pet peeve or if it's
really is that means it a law? Is it is
it just kind of a um a common practice on
(03:15):
the road, is it some of some of them are
a little gray. Is it courtesy or is it etiquette? Exactly?
Illegal exactly, And some of them come right down to
pet peeve. And I think we've mentioned a couple of
these that I've got at least anyways in the pet
peeves section. So we'll find out. Okay, well I'll go
ahead and uh kick it off with the most common one.
(03:38):
Do you want me to do the most common way?
I think so? Yeah. I mean, first, do you think
we should tell him, like, I got one thing I
need to say first. I think there's there's a reason
that we're talking about this, and that's because, um, I
know what we sound kind of stay about this or whatever.
But yeah, that's right. Well, there's there's rules for a reason,
and there's a couple of reasons really, and when you
listen to the reasons, I think you'll understand why we're
(04:00):
talking about this today, because and like I said, you know,
you go follow the rules. A lot of people gonna
say you don't have to follow the rules, but um,
if if you don't, if you don't follow the rules
of the road here, the problem is that you're endangering
yourself Okay, that's that's one. The second thing is you're
endangering every other motorist on the road. The third one,
which I think some people will find, you know, apply
(04:21):
to them, you're endangering pedestrians on the road who are
expecting you to do one thing when you do another thing.
So I hadn't really thought of the pedestrian angle until
you know, yesterday when I saw somebody almost get hit. Um,
I just thought, you know, like, well, they were expecting
this person to stop at the light. They didn't continue through,
and the person that the you know, the intersection the
(04:42):
crosswalk where they were supposed to be nearly was struck.
And you know, I'm thinking like, okay, well that's a
it's the next thing. That was clearly the motors fault,
but it was based on the pedestrian thinking that the
car was gonna stop like it was supposed to do
at the intersection, and you know, it just it got
to me then at that point that you know, there's
more more than just yourself that you're thinking about, you know,
like I've got to do this or also get a ticket.
(05:03):
There's there's other motorists and other you know, people on
the road that are walking expect you to do certain
things that should that follow those rules or the convention standards.
I guess, and uh, let me go ahead. I completely
feel you on that. I want to go ahead and
plead the fifth to to some of these because of
course we're very aware or I hope you are too, buddy,
(05:25):
that we're talking about we're doing a podcast about driving laws.
Pretty much everybody has ignored at some point or not. Yeah,
that includes us, doesn't it kind of it may is
there statue of limitation? You know. I'm not gonna claim
responsibility for any of these, right right, We're just we're
just concerned. But here's something I want to say already, um,
(05:45):
and I've said it before, I'll say it again. I'm
on my supbox right now, um Scott. The future, the
future people of the world are going to look back
at the way we have traffic laws set up all ready,
and first off, they're going to think it's amazing and
sort of ridiculous that we had these huge vehicles hurdling
(06:09):
past each other very close together, you know, in excess
of fifty miles an hour, and we thought that they
would just stick to the honor system of having you know,
some lines, a line painted there, and no one's going
to drive over that, not over the magic line, that's right.
And and so we're already, you know, when when we
say that these rules are there for a reason, it's
(06:31):
it's very easy for us to get comfortable and think
that those uh that these painted symbols and stuff are
real barriers, you know. And and pedestrians certainly do have
to do have to trust the other person behind the wheel.
So I want to go ahead and start with one
of the common uh, one of the driving laws is
(06:52):
commonly broken speeding. You know what. That's my number one. Also,
that's my number. I think that I think that no
matter what or if somebody says, you know, I'm always
under the limit, I think there's a point where everybody
is speeding at least a little bit. I mean, I
know some people take it to to uh, you know,
the other extreme, and they speed all the time. And
we joke a lot about me speeding here, but um, honestly,
(07:13):
I don't drive all that fast. I ever have slower
than my wife does. I think a lot of the
roads and uh, and not to you know, point my
finger anything, but I'm just saying that you know I
I generally try to keep it a reasonably safe speed
and distance from other drivers, right, But also, I mean,
let's be realistic. When you look at if you were
(07:34):
on an interstate and you look at a sign that
says the minimum speed is forty miles per the maximum
speed is seventy seventy in some places. Yeah, um, let's
take let's not talk about where's seventy. I think that's
kind of okay, sorry, but sure it's fifty five and
(07:54):
most people are probably if you looked at the most
people are probably averaging somewhere between sixty and sixty five. Yeah,
or even faster, even faster. Yeah, that's uh, that's one
I think people commonly break, just just routinely. And you'll
hear people make the flow of traffic argument when they
get pulled over. Um as, I'm sure there's some people
(08:16):
already just shaking their heads ruefully remembering when they tried
that way. Let us all assure you it does not work.
The traffic does not work. But you don't want to
be in the opposite side of that either, holding up
traffic because that you will get a ticket for as well.
So there's too slow and too fast it's too slow,
too fast and just right? What do you go? What's
(08:36):
how about no turn signals. You're supposed to use your
turn signals every time you change lanes, but um, I
don't know how often I see people not use turn
signals or cut across two lanes of traffic at one time. Um,
that's also not allowed. Yeah, but man, this is this
is Atlanta, this is a town. It's like mad Matt. Yeah,
but I mean, you've got a brand new BMW. I
know that your turn signals work. It's not that you
(08:58):
know they don't work, which I guess you've got a
car that doesn't have turn signals at work. That's probably
also illegal. And it's weird that nobody has designed, especially
a high end luxury car, a car that automatically flips
the turn signal when you're turning. I don't know if
they can, how do they do that? I don't know.
We have to really think about that one. I don't
because you're talking about gradual changes in in direction. I mean,
(09:18):
it could be the curvature of the road, it could
be yeah, yeah, I mean you're talking about like an
extreme right hand turn or left hand turner, and it's
possible to build a car that parks itself, parallel parks itself. True,
then I I see nothing wrong with I understand. We'll
write a letter. I guess as possible. But yeah, you're
you're you're right. That's that's bad. It's in Atlanta. Sometimes
(09:38):
it seems as though people don't turn on their turn
signals because they don't want you to know their secret plan.
You know what that You know when that really gets
me when you're in two lane traffic and there's there's
no turn lane, of course, and you know you've got
a choice to be in the right laner or left
lane bandas person, and they go all the way up
to the light and then they turn on the signal,
so you know you've got your stuck waiting. They're gonna
(09:59):
turn left and yeah, and you've got to try to
either decide if you're gonna try to you know, pull
out around them to the right or nothing. I always
try to be nice. We're getting let's go, let's just
stick with lodge right right, okay, So I will see
you uh tailgating, and I will also go with your
hypothetical intersection there and let's talk about what's going on
(10:22):
at yellow lights man, Okay, yello lights. That's a good one.
Are you talking about the people that seem to think
that four cars can go through any yellow light? Yes,
I'm talking about them. I'm talking about some people who have,
maybe in this room in the past, have been leading
out at a yellow light, and then when it goes red,
these people who whoever they are someone in this room
(10:45):
possibly are stuck in are stuck in the intersection and
the red light and just bust that left turn real
quick and hope they don't get in trouble. And especially
you know, that's very common thing in cities, but it
is also it's illegal to bum rush that yell a
light so good point, good point, Yeah, and you put
yourself out in a bad position out there. And you
know what's crazy, Scott, is actually this this one? Um.
(11:09):
I won't say that these laws are set up for
anything other than safety, but there have been multiple cases
where cities and communities have been caught running their yellow
lights short to have you read about that, I have, Yeah,
that's right, I've heard about that. And there's something to
do with the red light cameras as well. Yes, Um,
(11:31):
is it that if they installed the red light cameras
they have to extend the yellow lights is at it
um there there's a minimum of like four seconds. There's
a minimum of four seconds. Bare minimum is three point
nine seconds. But there are people who are who are
shorting it to three point so they've got a red
light camera and then they've got a three second yellow light. Yeah,
I see, okay, And so it's so it's tough, but
it's a good revenue thing. But we're just saying, you know,
(11:53):
we're I'm not I'm not beating up on drivers entirely.
It's there there, there, there is a gray area with
these laws. We're pointing the finger at ourselves too. Yes,
I've had pointed it's important to remember throughout this thing
because we're not just picking on other people. Let's see,
I've got let me just give you two Yeah, following
too closely, tailgating. You know you've got the two second
(12:15):
rule thing that you know no one ever obeys. Really, Yeah,
leave the distance of the call. And you know there
is a tailgating rule. I mean there's I don't know
what that would be. I don't I don't know if
it's just a judgment call on the on the officer
following too closely, they falling too closely, or um falling
too closely for the conditions, you know, if it's icy
or raining or whatever. There's there's a lot of different
rules like that. Uh, the other one, now, this one,
I don't know if this is a law or net. Okay,
(12:37):
I'll be the judge of that. I'm a traffic consultant.
Very good, very good headlights when it's raining, headlights when
it's raining. What do you think? So if you've got
your Winchell wipers on it as I always heard, if
you have your Winchell wipers on, you should have your
headlights on. It's not true. I don't know if that's
a law. I've I've heard the same thing, but I don't.
I'm not sure if that is a law. Because it's
a safety concern, of course, I mean, well a lot
(12:59):
of laws also state by state. True, So I don't
you know what I can't speak to that. I'm not sure.
I don't know. I've always heard that, you know, when
you have your headlights on, or your brother you're winch
wipers on if you need them because of rain, you
need your headlights as well. You know, if it's just
um you know, one one wipe to clear off you know,
the dust and dirt and stuff. Of course, you don't
have to hear your head lights on, but I mean,
(13:19):
you know, if it's a condition where you have to
have them on it's sprinkling either or raining hard. Yeah,
turn them on. Even if it's like that Credence clear
Water song. It's like, uh sunny day rain that kind
of weather exactly. Yeah, yeah, I think you have to.
I don't know better safe and sorry yea all I'm
gonna say, all right, Uh, here's one. This has been
(13:41):
a big, big deal, um in the States and especially
in the areas around Atlanta recently, using your cell phone
or texting while you're driving very good, which a lot
of people do. And now, um, anybody plans to come
to Atlanta, keep an eye out because you guys are
going to season road signs that are at the county lines.
(14:04):
And in these quick background there's Fulton County, where the
majority of Atlanta is based, and then there are a
couple of adjacent counties, you know, and there's one called
the Cab County. When you cross over the Cab County line,
they have signs that say if you are in an accident,
and they can prove you were on your cell phone
doing anything on your cell phone. The accident is your fault. Yeah,
(14:25):
this is very recent, right. Our governor just signed this
Sunny Perdue. We signed this and uh, just a few
weeks ago. Really, Um so it's a relatively recent thing
and they're definitely watching for it. So oh yeah, there's
so serious. Be aware. Yeah, and it's dangerous. It really
is dangerous. Um. Like, we're getting you know what, we're
getting an article together about this right now, spoiler exactly
(14:46):
now it's coming together for the for the site. It's
you know, it's texting more dangerous than speeding or something
like that. Um so yeah, I watched for that one. Soon. Okay,
I've got another one for you here. I'll give you
two again. Okay, how about um seatbelt usage because there's
still a lot of people that aren't wearing seat belts
and that's a law. Yeah, that's a law. You got
me real quick before you go into that. And I
(15:08):
want to tell you, man, I've got to confess to
someone about this. Uh yeah, my family hates it. Um.
I I do wear a seatbelt all the time, but
you know me, man, I'm impulsive. I like to be
ready to go. I have this habit I've been trying
to break myself out of. As soon as I turn
onto the street where I will be stopping, I end
up taking off the seat belt. I don't know why.
(15:29):
In case I have to, I guess jump out of
the car. I can't break it. I've been doing it
since I was since before I was driving it. Really,
so when you near the near your final destination, that's
when you take off your seatbelt. Yeah, and it's so wrong.
I'm trying to do it like I My my girlfriend
just hates it. Tested. So I'm trying to break myself. Man,
(15:51):
But it's one day at a time. Good luck with that. Yeah,
what's sorry? No, No, it's right. A lot of people
just simply will not wear them. I my grandfather I
remember with car, and he would hold the seat belt.
He would how would he do this? He would click
it in because he knew that you know, the the lighter,
the buzzer would go. It's back in the early seventies, right,
he would click, he would click it into it's it's
(16:11):
receptacle there and he would hold it so far away
from him like you know, I hold it way away
from it was gonna do absolutely no good, you know,
like an arm's length away from him. Um, some people
just hate it. I mean I know somebody who will
not wear the seatbelt because they know of one story
one time where a friend you know, um, was actually
saved by not wearing the seatbelt. Um, that's so rare
(16:33):
that you know they say that. They ever even will
tell you that. You know that you know, if you
had been wearing it, you would have died, um in
a car accident. Usually it's a horrendous accident. Well even
even someone like me with that weird compulsive habit, I
wear a seatbelt the majority of the time. Um. The
guy who invented it, Niles Bulan or something his different
from my h he uh that's your name dropping. Well no, no,
(16:59):
uh looking into that, I think that invention is saved
over a billion lots. I would definitely definitely the numbers
beat out the anecdote exactly. Yeah, that's what we try
to convince this person that I know, and it's a
family member, and um, you know, I just will not
have any of that. Up until quite recently, you people
(17:19):
did not have to wear a seatbelt that they were
driving a pickup truck in Georgia. You know what, you're right,
that's very recent, within the last again a month or two, right,
very recent, which is we were the final holdout I
think on that. Yes, a lot of states had the
similar rule and then George was the last one to pass.
You know that you do have to wear a seatbelt
in a pickup truck, well, because there's not really a
reason not to. Yeah, I think that the the the
(17:42):
rule kind of goes back to when they were thinking
that pickup trucks were commonly used in agriculture and uh far,
you know, other environments, off road type environments, and you know,
you're getting in and out of the vehicle. You know,
let's say you're in a you know, in a logging
job or um, you know whatever would be forestry type job,
and you're getting in and out of the vehicle sixty
times a day. UM. I can understand why they would say, like, wow,
(18:04):
it's not necessary to do that over and over again.
And you're not even on a public road. But now,
you know, a lot of people drive. A lot of
people that's their main form of transportation. That's there, that's
their daily driver, daily driver. You're right, so, um, you know,
there's no reason not to if you're on the highway.
But but I agree with you what you're saying is
logical and rational. I just don't know if that's the
reason Georgia was last hold out. I heard a different story,
(18:27):
Mr b. Yeah, I heard that one of the members
of our state congress actually refused to wear seatbelt and
drove a pickup truck. And I heard that you can
trace this law to this individual. No kidding, yes, wow, okay,
that's it's all new to me. I'm member his name,
(18:50):
and again it's just an anecdote. Yeah, no, it's likely true, possible,
likely true. I mean, if you've got somebody on the inside,
that's that's, you know, putting pressure on this to keep
it keep it out. Yeah, I understand inside job. Did
that person recently retire? I believe. So there you go.
That's the reason I think, you know what I think
we need though, I think we need a guy on
the inside or a woman on the inside, someone on
(19:10):
the inside to get us A couple of BMW's. Okay,
why is that? I just like them, and I really
you know, if they can change seatbelt laws, you're just
a fan I'm just a fan quality vehicle. Very good, Okay,
I'm like, what a tangent? I'm sorry? Wow wow, very good? Okay,
(19:31):
all right, it's okay. How about how about this one.
I was gonna give you two here. So yeah, yeah,
complete stop at at intersections like stop signs. I gotta
admit that sometimes I don't do this in residential areas, um,
which is probably one of the worst places not to
do this. You know you've got where then, yeah, you
have the potential of people that I always look around,
of course, but um, you know, rolling stop. You'll get
(19:54):
a ticket for a rolling stop, and in fact, a
lot of times you'll find um police officers kind of
camped just waiting, just you know, a hundred feet away
from the intersection, just watching and just waiting for someone
to do that. And I've had a lot of friends
get tickets fed I luckily have not had one at
this you know, to this point, um, I don't think
I see a lot of people doing ruin stops. You
mean you have to go, you have to legally, you
(20:16):
have to come to a stop where that you know,
the weight of the car settles, yes, and then you
move on. But a lot of people don't do that.
I'm reformed. I do complete stops now. Man. But I
used to make more California roles than a sushi chef,
So yeah, I guess yeah, yeah, Well well yeah, we'll
leave well, let that one go. Yeah, we'll let that
one go. Leave it up to the listeners. What was
(20:38):
that more California roles than a sushi chef because they
make California roles? Okay, look, man, not all these jokes
are gonna be awesome. Luckily you can make more than
I'm coming. You can make bad jokes, all right, here's
here's another one. Or do you have a whole bunch
of them over there? I only have one. I only
have two more. Go ahead, you want to hear them?
Why not? Uh? This one is one that I think
(21:01):
a lot of people do unintentionally, especially when you're a
new place. That is this is part where you're asking
me what it is. I'm so glad it is parking
illegally the first ticket I ever got in Atlanta, because
I swear to you, Scott, I swear on Henry Ford's
(21:21):
name that that parking space looked like I could put
my car there. You're you're very serious about it swearing
Henry Ford's name. Well, look, okay, long, long story short,
there was nothing on the it was street parking. There
was nothing on the street that said I couldn't part there.
It was in the middle of several cars. Um, behind
(21:44):
a behind a pole, in a bush, there is a
sign that said that's a handicapped spot, and I couldn't.
I didn't see it. And then when the cop wrote
me the ticket, and um, I was looking at the ticket.
It took me like a couple of minutes to find
the sign. Wow, I had to go like on an
(22:04):
expedition into the butsch the guy probably just probably camps
out and waits for waits for people to use that
spot and write tickets. Well, also, you know, I'm not
the kind of guy who was parking a handicap. No,
it's it's messed up. But but I think that's something
a lot of people do without knowing that they're doing it. Now,
I honestly believe you, I don't. I don't think you
would ever do that intentionally. I know that well things,
but yeah, that's that's terrible when they hide something like
(22:27):
that on you and you you just inadvertently stumble into it,
like that all right, Now you're being a little overly.
No no, no, really no, I'm really not. No, that's
it's too bad, man, it's really actually illegally. What do
I see? I'm not being hipped? Okay, alright, I'm ready,
all right, I got a couple more hereble moding pretty quick.
(22:49):
Let's see that's you know what, I'll go with these
the lions thing, because um, I got another one that's
bigger than this. Crossing solid white lines, are crossing solid
yellow lines? People do it? I know, like you mentioned that,
you know that that those painted barriers, we've we've come
to know that. You know you're not supposed to do that.
You find that out in Driver's Dead. But you know
(23:10):
people cross solid white lines, and they cross solid yellow
lines as well. Um, you'll see the solid white lines
a lot of times on corners. Um, you're not supposed
to change lanes on certain corners. They deem it's too stee,
are too too much of an angle, you know, et cetera.
If it's too fast of a turn, Um they will
they'll You're supposed to maintain your lane. And a solid
line indicates that a lot of people are changing lanes
(23:31):
all over the place in that or they cross over
into a you know, a turn lane too quickly, so
they end up in a section that's marked off with
you know, solid yellow lines, or they do a U
turnover two solid yellow lines, which indicates, you know this
traffic come in the other directions. So, um, I don't know.
The solid yellow line and solid white line thing really
gets me. It does. And then also, you know, you're
(23:53):
not supposed to You're not supposed to switch lanes in
an intersection, in the midst of an intersection. Yeah, you're right,
and that I see that all the time. I said,
I what about passing on the right? I see a
lot of people passing on the right. Now, I gotta
ask you, is that a law? Yes, all right, Yeah,
you're not supposed to pass on the right. You're supposed to,
you know, I think you know the the person is
(24:14):
also in front of you, if they're holding up traffic,
they're supposed to move to the right and allow you
to pass on the left. Yeah, but a few people do.
And if you can't pass on the left, then you
know that's too bad for you. You're supposed to wait
until you are able to pass on the left. You're
not supposed to pass on the right. That's that's not
the right way to do it. Yeah, I guess you're right.
I mean I just a few people actually do go
to the right when they're slower traffic. Because we all
(24:36):
get this, I get this racing mentality sometimes, you know,
I got to hold the spot in lines. Gott um Okay, yeah, okay,
so I got that, you have any more, because I
got a couple. I got this this one. Stopping for
pedestrians and crosswalks happens a lot. You know, even in
um a lot of cities. They'll have a sign, the
little yellow sign with the stop sign painted on it,
(24:56):
sot for pedestrians pedestrians are crossing. I don't know what
the problem is. You know, the cars always have the
right away. So um yeah, we're looking at me like,
I'm I really want to be on your side, man,
I want to support you, but you gotta stop hitting
these people in the street. Okay, I know, I know
that's not right. Yeah, yeah, we we know, we know that,
and but it's it's true that a lot of times
(25:17):
maybe the drivers don't see the people who are about
to walk out on the curb continue past. So yeah,
we have to deal with that every day. Pointing to
our our building off the main road, and there's a
lot of foot traffic coming from public transportation, and just
in general, people live in condos down here in the city.
A lot of people walk to work or bike to work,
keeping eye. Um, so you know, construction workers walk into
(25:39):
the job site that type of thing, And anytime we're
turning into the building, um, you know, it's always kind
of nerve braaking because you have people closing in from
behind quickly and you you have to stop often to
let people, you know, continue to cross in front of you.
And that's that's always kind of iffy in the morning.
And then the last one I have. I just thought
of it because we were talking about this earlier. Flashing
(26:00):
yellow lights at an intersection. Let's get this straight for everybody,
they mean slow down and use caution. They do not
mean stop at the intersection. So if the power has
gone out and it's defaulted to uh, you know, one
direction flashing yellow, one direction flashing red, the one that's
flashing yellow, everybody is supposed to continue through. But a
(26:21):
lot of people treat that as a four way stop,
and that kind of screw things. Up even worse because
they've got to chart it out that way for a reason.
Sometimes it's red and red, which you know they wanted
to be a four way stop. Other times it's like
we mentioned red and yellow in another direction. You know,
it's usually the traffic or the car with the the
direction rather with the most traffic. And that's what we
had gone on this morning, and there were some people
(26:42):
going nuts and traffic just just super upset because no
one seemed to understand that a flashing yellow means you
continue through. And maybe maybe we're just living in the
wrong part of the world. Maybe everybody else in the
US knows that, except for I don't know. I don't
think so. I've seen that, you know other times when
power goes out in certain regions, and you know, no
one seems to understand how to how to operate that
(27:04):
stop or that that intersection. And in their defense, there's
sort of there's a nice mentality behind it, this live
and let live. Let's make it a four way stop,
just to help these people stuff exactly, Yeah, because you
know that they're going to have an awful hard time
getting out into traffic, ever, because no one's going to
give him a break. Yeah, it's a continuous full of
traffic versus a light that was working, you know, allowing
them to go left and right. So imagine trying to
(27:25):
turn left across all of that traffic, busy rush hour traffic.
You're right, You're right, and I should I should be
more sympathetic. I'm just pointing out, man, flash and yellow light,
don't stop, and you're supposed to go. It's right. Okay,
good point. My last two and um, we'll wrap it
up here. These kind of go together, so I'm gonna
read them both at the same time. Okay, right, all right?
How about failure to yield right of way? Like you know,
(27:46):
when you're turning left and you have like a left
turn arrow and someone who's turning right, you know, they've
got a red light on the other side. Um, they're
turning right and they cut right in front of you,
you know what I mean? Yeah, okay, Well, then worse
than that probably, I would would say. And this one
goes with it, I think is um giving the right
of way to another driver who does not have the
right away. Um, So when you're turning and let's say
(28:08):
that you know you're going to turn left and it's
to two green lights right and you're headed into an intersection.
You're gonna turn, You're gonna turn left, and there's another
car coming towards you, and they've got a green light
and they can turn. They're gonna turn right now they've
got the right way to turn right. And then you
wait kind of follow them. Well, let's say that they're
approaching and they're just starting to make your turn and
you start to edge out a little bit and they
(28:29):
suddenly stop on the stamp on the brakes and motion
you through and act like you know, what are you doing?
But they give you the the the motion you through,
it just causes more trouble than it's worth. I mean,
you knew, you knew what was going on. They've kind
of helped things up there, so you see what I
mean about giving And they're trying to be nice. They're
trying to be so you've got to give them credit
for that. But um, if you don't, that's when it
(28:52):
comes back to the rules. If you don't follow the rules,
everything that kind of gets jammed up in there because
now the whole rhythm is thrown off of the whole thing.
Like you know, you're doing the right thing, if they're
doing the right thing, it will all work fine. If
if somebody kind of messes that up, just you know,
it throws a I don't know, trench, throws a wrench
in the gears. You know, it's just it causes trouble. Um,
So I don't know. The rules are there for a reason.
(29:13):
I mean, we sound like we're you know, preaching to
people or something here. We're not because we're guilty of
a lot of this. Really, I know I am, um
not you're not flagrant, not not all the time. But
you know the rolling stops. Sure, I occasionally do that.
I speed a little bit now and then, you know
that type of thing. But um, I don't turn on right,
you know, turn on red when they're not supposed to,
and things like that. I think people some people just
(29:35):
do that because they just don't care. I have a
very excellent defense. Well I think it's excellent. Maybe it's
gonna let some people down. But you know, the reason
that we're we're hitting on this stuff, um, despite the
fact that neither Scott nor myself or Angels when it
comes to this, uh is because you know a lot
(29:56):
of people have heard that story about how everything's inter
related how of a butterfly in South Africa or in
Peru flaps its wings, there will be a hurricane later. Um.
You know, I don't know much about butterflies, or I
am not a meteorologist. They taste with their feet, then
they do yeah weird and uh wow and uh you know,
(30:17):
at least I'm not an expert in those things this week.
But the logic there is it does actually hold true
in a very very real way for traffic because when
there is when that person who is giving you the
right away, um, when that person who's going right gives
you the right away on the left, um, and then
(30:38):
someone taps their breaks behind them, someone taps their breaks
behind them, the stops get larger, right exactly. Yeah, the
domino effect and traffic that can last, I mean when
you're talking about a busy city, that can last hours. Yeah,
because I mean that's way highway backups last. You know,
when there's an accident on the road, Um, people slow down,
you know, for whatever reason for the initial accident or
(30:59):
just to you know, ubber neck to gawk at the accident.
That that domino effect, if if it's continuous float traffic
that can last hours and it can extend miles and
miles just from someone tapping the brakes, you know, hours
prior to that. And you know what, maybe we feel
like we're maybe because I feel a little treaty to man, Yeah,
I know I feel awkward doing this because I'm trying
(31:19):
to do as I say type thing. But but honestly,
like like we said to the whole thing, you know,
we're we're guilty of some of these as well. Um,
just trying to to let everybody know that, you know,
there's there's a reason for the rules and if you
follow them, I guess everything kind of works itself out.
You know. That's if everybody's following the rules, everything works
relatively smoothly. If someone breaks that that chain, then there's
(31:41):
a there's a problem. And we'd also like to ask
our listeners out here, guys in the wide world of
the internet, let us know, did we forget Is there
is there a law that you feel like sometimes you're
the only person that remembers this law, or is there
is there something that you feel like if you obeyed
(32:01):
it, it it would be weird for you in traffic, you know,
which could happen like the speeding thing that we've talked about. UM,
I don't know. Go ahead and hit us up on
our Facebook car stuff. Uh, but hit us up on
on our Twitter. Um, while you're there, Okay, while you're
there to check out the blog. Yeah, sure, we get
the blog. We've got. We've got the website which has
(32:21):
got a ton of great automotive articles. So you cruise
at your leisure and I'll see what we get them.
Can you mention the blog quo? Okay, the car stuff blog. Um,
and we we have uh, and we have an email
and uh send go ahead and send us an email.
We might read your letter on the air. There's probably
a good chance we have. We haven't done a lot
(32:43):
of risk listener email recently, but we're gonna get back
into it. Yeah, we're saving up. That's great saving up.
So if you want to want to contact us ahead
and do that, you can do that at car stuff
at how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, This is how stuff works
dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an
(33:05):
email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. M
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello everybody,
welcome to the podcast. You know me. My name is
Ben Bolan um hat smumps down to my job this week.
I am a traffic consultant. Traffic consultant, very good, very good.
(00:24):
All right. My name is Scott Benjamin. I'm the I'm
still the auto editor here. No, no new job. You're
stalwart and you're dang good at what you do, right,
it's right, Yeah, that's right. Have you You shouldn't be
getting around quite a bit. I'm kind of a jack
of all trades, master of none. Um. But yeah, I
think this, I think this traffic consultant thing will will
(00:45):
work out pretty well. It's a it's an interesting job
because well it's not real. But um, I'm sort of
working for myself from an entrepreneur. Basically, I stand at
street corners and I criticize people if I think they're
doing the wrong thing in traffic shout out advice. Uh huh, yeah, yeah,
I can see people listening to you. Well, it's constructive criticism, Scott.
(01:06):
I kind of I'm working on that to be very helpful.
It would be ideal right now. I just I just
have a very large sign that I stand in front of.
Very good Yeah, anybody following your advice? Um, no, no, no,
but you know this is how it always is in
the beginning. I've got a vision, I've got a dream,
(01:26):
and I've got a big sign. Stick with it, thanks buddy.
Um but uh, one thing. The reason that I actually
took this ridiculous job for this week. I mean people
notice by now I've been averaging like two jobs a week.
You know. Um, I'm trying to you know, in this economy.
So um, but I still get I still work here.
(01:47):
How could I not hang out with my podcast partner
in crime? And I took this job as research because Scott,
I gotta tell you, man, we we've done some podcasts
about driving laws, you know, rules regulation, and we did
that one about police chases. Um. But I got to
tell you, um, there are a lot of laws that
(02:08):
people that just are not following. Ye, that's right, there
are yeah, a lot of a lot of well yeah,
I mean you see it every day around because I
mean how many times have you been in traffic and
you see somebody do something and you say, like, where
where are the police? When something like this is going,
like what, who's who's going to stop that guy from
doing that? Um, you know whatever that is, like it's
an illegal U turn or whatever it happens to be. UM.
(02:29):
You know, they always seem to catch you when you're
going two miles per hour faster in the you know,
the school zone than you're supposed to be. But UM,
never catch the guy that's going you know, diagonal through
the intersection whatever. There's a lot of a lot of
things that I see on a daily basis that I wish,
you know, I'm like, man, I wish somebody would catch
that guy doing that, so maybe he or she would stop.
And uh, we know, we we kind of touched on
(02:52):
a nerve perhaps nerve that needed to be touched upon,
when we talked about pet peeves driving pet peeve, you know,
And I'm glad he said that. I've been thinking the
same thing because later when we talk about some of
these these more common rules that you'll see broken in
front of you often, UM, a lot of them. I
don't know if it's a pet peeve or if it's
really is that means it a law? Is it is
it just kind of a um a common practice on
(03:15):
the road, is it some of some of them are
a little gray. Is it courtesy or is it etiquette? Exactly?
Illegal exactly, And some of them come right down to
pet peeve. And I think we've mentioned a couple of
these that I've got at least anyways in the pet
peeves section. So we'll find out. Okay, well I'll go
ahead and uh kick it off with the most common one.
(03:38):
Do you want me to do the most common way?
I think so? Yeah. I mean, first, do you think
we should tell him, like, I got one thing I
need to say first. I think there's there's a reason
that we're talking about this, and that's because, um, I
know what we sound kind of stay about this or whatever.
But yeah, that's right. Well, there's there's rules for a reason,
and there's a couple of reasons really, and when you
listen to the reasons, I think you'll understand why we're
(04:00):
talking about this today, because and like I said, you know,
you go follow the rules. A lot of people gonna
say you don't have to follow the rules, but um,
if if you don't, if you don't follow the rules
of the road here, the problem is that you're endangering
yourself Okay, that's that's one. The second thing is you're
endangering every other motorist on the road. The third one,
which I think some people will find, you know, apply
(04:21):
to them, you're endangering pedestrians on the road who are
expecting you to do one thing when you do another thing.
So I hadn't really thought of the pedestrian angle until
you know, yesterday when I saw somebody almost get hit. Um,
I just thought, you know, like, well, they were expecting
this person to stop at the light. They didn't continue through,
and the person that the you know, the intersection the
(04:42):
crosswalk where they were supposed to be nearly was struck.
And you know, I'm thinking like, okay, well that's a
it's the next thing. That was clearly the motors fault,
but it was based on the pedestrian thinking that the
car was gonna stop like it was supposed to do
at the intersection, and you know, it just it got
to me then at that point that you know, there's
more more than just yourself that you're thinking about, you know,
like I've got to do this or also get a ticket.
(05:03):
There's there's other motorists and other you know, people on
the road that are walking expect you to do certain
things that should that follow those rules or the convention standards.
I guess, and uh, let me go ahead. I completely
feel you on that. I want to go ahead and
plead the fifth to to some of these because of
course we're very aware or I hope you are too, buddy,
(05:25):
that we're talking about we're doing a podcast about driving laws.
Pretty much everybody has ignored at some point or not. Yeah,
that includes us, doesn't it kind of it may is
there statue of limitation? You know. I'm not gonna claim
responsibility for any of these, right right, We're just we're
just concerned. But here's something I want to say already, um,
(05:45):
and I've said it before, I'll say it again. I'm
on my supbox right now, um Scott. The future, the
future people of the world are going to look back
at the way we have traffic laws set up all ready,
and first off, they're going to think it's amazing and
sort of ridiculous that we had these huge vehicles hurdling
(06:09):
past each other very close together, you know, in excess
of fifty miles an hour, and we thought that they
would just stick to the honor system of having you know,
some lines, a line painted there, and no one's going
to drive over that, not over the magic line, that's right.
And and so we're already, you know, when when we
say that these rules are there for a reason, it's
(06:31):
it's very easy for us to get comfortable and think
that those uh that these painted symbols and stuff are
real barriers, you know. And and pedestrians certainly do have
to do have to trust the other person behind the wheel.
So I want to go ahead and start with one
of the common uh, one of the driving laws is
(06:52):
commonly broken speeding. You know what. That's my number one. Also,
that's my number. I think that I think that no
matter what or if somebody says, you know, I'm always
under the limit, I think there's a point where everybody
is speeding at least a little bit. I mean, I
know some people take it to to uh, you know,
the other extreme, and they speed all the time. And
we joke a lot about me speeding here, but um, honestly,
(07:13):
I don't drive all that fast. I ever have slower
than my wife does. I think a lot of the
roads and uh, and not to you know, point my
finger anything, but I'm just saying that you know I
I generally try to keep it a reasonably safe speed
and distance from other drivers, right, But also, I mean,
let's be realistic. When you look at if you were
(07:34):
on an interstate and you look at a sign that
says the minimum speed is forty miles per the maximum
speed is seventy seventy in some places. Yeah, um, let's
take let's not talk about where's seventy. I think that's
kind of okay, sorry, but sure it's fifty five and
(07:54):
most people are probably if you looked at the most
people are probably averaging somewhere between sixty and sixty five. Yeah,
or even faster, even faster. Yeah, that's uh, that's one
I think people commonly break, just just routinely. And you'll
hear people make the flow of traffic argument when they
get pulled over. Um as, I'm sure there's some people
(08:16):
already just shaking their heads ruefully remembering when they tried
that way. Let us all assure you it does not work.
The traffic does not work. But you don't want to
be in the opposite side of that either, holding up
traffic because that you will get a ticket for as well.
So there's too slow and too fast it's too slow,
too fast and just right? What do you go? What's
(08:36):
how about no turn signals. You're supposed to use your
turn signals every time you change lanes, but um, I
don't know how often I see people not use turn
signals or cut across two lanes of traffic at one time. Um,
that's also not allowed. Yeah, but man, this is this
is Atlanta, this is a town. It's like mad Matt. Yeah,
but I mean, you've got a brand new BMW. I
know that your turn signals work. It's not that you
(08:58):
know they don't work, which I guess you've got a
car that doesn't have turn signals at work. That's probably
also illegal. And it's weird that nobody has designed, especially
a high end luxury car, a car that automatically flips
the turn signal when you're turning. I don't know if
they can, how do they do that? I don't know.
We have to really think about that one. I don't
because you're talking about gradual changes in in direction. I mean,
(09:18):
it could be the curvature of the road, it could
be yeah, yeah, I mean you're talking about like an
extreme right hand turn or left hand turner, and it's
possible to build a car that parks itself, parallel parks itself. True,
then I I see nothing wrong with I understand. We'll
write a letter. I guess as possible. But yeah, you're
you're you're right. That's that's bad. It's in Atlanta. Sometimes
(09:38):
it seems as though people don't turn on their turn
signals because they don't want you to know their secret plan.
You know what that You know when that really gets
me when you're in two lane traffic and there's there's
no turn lane, of course, and you know you've got
a choice to be in the right laner or left
lane bandas person, and they go all the way up
to the light and then they turn on the signal,
so you know you've got your stuck waiting. They're gonna
(09:59):
turn left and yeah, and you've got to try to
either decide if you're gonna try to you know, pull
out around them to the right or nothing. I always
try to be nice. We're getting let's go, let's just
stick with lodge right right, okay, So I will see
you uh tailgating, and I will also go with your
hypothetical intersection there and let's talk about what's going on
(10:22):
at yellow lights man, Okay, yello lights. That's a good one.
Are you talking about the people that seem to think
that four cars can go through any yellow light? Yes,
I'm talking about them. I'm talking about some people who have,
maybe in this room in the past, have been leading
out at a yellow light, and then when it goes red,
these people who whoever they are someone in this room
(10:45):
possibly are stuck in are stuck in the intersection and
the red light and just bust that left turn real
quick and hope they don't get in trouble. And especially
you know, that's very common thing in cities, but it
is also it's illegal to bum rush that yell a
light so good point, good point, Yeah, and you put
yourself out in a bad position out there. And you
know what's crazy, Scott, is actually this this one? Um.
(11:09):
I won't say that these laws are set up for
anything other than safety, but there have been multiple cases
where cities and communities have been caught running their yellow
lights short to have you read about that, I have, Yeah,
that's right, I've heard about that. And there's something to
do with the red light cameras as well. Yes, Um,
(11:31):
is it that if they installed the red light cameras
they have to extend the yellow lights is at it
um there there's a minimum of like four seconds. There's
a minimum of four seconds. Bare minimum is three point
nine seconds. But there are people who are who are
shorting it to three point so they've got a red
light camera and then they've got a three second yellow light. Yeah,
I see, okay, And so it's so it's tough, but
it's a good revenue thing. But we're just saying, you know,
(11:53):
we're I'm not I'm not beating up on drivers entirely.
It's there there, there, there is a gray area with
these laws. We're pointing the finger at ourselves too. Yes,
I've had pointed it's important to remember throughout this thing
because we're not just picking on other people. Let's see,
I've got let me just give you two Yeah, following
too closely, tailgating. You know you've got the two second
(12:15):
rule thing that you know no one ever obeys. Really, Yeah,
leave the distance of the call. And you know there
is a tailgating rule. I mean there's I don't know
what that would be. I don't I don't know if
it's just a judgment call on the on the officer
following too closely, they falling too closely, or um falling
too closely for the conditions, you know, if it's icy
or raining or whatever. There's there's a lot of different
rules like that. Uh, the other one, now, this one,
I don't know if this is a law or net. Okay,
(12:37):
I'll be the judge of that. I'm a traffic consultant.
Very good, very good headlights when it's raining, headlights when
it's raining. What do you think? So if you've got
your Winchell wipers on it as I always heard, if
you have your Winchell wipers on, you should have your
headlights on. It's not true. I don't know if that's
a law. I've I've heard the same thing, but I don't.
I'm not sure if that is a law. Because it's
a safety concern, of course, I mean, well a lot
(12:59):
of laws also state by state. True, So I don't
you know what I can't speak to that. I'm not sure.
I don't know. I've always heard that, you know, when
you have your headlights on, or your brother you're winch
wipers on if you need them because of rain, you
need your headlights as well. You know, if it's just
um you know, one one wipe to clear off you know,
the dust and dirt and stuff. Of course, you don't
have to hear your head lights on, but I mean,
(13:19):
you know, if it's a condition where you have to
have them on it's sprinkling either or raining hard. Yeah,
turn them on. Even if it's like that Credence clear
Water song. It's like, uh sunny day rain that kind
of weather exactly. Yeah, yeah, I think you have to.
I don't know better safe and sorry yea all I'm
gonna say, all right, Uh, here's one. This has been
(13:41):
a big, big deal, um in the States and especially
in the areas around Atlanta recently, using your cell phone
or texting while you're driving very good, which a lot
of people do. And now, um, anybody plans to come
to Atlanta, keep an eye out because you guys are
going to season road signs that are at the county lines.
(14:04):
And in these quick background there's Fulton County, where the
majority of Atlanta is based, and then there are a
couple of adjacent counties, you know, and there's one called
the Cab County. When you cross over the Cab County line,
they have signs that say if you are in an accident,
and they can prove you were on your cell phone
doing anything on your cell phone. The accident is your fault. Yeah,
(14:25):
this is very recent, right. Our governor just signed this
Sunny Perdue. We signed this and uh, just a few
weeks ago. Really, Um so it's a relatively recent thing
and they're definitely watching for it. So oh yeah, there's
so serious. Be aware. Yeah, and it's dangerous. It really
is dangerous. Um. Like, we're getting you know what, we're
getting an article together about this right now, spoiler exactly
(14:46):
now it's coming together for the for the site. It's
you know, it's texting more dangerous than speeding or something
like that. Um so yeah, I watched for that one. Soon. Okay,
I've got another one for you here. I'll give you
two again. Okay, how about um seatbelt usage because there's
still a lot of people that aren't wearing seat belts
and that's a law. Yeah, that's a law. You got
me real quick before you go into that. And I
(15:08):
want to tell you, man, I've got to confess to
someone about this. Uh yeah, my family hates it. Um.
I I do wear a seatbelt all the time, but
you know me, man, I'm impulsive. I like to be
ready to go. I have this habit I've been trying
to break myself out of. As soon as I turn
onto the street where I will be stopping, I end
up taking off the seat belt. I don't know why.
(15:29):
In case I have to, I guess jump out of
the car. I can't break it. I've been doing it
since I was since before I was driving it. Really,
so when you near the near your final destination, that's
when you take off your seatbelt. Yeah, and it's so wrong.
I'm trying to do it like I My my girlfriend
just hates it. Tested. So I'm trying to break myself. Man,
(15:51):
But it's one day at a time. Good luck with that. Yeah,
what's sorry? No, No, it's right. A lot of people
just simply will not wear them. I my grandfather I
remember with car, and he would hold the seat belt.
He would how would he do this? He would click
it in because he knew that you know, the the lighter,
the buzzer would go. It's back in the early seventies, right,
he would click, he would click it into it's it's
(16:11):
receptacle there and he would hold it so far away
from him like you know, I hold it way away
from it was gonna do absolutely no good, you know,
like an arm's length away from him. Um, some people
just hate it. I mean I know somebody who will
not wear the seatbelt because they know of one story
one time where a friend you know, um, was actually
saved by not wearing the seatbelt. Um, that's so rare
(16:33):
that you know they say that. They ever even will
tell you that. You know that you know, if you
had been wearing it, you would have died, um in
a car accident. Usually it's a horrendous accident. Well even
even someone like me with that weird compulsive habit, I
wear a seatbelt the majority of the time. Um. The
guy who invented it, Niles Bulan or something his different
from my h he uh that's your name dropping. Well no, no,
(16:59):
uh looking into that, I think that invention is saved
over a billion lots. I would definitely definitely the numbers
beat out the anecdote exactly. Yeah, that's what we try
to convince this person that I know, and it's a
family member, and um, you know, I just will not
have any of that. Up until quite recently, you people
(17:19):
did not have to wear a seatbelt that they were
driving a pickup truck in Georgia. You know what, you're right,
that's very recent, within the last again a month or two, right,
very recent, which is we were the final holdout I
think on that. Yes, a lot of states had the
similar rule and then George was the last one to pass.
You know that you do have to wear a seatbelt
in a pickup truck, well, because there's not really a
reason not to. Yeah, I think that the the the
(17:42):
rule kind of goes back to when they were thinking
that pickup trucks were commonly used in agriculture and uh far,
you know, other environments, off road type environments, and you know,
you're getting in and out of the vehicle. You know,
let's say you're in a you know, in a logging
job or um, you know whatever would be forestry type job,
and you're getting in and out of the vehicle sixty
times a day. UM. I can understand why they would say, like, wow,
(18:04):
it's not necessary to do that over and over again.
And you're not even on a public road. But now,
you know, a lot of people drive. A lot of
people that's their main form of transportation. That's there, that's
their daily driver, daily driver. You're right, so, um, you know,
there's no reason not to if you're on the highway.
But but I agree with you what you're saying is
logical and rational. I just don't know if that's the
reason Georgia was last hold out. I heard a different story,
(18:27):
Mr b. Yeah, I heard that one of the members
of our state congress actually refused to wear seatbelt and
drove a pickup truck. And I heard that you can
trace this law to this individual. No kidding, yes, wow, okay,
that's it's all new to me. I'm member his name,
(18:50):
and again it's just an anecdote. Yeah, no, it's likely true, possible,
likely true. I mean, if you've got somebody on the inside,
that's that's, you know, putting pressure on this to keep
it keep it out. Yeah, I understand inside job. Did
that person recently retire? I believe. So there you go.
That's the reason I think, you know what I think
we need though, I think we need a guy on
the inside or a woman on the inside, someone on
(19:10):
the inside to get us A couple of BMW's. Okay,
why is that? I just like them, and I really
you know, if they can change seatbelt laws, you're just
a fan I'm just a fan quality vehicle. Very good, Okay,
I'm like, what a tangent? I'm sorry? Wow wow, very good? Okay,
(19:31):
all right, it's okay. How about how about this one.
I was gonna give you two here. So yeah, yeah,
complete stop at at intersections like stop signs. I gotta
admit that sometimes I don't do this in residential areas, um,
which is probably one of the worst places not to
do this. You know you've got where then, yeah, you
have the potential of people that I always look around,
of course, but um, you know, rolling stop. You'll get
(19:54):
a ticket for a rolling stop, and in fact, a
lot of times you'll find um police officers kind of
camped just waiting, just you know, a hundred feet away
from the intersection, just watching and just waiting for someone
to do that. And I've had a lot of friends
get tickets fed I luckily have not had one at
this you know, to this point, um, I don't think
I see a lot of people doing ruin stops. You
mean you have to go, you have to legally, you
(20:16):
have to come to a stop where that you know,
the weight of the car settles, yes, and then you
move on. But a lot of people don't do that.
I'm reformed. I do complete stops now. Man. But I
used to make more California roles than a sushi chef,
So yeah, I guess yeah, yeah, Well well yeah, we'll
leave well, let that one go. Yeah, we'll let that
one go. Leave it up to the listeners. What was
(20:38):
that more California roles than a sushi chef because they
make California roles? Okay, look, man, not all these jokes
are gonna be awesome. Luckily you can make more than
I'm coming. You can make bad jokes, all right, here's
here's another one. Or do you have a whole bunch
of them over there? I only have one. I only
have two more. Go ahead, you want to hear them?
Why not? Uh? This one is one that I think
(21:01):
a lot of people do unintentionally, especially when you're a
new place. That is this is part where you're asking
me what it is. I'm so glad it is parking
illegally the first ticket I ever got in Atlanta, because
I swear to you, Scott, I swear on Henry Ford's
(21:21):
name that that parking space looked like I could put
my car there. You're you're very serious about it swearing
Henry Ford's name. Well, look, okay, long, long story short,
there was nothing on the it was street parking. There
was nothing on the street that said I couldn't part there.
It was in the middle of several cars. Um, behind
(21:44):
a behind a pole, in a bush, there is a
sign that said that's a handicapped spot, and I couldn't.
I didn't see it. And then when the cop wrote
me the ticket, and um, I was looking at the ticket.
It took me like a couple of minutes to find
the sign. Wow, I had to go like on an
(22:04):
expedition into the butsch the guy probably just probably camps
out and waits for waits for people to use that
spot and write tickets. Well, also, you know, I'm not
the kind of guy who was parking a handicap. No,
it's it's messed up. But but I think that's something
a lot of people do without knowing that they're doing it. Now,
I honestly believe you, I don't. I don't think you
would ever do that intentionally. I know that well things,
but yeah, that's that's terrible when they hide something like
(22:27):
that on you and you you just inadvertently stumble into it,
like that all right, Now you're being a little overly.
No no, no, really no, I'm really not. No, that's
it's too bad, man, it's really actually illegally. What do
I see? I'm not being hipped? Okay, alright, I'm ready,
all right, I got a couple more hereble moding pretty quick.
(22:49):
Let's see that's you know what, I'll go with these
the lions thing, because um, I got another one that's
bigger than this. Crossing solid white lines, are crossing solid
yellow lines? People do it? I know, like you mentioned that,
you know that that those painted barriers, we've we've come
to know that. You know you're not supposed to do that.
You find that out in Driver's Dead. But you know
(23:10):
people cross solid white lines, and they cross solid yellow
lines as well. Um, you'll see the solid white lines
a lot of times on corners. Um, you're not supposed
to change lanes on certain corners. They deem it's too stee,
are too too much of an angle, you know, et cetera.
If it's too fast of a turn, Um they will
they'll You're supposed to maintain your lane. And a solid
line indicates that a lot of people are changing lanes
(23:31):
all over the place in that or they cross over
into a you know, a turn lane too quickly, so
they end up in a section that's marked off with
you know, solid yellow lines, or they do a U
turnover two solid yellow lines, which indicates, you know this
traffic come in the other directions. So, um, I don't know.
The solid yellow line and solid white line thing really
gets me. It does. And then also, you know, you're
(23:53):
not supposed to You're not supposed to switch lanes in
an intersection, in the midst of an intersection. Yeah, you're right,
and that I see that all the time. I said,
I what about passing on the right? I see a
lot of people passing on the right. Now, I gotta
ask you, is that a law? Yes, all right, Yeah,
you're not supposed to pass on the right. You're supposed to,
you know, I think you know the the person is
(24:14):
also in front of you, if they're holding up traffic,
they're supposed to move to the right and allow you
to pass on the left. Yeah, but a few people do.
And if you can't pass on the left, then you
know that's too bad for you. You're supposed to wait
until you are able to pass on the left. You're
not supposed to pass on the right. That's that's not
the right way to do it. Yeah, I guess you're right.
I mean I just a few people actually do go
to the right when they're slower traffic. Because we all
(24:36):
get this, I get this racing mentality sometimes, you know,
I got to hold the spot in lines. Gott um Okay, yeah, okay,
so I got that, you have any more, because I
got a couple. I got this this one. Stopping for
pedestrians and crosswalks happens a lot. You know, even in
um a lot of cities. They'll have a sign, the
little yellow sign with the stop sign painted on it,
(24:56):
sot for pedestrians pedestrians are crossing. I don't know what
the problem is. You know, the cars always have the
right away. So um yeah, we're looking at me like,
I'm I really want to be on your side, man,
I want to support you, but you gotta stop hitting
these people in the street. Okay, I know, I know
that's not right. Yeah, yeah, we we know, we know that,
and but it's it's true that a lot of times
(25:17):
maybe the drivers don't see the people who are about
to walk out on the curb continue past. So yeah,
we have to deal with that every day. Pointing to
our our building off the main road, and there's a
lot of foot traffic coming from public transportation, and just
in general, people live in condos down here in the city.
A lot of people walk to work or bike to work,
keeping eye. Um, so you know, construction workers walk into
(25:39):
the job site that type of thing, And anytime we're
turning into the building, um, you know, it's always kind
of nerve braaking because you have people closing in from
behind quickly and you you have to stop often to
let people, you know, continue to cross in front of you.
And that's that's always kind of iffy in the morning.
And then the last one I have. I just thought
of it because we were talking about this earlier. Flashing
(26:00):
yellow lights at an intersection. Let's get this straight for everybody,
they mean slow down and use caution. They do not
mean stop at the intersection. So if the power has
gone out and it's defaulted to uh, you know, one
direction flashing yellow, one direction flashing red, the one that's
flashing yellow, everybody is supposed to continue through. But a
(26:21):
lot of people treat that as a four way stop,
and that kind of screw things. Up even worse because
they've got to chart it out that way for a reason.
Sometimes it's red and red, which you know they wanted
to be a four way stop. Other times it's like
we mentioned red and yellow in another direction. You know,
it's usually the traffic or the car with the the
direction rather with the most traffic. And that's what we
had gone on this morning, and there were some people
(26:42):
going nuts and traffic just just super upset because no
one seemed to understand that a flashing yellow means you
continue through. And maybe maybe we're just living in the
wrong part of the world. Maybe everybody else in the
US knows that, except for I don't know. I don't
think so. I've seen that, you know other times when
power goes out in certain regions, and you know, no
one seems to understand how to how to operate that
(27:04):
stop or that that intersection. And in their defense, there's
sort of there's a nice mentality behind it, this live
and let live. Let's make it a four way stop,
just to help these people stuff exactly, Yeah, because you
know that they're going to have an awful hard time
getting out into traffic, ever, because no one's going to
give him a break. Yeah, it's a continuous full of
traffic versus a light that was working, you know, allowing
them to go left and right. So imagine trying to
(27:25):
turn left across all of that traffic, busy rush hour traffic.
You're right, You're right, and I should I should be
more sympathetic. I'm just pointing out, man, flash and yellow light,
don't stop, and you're supposed to go. It's right. Okay,
good point. My last two and um, we'll wrap it
up here. These kind of go together, so I'm gonna
read them both at the same time. Okay, right, all right?
How about failure to yield right of way? Like you know,
(27:46):
when you're turning left and you have like a left
turn arrow and someone who's turning right, you know, they've
got a red light on the other side. Um, they're
turning right and they cut right in front of you,
you know what I mean? Yeah, okay, Well, then worse
than that probably, I would would say. And this one
goes with it, I think is um giving the right
of way to another driver who does not have the
right away. Um, So when you're turning and let's say
(28:08):
that you know you're going to turn left and it's
to two green lights right and you're headed into an intersection.
You're gonna turn, You're gonna turn left, and there's another
car coming towards you, and they've got a green light
and they can turn. They're gonna turn right now they've
got the right way to turn right. And then you
wait kind of follow them. Well, let's say that they're
approaching and they're just starting to make your turn and
you start to edge out a little bit and they
(28:29):
suddenly stop on the stamp on the brakes and motion
you through and act like you know, what are you doing?
But they give you the the the motion you through,
it just causes more trouble than it's worth. I mean,
you knew, you knew what was going on. They've kind
of helped things up there, so you see what I
mean about giving And they're trying to be nice. They're
trying to be so you've got to give them credit
for that. But um, if you don't, that's when it
(28:52):
comes back to the rules. If you don't follow the rules,
everything that kind of gets jammed up in there because
now the whole rhythm is thrown off of the whole thing.
Like you know, you're doing the right thing, if they're
doing the right thing, it will all work fine. If
if somebody kind of messes that up, just you know,
it throws a I don't know, trench, throws a wrench
in the gears. You know, it's just it causes trouble. Um,
So I don't know. The rules are there for a reason.
(29:13):
I mean, we sound like we're you know, preaching to
people or something here. We're not because we're guilty of
a lot of this. Really, I know I am, um
not you're not flagrant, not not all the time. But
you know the rolling stops. Sure, I occasionally do that.
I speed a little bit now and then, you know
that type of thing. But um, I don't turn on right,
you know, turn on red when they're not supposed to,
and things like that. I think people some people just
(29:35):
do that because they just don't care. I have a
very excellent defense. Well I think it's excellent. Maybe it's
gonna let some people down. But you know, the reason
that we're we're hitting on this stuff, um, despite the
fact that neither Scott nor myself or Angels when it
comes to this, uh is because you know a lot
(29:56):
of people have heard that story about how everything's inter
related how of a butterfly in South Africa or in
Peru flaps its wings, there will be a hurricane later. Um.
You know, I don't know much about butterflies, or I
am not a meteorologist. They taste with their feet, then
they do yeah weird and uh wow and uh you know,
(30:17):
at least I'm not an expert in those things this week.
But the logic there is it does actually hold true
in a very very real way for traffic because when
there is when that person who is giving you the
right away, um, when that person who's going right gives
you the right away on the left, um, and then
(30:38):
someone taps their breaks behind them, someone taps their breaks
behind them, the stops get larger, right exactly. Yeah, the
domino effect and traffic that can last, I mean when
you're talking about a busy city, that can last hours. Yeah,
because I mean that's way highway backups last. You know,
when there's an accident on the road, Um, people slow down,
you know, for whatever reason for the initial accident or
(30:59):
just to you know, ubber neck to gawk at the accident.
That that domino effect, if if it's continuous float traffic
that can last hours and it can extend miles and
miles just from someone tapping the brakes, you know, hours
prior to that. And you know what, maybe we feel
like we're maybe because I feel a little treaty to man, Yeah,
I know I feel awkward doing this because I'm trying
(31:19):
to do as I say type thing. But but honestly,
like like we said to the whole thing, you know,
we're we're guilty of some of these as well. Um,
just trying to to let everybody know that, you know,
there's there's a reason for the rules and if you
follow them, I guess everything kind of works itself out.
You know. That's if everybody's following the rules, everything works
relatively smoothly. If someone breaks that that chain, then there's
(31:41):
a there's a problem. And we'd also like to ask
our listeners out here, guys in the wide world of
the internet, let us know, did we forget Is there
is there a law that you feel like sometimes you're
the only person that remembers this law, or is there
is there something that you feel like if you obeyed
(32:01):
it, it it would be weird for you in traffic, you know,
which could happen like the speeding thing that we've talked about. UM,
I don't know. Go ahead and hit us up on
our Facebook car stuff. Uh, but hit us up on
on our Twitter. Um, while you're there, Okay, while you're
there to check out the blog. Yeah, sure, we get
the blog. We've got. We've got the website which has
(32:21):
got a ton of great automotive articles. So you cruise
at your leisure and I'll see what we get them.
Can you mention the blog quo? Okay, the car stuff blog. Um,
and we we have uh, and we have an email
and uh send go ahead and send us an email.
We might read your letter on the air. There's probably
a good chance we have. We haven't done a lot
(32:43):
of risk listener email recently, but we're gonna get back
into it. Yeah, we're saving up. That's great saving up.
So if you want to want to contact us ahead
and do that, you can do that at car stuff
at how stuff works dot com. For more on this
and thousands of other topics, This is how stuff works
dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an
(33:05):
email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. M
CarStuff News
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Scott Benjamin
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