Whats up with cagers from Texas?

[krashdragon]

WTF. Help me understand why they won't move out of the left lane. They seem to be on cruise control at the given speed limt, next to another car or truck,but think the own the left lane, while backing up traffic? We call them "rolling road blocks". <_< Is it state law to run in the left lane in Texas? They piss me off and make it very dangerous as other cars cut in front of them trying to make a point, but it doesn't seem to effect them. :assassin:

they've all moved here form California!

some friends of mine (from the LA area) have no idea that driving in the left lane is illegal here... not a clue...sigh....

Mary

 

[phobostx]

WTF. Help me understand why they won't move out of the left lane. They seem to be on cruise control ...

Most people on the U.S. highways, today, don't have clue about driving skills (poor-to-non-existant training & skills testing) so they opt-out of driving the vehicle and let the electronic cruise control module do it for them.

Until there are 'keep right except to pass' laws & enforcement (discussed in another, recent, thread) we'll all probably have to suffer with drivers who prefer not to drive?

That is exactly it. Law enforcement in Texas is only concerned with speed enforcement on the freeways. In Austin, motor cops have been ordered out of school zones to write speeding tickets on freeways. Tailgating, failure to signal a lane change, passing on the right or impeding traffic are just novel enforcement concepts here. I guess it is just easier to get a conviction on since they have "indisputable proof". I'd love a program designed to eliminate 25% of the drivers on the road as a result of license revocation. I'll bet manners and driving ability would improve overnight.

Problem in Austin is our liberal judges & juries don't like to convict people for most of the above mentioned offenses. I habitually wrote people tickets for driving in the left hand lane with traffic passing them on the right. Most were clueless or believed that if you want to go faster than you can just "go around".

Tailgating: In Austin, a very difficult charge to get a conviction on unless you cause an accident. Opinion seems to be, "Well if they didn't hit them then they must not have been following to close". I once wrote a guy a ticket after cutting off another driver by changing lanes from a "Left Turn only" lane into a "Straight Lane" without signaling on his phone. This guy forced his vehicle in a 1 car length space between two other cars and was almost hit by the vehicle that was now "behind him". When I stopped he was pissed about being stopped "for nothing". When I explained what he did his response was "there was enough room for me to squeeze in". I explained to him that that "room" he was referring to was called a "following distance" and he just sat there with a stupid look on his face.

Failure to signal Intent : I ALWAYS wrote this ticket when the vehicle was in moderate to heavy traffic. Most juries/judges seem to think this is a waste of time. There is a big difference between not using your signal in the middle of nowhere or on a road with little or no traffic but cutting people off w/o a signal in rush hour traffic always got a ticket from me.

Impeding Traffic: In Texas, in order to be charged with Impeding Traffic you must be going at least 10mph below the posted limit. I once stopped a guy doing 45mph on Mopac (this is a 65mph highway) and when I asked him why he was going so slow his response was "driving slow to conserve fuel"