Hardly strange. My wife and I are socially liberal Republicans; we're not the majority of the party but we aren't unique either. We're friends with a very traditional, very Republican lesbian couple. (Like, ridiculously so. One of them took the other's last name when they got married.)
The speed limit on I-25 through downtown Denver isn't 75, either, but that doesn't mean that the typical Colorado freeway doesn't have a 75 MPH speed limit. The generalization is a generalization, not Holy Writ.
Without knowing exactly where you live, I can't speak with much more authority, but I've legally driven 65 MPH on I-95 in Maryland and on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (from Breezewood to what is now I-99, though it wasn't at the time). Like I said, typical American freeway speed limits are quite a bit higher than 55 MPH and have been for a good while. If you're talking about PA, MD, and DC, but not I-95 or the PA Tpk, you're not only not talking about the typical American freeway, you're not even talking about the typical PA/MD freeway.
Funny you should mention LA... went out there for Christmas 2011. Fantastic time of year to visit - it's warm by non-California standards, and everyone seemed to have left town. We spent a week there and never once got caught in a traffic jam. We got plenty of attention when we went shopping, because we were usually almost the only ones in the store. The salespeople at Neiman-Marcus validated our garage ticket for all day parking just for getting $50 worth of gifts (that we were going to buy anyway).
The Beltway would be OK if DC didn't have the worst drivers in the country. It really lives up to the old adage that Washington is the city that combines Southern efficiency with Northern charm...
Per Wikipedia, the lowest maximum speed limit in the US is 60 MPH in Hawaii. It's 65 in the Northeast, WI, IL, and OR, 70 across the Midwest, South, and California, and 75 in the Plains and West. Do you not travel much? (I live in the South, but I've driven almost everywhere.)
Great idea. Until the state takes action, though, what can you do? And if they're caught, as they often are, shaving time off the yellows, what are the penalties for the officials who change the timing?
If the yellow is not long enough for a person traveling at the speed limit to stop safely or clear the intersection before it turns red, then the yellow is too short. Are people bad drivers? Sure. But that doesn't change the fact that yellows are often too short.
No, I live in Mississippi, but I went to college in Virginia, so I had the honor of driving through ATL a few times a year. I found that it's actually much faster to drive through downtown than to take the Perimeter.
And if the yellow has been shortened to one second long on a 45 MPH road, and I end up running a red light because I could not stop safely in one second despite traveling at the posted speed limit, I deserve a ticket?
Srsly, who mods this crap up? Do you expect everyone to be psychic? If you have to estimate how long a light has been green and apply that knowledge to determine when it might turn yellow, the yellow is too short. Do you not have cars entering from side streets where you live?
You should always be prepared to stop, but that's why we have yellow lights - to allow people to know when they should stop rather than proceed. I know the duration of lights in my home town, but when traveling there's no way I could know when to take my "foot off of the gas pedal", because I've never seen that light before. Are you seriously arguing that people should observe every signaled intersection for a full cycle before attempting to pass through it?
Those people should be ticketed, but that doesn't tell you anything about the average driver. Most people are not habitual criminals, and if the law is so screwed up that it makes criminals of most people, it's the law that's the problem, not the people.
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Pro gay rights isn't a gay opinion. Pro musicals is. Easy enough?
Hardly strange. My wife and I are socially liberal Republicans; we're not the majority of the party but we aren't unique either. We're friends with a very traditional, very Republican lesbian couple. (Like, ridiculously so. One of them took the other's last name when they got married.)
Yeah, keep smoking that shit, dude.
But of course ;)
The speed limit on I-25 through downtown Denver isn't 75, either, but that doesn't mean that the typical Colorado freeway doesn't have a 75 MPH speed limit. The generalization is a generalization, not Holy Writ.
Too bad that it's not, and that there are no penalties in place for the officials who violate those standards, eh?
Without knowing exactly where you live, I can't speak with much more authority, but I've legally driven 65 MPH on I-95 in Maryland and on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (from Breezewood to what is now I-99, though it wasn't at the time). Like I said, typical American freeway speed limits are quite a bit higher than 55 MPH and have been for a good while. If you're talking about PA, MD, and DC, but not I-95 or the PA Tpk, you're not only not talking about the typical American freeway, you're not even talking about the typical PA/MD freeway.
Funny you should mention LA... went out there for Christmas 2011. Fantastic time of year to visit - it's warm by non-California standards, and everyone seemed to have left town. We spent a week there and never once got caught in a traffic jam. We got plenty of attention when we went shopping, because we were usually almost the only ones in the store. The salespeople at Neiman-Marcus validated our garage ticket for all day parking just for getting $50 worth of gifts (that we were going to buy anyway).
The Beltway would be OK if DC didn't have the worst drivers in the country. It really lives up to the old adage that Washington is the city that combines Southern efficiency with Northern charm...
Per Wikipedia, the lowest maximum speed limit in the US is 60 MPH in Hawaii. It's 65 in the Northeast, WI, IL, and OR, 70 across the Midwest, South, and California, and 75 in the Plains and West. Do you not travel much? (I live in the South, but I've driven almost everywhere.)
Great idea. Until the state takes action, though, what can you do? And if they're caught, as they often are, shaving time off the yellows, what are the penalties for the officials who change the timing?
It's from the this and this universe. Didn't read TFA, but it's a problem that has been noted before in numerous places.
If the yellow is not long enough for a person traveling at the speed limit to stop safely or clear the intersection before it turns red, then the yellow is too short. Are people bad drivers? Sure. But that doesn't change the fact that yellows are often too short.
Yes. He can. A business owner can refuse service to anyone at any time, as long as in doing so s/he does not violate discrimination laws.
So this and this, to name a couple, are 100% false? You're confusing what should be with what is.
Most yellow lights aren't the problem, but then most cities don't use light cams as a revenue source.
Maybe where you live. Not everywhere.
No, I live in Mississippi, but I went to college in Virginia, so I had the honor of driving through ATL a few times a year. I found that it's actually much faster to drive through downtown than to take the Perimeter.
When you don't live in the town in question, exactly how are you supposed to influence its governance?
You act as though all yellows are set so that human reaction times and the posted speed limit are properly accounted for. This is not always true.
And if the yellow has been shortened to one second long on a 45 MPH road, and I end up running a red light because I could not stop safely in one second despite traveling at the posted speed limit, I deserve a ticket?
Srsly, who mods this crap up? Do you expect everyone to be psychic? If you have to estimate how long a light has been green and apply that knowledge to determine when it might turn yellow, the yellow is too short. Do you not have cars entering from side streets where you live?
You should always be prepared to stop, but that's why we have yellow lights - to allow people to know when they should stop rather than proceed. I know the duration of lights in my home town, but when traveling there's no way I could know when to take my "foot off of the gas pedal", because I've never seen that light before. Are you seriously arguing that people should observe every signaled intersection for a full cycle before attempting to pass through it?
You know the timing of every light in the United States, apparently?
Those people should be ticketed, but that doesn't tell you anything about the average driver. Most people are not habitual criminals, and if the law is so screwed up that it makes criminals of most people, it's the law that's the problem, not the people.