The Slow Poke law discriminates against law-abiding drivers because it is ambiguous and subjective, declaring that if youre in the left lane and going slower than the normal flow of traffic, you must move over and let the faster drivers pass. That means you could get a ticket even if youre driving the speed limit and everybody else is exceeding it. By law, you must not impede the lawbreakers, which means purely and simply that this law encourages lawbreaking by punishing law-abiders. Thats a first in American jurisprudence and establishes a dangerous precedent if applied to other forms of lawbreaking. We are a nation of laws, except on the highways, where obviously we are not. There, mob rule applies; if the mob is going 85 and youre impeding it at the speed limit, you will be fined. That constitutes a leak in the dike of law and order and somebody should stick a finger in it before it opens a much bigger hole. It also invites lawsuits, for how can it be legal to fine someone who is adhering to the law for getting in the way of someone who is not? Thats like getting arrested for not opening the door so the bank robbers could escape. Proponents of the law say it will make driving safer by reducing congestion and tailgating, the main cause of traffic accidents. Weve all had it happen: were in the left lane doing 70, having just passed a line of 18-wheelers and waiting a safe distance to pull over, when some jerk doing 90 zooms up behind us, practically kisses our bumper, flashes his lights, and gives us the finger. The law is now on the side of the jerk, which is just going to encourage a lot more of the same. Well, heres a novel idea. How about enforcing the existing laws on tailgating with zero tolerance? Film em, pull em all over and fine the daylights out of them. Theyre the ones putting everyone else in danger, so discourage them from doing it. Do I have an Amen? And heres another. If the posted speed limit is 70, but you can get by with 80, then make 80 the speed limit. Exceed that, and you will be heavily fined for speeding. That would solve just about everything, since statistics show the overall cause of accidents is traffic speed variation, which is the primary cause of lane-changing, which is the primary cause of wrecks, and which is exactly what the slowpoke laws are attempting to fix by giving the right-of-way to the wrongdoers. If drivers knew for sure what the speed limit was and didnt have to guess at what they could get by with – 73? 78? 80? 82? -- that would do more than anything to reduce the variations in speed, hence reducing the need to change lanes. Post the real, absolute speed limit and stop everybody who exceeds it and/or who tailgates. Then the speeding, tailgating, light-flashing, finger-giving jerks will no longer own our highways, thus making our travels much safer. Thats all I have to say about that.Can I get an Amen?
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 02:19:32 +0000
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