What is some of your Pet Peeve's

[WinterDeere]

You can almost always get a speeding ticket reduced to a no-points violation, at least around here. Just show up, and the officer will usually offer "failure to observe a traffic control device" or some other no-points violation, during pre-trial conference. They don't want to waste their own time or the court's time, on arguing out what can be settled in 2 minutes of discussion. They just want their money, and have no interest in making you pay higher insurance, or (usually) racking up points on our license.

Of course, very frequent offenders may get different treatment.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Of course, very frequent offenders may get different treatment.

That's where being a frequent offender but very rarely caught pays off.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Another many years ago I'm driving my wife in an old Nash Rambler I still have going 47 in a 45...guy in an F150 on my back bumper. He got where he could pass, flew around me, blocked the 2 lane road truck sideways and jumped out with a pistol saying he was going to kill us!
I had 1/2 second to decide floor it running over him or floor it in reverse...reverse I chose after remembering his license number.
Police charged him and he got jail time.
A few months later I'm driving a new Elantra and some guy's on my back bumper & I thought of the gun idiot so I speed up, illegal U turn, off-ramp at last second, run lights...you name it...guy's on my bumper.
Finally pull over and it was a plain clothes cop in an unmarked car. He said way too many tickets to write so we went to court. I explained to judge about the gun incident and he dismissed all charges.

 

[WinterDeere]

My story is nowhere near as good as Fuddy's, but I had one of those "lights on your rear bumper" stories, that also turned out to be a cop. In my case, it was right around the time the new Chevy Caprice came out (1990?), and all the cops in our town still had the old boxy model... or so I thought.

I hop onto the expressway in my Camaro doing about 70 mph in a 55 mph zone, and a car pulls up on my rear bumper so close that that he's going to rub me if I even think of easing off the gas. I'm looking at the headlights, or what little of them I can see below my trunk lid, and can easily see it's not the usual wide-set square bulbs we all knew as the police cruisers of the time, and I'd never even seen the new Caprice Interceptor model at that point. So, I'm thinking it's probably some school buddy screwing around with me, or something like that.

I punch it up to about 90 mph, and the guy is still on me like glue, just hanging there for another 1/4 mile. So I just floored it, figured I'd pull away from him, which I did... around 135 mph. And that's when the red-white-blue lights came on, a ways back by that point.

Turns out it was a State Trooper, something pretty uncommon to see in our little borough, since we had two local police divisions. The guy couldn't have been cooler, which is good, because I figured I was on my way to jail when I pulled over. He did give me a ticket, but it was only for 70 mph, so no huge penalty.

Everyone asks me why I didn't just stay on it and run, but that's just stupid. Not only can people get hurt way too easily in a chase, but there's no out-running radio. I honestly would've never exceeded 70 mph that night, if the guy hadn't pulled up so hard on me that he was almost pushing me down the road.

 

[BackRoad]

Let me start by saying I fully respect Police who honor their code to serve and protect...

I'm on the 55mph - 4 lane near my exit and it's 1am. I'm doing 55, clean and sober, actually just getting home from work after a long flight.

In the mirror I see a local townie in the median pull out to follow my Rubicon. I got off at the next exit, and several turns later, made my way to my narrow 40mph - 2 lane heading to the house, he's still following.

Got on my road and set the cruise control at 40, hands at 2 and 10 precision driving the last 5 miles and staying in my narrow lane - which can be a challenge in a raised Jeep running 35's.

Dang if that Cop didn't speed up to my bumper, then slow down, then speed up tight again so his lights disappeared below my view. Happened 6 or 8 times...meanwhile, I kept putting along at a steady 40 mph, carving the curves and no wandering on my part!

Going through my mind at the time: he's no longer a Cop now, he's an ass-clown trying to trigger some retaliatory reaction.

And he finally ceased just before I got to the house...he was trying hard to create a reason for a pull-over.

 

[Runner]

Let me start by saying I fully respect Police who honor their code to serve and protect...

I've only been to one football game in my life. Not really interested, but wife had access to season ticket holder seats that were supposedly in a good location, so we went. It was what it was. Anyway, this event occurred on the way out of the stadium parking lot, which as you can imagine is a nightmare.

The way they handle this nightmare is to have about 6 lanes leading out of the parking lot to the public street, then, right when you get to the street, those 6 lanes immediately split down to two lanes. The left lane leads to the freeway onramp that I needed to access to get home, the other goes off to Timbuktu which would have made me go far out of my way.

So, when I get to the road and see what the lanes are doing, I switched over from the right to the left so I could make the turn (with all the rest of the traffic in that lane) to the on-ramp. But right at the intersection, there is a cop standing there directing traffic, being all important.

When I get up to the intersection, he points at me and motions me specifically to move back over to the right lane. I motioned that I needed to turn left, but he got all mad and kept pointing me to the right lane. All I can figure is that for some reason they don't want people changing lanes (although there was no earthly way to know which lane you needed to be in until you get to the road) and that was his way of "punishing" me.

OK, fine, I changed back to the right lane and went on, watching him in the rear view mirror. As soon as his back was turned, I pulled a U-turn (because there was almost zero traffic going the other way, and came back to the intersection from the opposite direction. His back was still to me as I made the turn to go up the on-ramp and he didn't notice me until I was half way up the ramp.

Watching him stand there with his hands on his hips, looking all exasperated as I got to go where I wanted and he couldn't to a damn thing about it made my day.

 

[WinterDeere]

...he was trying hard to create a reason for a pull-over.

You picked up on my allusion in that last post. As bad as the Camaro was, I later owned a Mustang with a 429 cid big block stuffed in the hole from which we took the original 302 small block. Skinnies up front, street slicks in the back, 10 point cage, and a high rise intake on that motor so tall that I almost needed passengers to make right turns. It wasn't exactly "subtle".

So, I was always pretty careful and cautious driving it on the roads, but still was a target for every cop I'd pass. It was routine for them to pull out and follow me after passing them, even if I was well below the speed limit, they'd just follow and hope to find some little reason to pull me over. I even had one dirty cop pull me over after following me outside his jurisdiction, and claim I was speeding, when I had been going well below the speed limit knowing he was following me the whole time.

There are good cops out there, but too many of them are just dirtbags who got into the job either for the power trip, or because they had no better options. For better or worse, the good ones seem to move up through the ranks, leaving only the bottom feeders for you to deal with in traffic pullovers.

 

[bigtiller]

Let me start by saying I fully respect Police who honor their code to serve and protect...

I'm on the 55mph - 4 lane near my exit and it's 1am. I'm doing 55, clean and sober, actually just getting home from work after a long flight.

In the mirror I see a local townie in the median pull out to follow my Rubicon. I got off at the next exit, and several turns later, made my way to my narrow 40mph - 2 lane heading to the house, he's still following.

Got on my road and set the cruise control at 40, hands at 2 and 10 precision driving the last 5 miles and staying in my narrow lane - which can be a challenge in a raised Jeep running 35's.

Dang if that Cop didn't speed up to my bumper, then slow down, then speed up tight again so his lights disappeared below my view. Happened 6 or 8 times...meanwhile, I kept putting along at a steady 40 mph, carving the curves and no wandering on my part!

Going through my mind at the time: he's no longer a Cop now, he's an ass-clown trying to trigger some retaliatory reaction.

And he finally ceased just before I got to the house...he was trying hard to create a reason for a pull-over.

I had one on my bumper like that several times.
One time, he tailgated me doing 50 in a 55, on a curvy road for 10 miles, from one little town to the next town.

It's enough to qiss a guy off. If I had done that to him, I would have been given a ticket.

 

[thepumpguysc]

I was doing a 24 hr turn around from Georgia to Miami and back again..
I was taking the “back roads” for obvious reasons..
I hit this one little burg that went from 55 to 35mph.. I immediately hit the cruise control to 35..
I’m cruising along and get Blue Lights in my mirrors.!!
OH NO.!!
The officer starts asking me all sorts of stupid questions & when he was satisfied, I asked him, can I ask why u pulled me over.??
He said, because NOBODY does the speed limit thru my town…
Lol.. I brought attention to myself by following the law..!! Whoda think it.??

 

[masseyrider]

I've been pulled over in my Ford GT a couple times.
Not speeding, obeying all the rules (if they only knew ).
Both times they were younger cops and pulled me over because they had no idea Ford had ever built something like the GT.
They thought for sure it was Ferrari or something of that ilk but the info they got said Ford. The only identifying Ford logo is on the front hood and easily missed from any other angle.
Stolen car or plates...?
One of the officers asked if he could come by after his shift to take a closer look.
Sure, why not?
He's something of a piston head into the rice rockets. I just can't get into those.

 

[masseyrider]

I had one on my bumper like that several times.
One time, he tailgated me doing 50 in a 55, on a curvy road for 10 miles, from one little town to the next town.

It's enough to qiss a guy off. If I had done that to him, I would have been given a ticket.

I had one of those one night. So close his headlights where below my tailgate.
Literally a few feet behind me.
I suddenly hit the brakes.
I'm really surprised he didn't make contact.
He pulled me over.
Asked me what I thought I was doing.
I answered that a deer had leapt across the road in front of me.
He didn't believe me and checked me out thoroughly and grudgingly let me go.
It would have been funny if he had hit me (older truck at the time) having to explain why he rear ended me while I wasn't committing any violation.

 

[WinterDeere]

It would have been funny if he had hit me (older truck at the time) having to explain why he rear ended me while I wasn't committing any violation.

Oh... but you would have been committing a violation, he just hadn't thought of it yet.

 

[garry1p]

I was pulled over in TN for doing 72 in a 55 speed limit.
I told the officer I had just disengaged the cruse control and was slowing for the 55 when he pulled me over in the 55. He said "Sure you did", then he saw my Vietnam hat on the dash and let me go, no warning or ticket.

 

[Jstpssng]

Often when they come up on your bumper it's because they are checking your speed, but there is no excuse to follow you for miles that way.

When I used to work in New York it wasn't unusual to be coming back through Vermont after dark. Invariably somewhere around Burlington I would have a car come flying up behind me and climb onto my bumper. "That's either a Trooper or a Massachusetts driver, and I'm not going fast enough for it to be a trooper. At the last minute they'd pull out and go by, invariably would have Massachusetts plates.

 

[kenmbz]

Often when they come up on your bumper it's because they are checking your speed, but there is no excuse to follow you for miles that way.

When I used to work in New York it wasn't unusual to be coming back through Vermont after dark. Invariably somewhere around Burlington I would have a car come flying up behind me and climb onto my bumper. "That's either a Trooper or a Massachusetts driver, and I'm not going fast enough for it to be a trooper. At the last minute they'd pull out and go by, invariably would have Massachusetts plates.

That's funny, my uncle had a house south of Burlington in MA and we always knew the MA drivers as they moved so slow on the west side of the state.

Now around Boston, that's where people drive like madmen, first place I saw it legal to drive on the shoulder during rush hour.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I've had them so close it looks like they're in the back seat. I want to yank up on the parking brake so brake lights don't come on then say how my neck hurts after impact!

 

[Too many Kubotas]

I don't get it guys.

Are your vehicles really so slow that they can't only keep up, but even tailgate you??

 

[BackRoad]

I don't get it guys.

Are your vehicles really so slow that they can't only keep up, but even tailgate you??

You might out run them, but you can't stay outrun a radio!

 

[BleedingOrange]

You might out run them, but you can't stay outrun a radio!

Or bullets !

 

[kenmbz]

In my town they don't do the ride up your bumper thing, but when I lived in NJ....

Every time one would do that. I would slow down, open the windows and blast music.
If it was a 35 zone, I would go 25 etc.
They would get tired of it and pass me and I would wave as they went by.

This happened enough that one time I pulled over in a parking lot and waved to the officer to come by for a talk. He took off.

I have many friends who were cops, the one job they hated was when they were sent out to give tickets. Their logic was , as long as the driver is not going too crazy, why waste time and aggravation.

But go crazy, like 70 in a 35 and they had no apprehension of chasing you down for making it unsafe on the road.