Huge Traffic fine increase in California
01-14-2011, 11:39 AM
#32
Race Director
In general, if the laws and fines are for the good of the public from a safety perspective, I am fine with them. If they are revenue based, then not so much (have you ever seen speed traps in hidden locations that caught many offenders rather than near high accident rate intersections?). What is the real driver behind these new fines?
if you like to speed, you gotta pay to play.
01-14-2011, 01:51 PM
#33
Drifting
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: South Bay, Los Angeles
Posts: 2,733
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes
on
3 Posts
Hands free is total BS. The phone still must be dialed...just like texting, and even with the headset or speaker on, you're still distracted! Smith System driver training is used by professional drivers all over the U.S., including 7,000+ at my company. Here is a link to their "distracted driver" training preview:
http://www.smith-system.com/aypwafdv...iewvideo.shtml
http://www.smith-system.com/aypwafdv...iewvideo.shtml
01-14-2011, 04:16 PM
#34
Drifting
01-14-2011, 04:31 PM
#35
Nonetheless, I've stopped making or taking calls while in the car. The screen does tell me who's calling and so I'll pull over if I need to take it, or just quickly say "call you back in a minute."
When I did use it for calls, I realized I couldn't remember what was happening on the road or where I even was for the time I was on the phone. It's the talking and listening part that's the true distraction, and not just the use of hands (as your Smith System link demonstrates.)
01-14-2011, 05:17 PM
#37
Rennlist Member
When I did use it for calls, I realized I couldn't remember what was happening on the road or where I even was for the time I was on the phone. It's the talking and listening part that's the true distraction, and not just the use of hands (as your Smith System link demonstrates.)
For some reason, it is tougher to tell the caller to hang on a minute while traffic subsides (while driving through an interchange for example) than to tell your passenger, "hang on a minute". Maybe because the passenger sees what is going on, traffic-wise.
01-14-2011, 05:31 PM
#38
And have you noticed the difference when talking to a passenger in your car and taking a call on your cell phone in your car.
For some reason, it is tougher to tell the caller to hang on a minute while traffic subsides (while driving through an interchange for example) than to tell your passenger, "hang on a minute". Maybe because the passenger sees what is going on, traffic-wise.
For some reason, it is tougher to tell the caller to hang on a minute while traffic subsides (while driving through an interchange for example) than to tell your passenger, "hang on a minute". Maybe because the passenger sees what is going on, traffic-wise.
I do recall a study about the difference of speaking with someone in person (eg, a passenger) and someone on the phone. It's apparently a different use of the brain in respect to communicating.
01-15-2011, 10:40 AM
#39
Race Director
I haven't missed anything. Obviously this is revenue generation mixed with law enforcement.
perhaps you're missing my point, which is this:
1. The speed limit is X and announced as such
2. If you are driving X+Y, you are breaking the law
3. you know the fine is Z
4. If you knew the law and broke it willingly, you don't have much room to bitch about how much the fine costs
perhaps you're missing my point, which is this:
1. The speed limit is X and announced as such
2. If you are driving X+Y, you are breaking the law
3. you know the fine is Z
4. If you knew the law and broke it willingly, you don't have much room to bitch about how much the fine costs
01-16-2011, 09:15 PM
#40
Addict
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Putting snow back where you found it = $300 fine.
"township bans saving shoveled-out parking spot"
January 13, 2011
SHARON HILL, Pa. (AP) — Using a cone or a piece of furniture to save a parking space after you've cleared snow from it may be a tradition in much of the Philadelphia area, but in one township, it could cost you.
Commissioners in Delaware County's Darby Township approved an ordinance Wednesday night to ban the practice and impose a fine of up to $300 on violators. Another part of the ordinance would fine people caught shoveling snow back.
01-16-2011, 09:27 PM
#41
Addict
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
What are we worth? ~$856,000
The New York Times' "China Sentences Toll Dodger To Life In Prison:"
Published: January 13, 2011
BEIJING — Like most drivers around the world, Shi Jianfeng did not like to roll down his window at toll booths. In fact, Mr. Shi, a farmer evaded more than $550,000 in road fees during eight months of highway driving, according to the court that convicted him.
But his punishment, life in prison and a $300,000 fine, has provoked a firestorm in the media and among Chinese who have accused the government of imposing a draconian sentence on a man trying to make ends meet in these inflationary days. “Rape and murder will earn you 15 years in prison but evading road charges will get you life,” said one typically cynical posting on Tianya, a popular message board. “Ours is a miraculous country with peculiar laws.”
Chinese legal scholars said it was the first time toll evasion had earned a scofflaw a life sentence.
Mr. Shi, who had turned to hauling sand and gravel to make a living, behaved egregiously. But the financial details of the violations for which Mr. Shi was convicted only served to feed suspicions that he had been railroaded. The toll per truck trip averages more than $200 — a high figure.
But many people noted that his profit during those toll-free days amounted to $30,000. If he had truly evaded $556,000 in road fees, as the police charge, he would have lost more than $520,000 from his trucking business.
The local judiciary was so unnerved by the uproar that it took the unusual step of holding a news conference this week to explain Mr. Shi’s transgressions in detail.
The explanation, however, did little to assuage public anger.
In a commentary he wrote Wednesday in the Beijing News, a lawyer, Xu Mingxuan, said that if the official numbers were to be believed, the greater crime was that Chinese drivers were subjected to exorbitant tolls. “Such figures only highlight the people’s suffering,” he wrote.
Popular aversion to such fees has been inflamed by media reports of freeloading government motorcades and inflated tolls that end up in the pockets of local officials. In 2008, the country’s National Audit Office said that motorists had handed over $2.3 billion at illegally erected tollbooths.
In a commentary on Wednesday, The Yangcheng Evening News in Guangzhou suggested that those who set toll rates, not Mr. Shi, should be punished for onerous fees that added to the ever increasing cost of food and other goods. “Fraud is despicable,” the paper wrote, “but who’s scamming whom?”
Originally Posted by Andrew Jacobs
Published: January 13, 2011
BEIJING — Like most drivers around the world, Shi Jianfeng did not like to roll down his window at toll booths. In fact, Mr. Shi, a farmer evaded more than $550,000 in road fees during eight months of highway driving, according to the court that convicted him.
But his punishment, life in prison and a $300,000 fine, has provoked a firestorm in the media and among Chinese who have accused the government of imposing a draconian sentence on a man trying to make ends meet in these inflationary days. “Rape and murder will earn you 15 years in prison but evading road charges will get you life,” said one typically cynical posting on Tianya, a popular message board. “Ours is a miraculous country with peculiar laws.”
Chinese legal scholars said it was the first time toll evasion had earned a scofflaw a life sentence.
Mr. Shi, who had turned to hauling sand and gravel to make a living, behaved egregiously. But the financial details of the violations for which Mr. Shi was convicted only served to feed suspicions that he had been railroaded. The toll per truck trip averages more than $200 — a high figure.
But many people noted that his profit during those toll-free days amounted to $30,000. If he had truly evaded $556,000 in road fees, as the police charge, he would have lost more than $520,000 from his trucking business.
The local judiciary was so unnerved by the uproar that it took the unusual step of holding a news conference this week to explain Mr. Shi’s transgressions in detail.
The explanation, however, did little to assuage public anger.
In a commentary he wrote Wednesday in the Beijing News, a lawyer, Xu Mingxuan, said that if the official numbers were to be believed, the greater crime was that Chinese drivers were subjected to exorbitant tolls. “Such figures only highlight the people’s suffering,” he wrote.
Popular aversion to such fees has been inflamed by media reports of freeloading government motorcades and inflated tolls that end up in the pockets of local officials. In 2008, the country’s National Audit Office said that motorists had handed over $2.3 billion at illegally erected tollbooths.
In a commentary on Wednesday, The Yangcheng Evening News in Guangzhou suggested that those who set toll rates, not Mr. Shi, should be punished for onerous fees that added to the ever increasing cost of food and other goods. “Fraud is despicable,” the paper wrote, “but who’s scamming whom?”
01-16-2011, 09:38 PM
#42
Addict
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Lifetime Rennlist
Member
Last edited by curve lover; 07-04-2012 at 01:43 PM. Reason: YT
