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There's an intersection near me with two left-turning lanes onto a three-lane main road. The right turn lane across the intersection that turns into the same lanes has a light-up no turn on red sign that illuminates when said left turn lanes have an arrow, because there's a gas station and shopping plaza right there and a lot of the left-turning traffic has to get over quickly. I once had a guy chase me down and scream at me at a red light because, when I was turning left into the far-left lane, he ran through that right turn and straight across all three lanes. Apparently I was the reckless one for having to slam on my brakes and go nearly into the median to avoid him and his precious Blazer. Speaking of truck morons, just today coming from school I had a moment of idiocy. I had about a half-mile gap in front of me, and there was a truck pulling up to turn onto the road as the car in front passes. He could easily have gone, but he stayed there, apparently to pull out behind me instead. Then right as I get to him, he pulls halfway into my lane and just loving stops dead; I actually had to panic stop and swerve to avoid him. He actually flipped me off as I passed by him. 
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Mar 5, 2014 17:37
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The mentality when hearing horns/screeching tires is 'well it couldn't possibly have been anything I did, so gently caress YOU.' Also, STR I don't know if it's the city or what but you are a goddamn magnet. If anyone can justify a lifted F250 it's you. Maybe if the idiots on the road see bullbars and a pizza sign they'll behave. redgubbinz fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Mar 5, 2014 |
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Mar 5, 2014 18:10
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Oh god I would have been fired the day I got hired if we used pizza signs, I have no problem honking when someone pulls a boneheaded move. My boss hates them (as do I - they destroy your paint, and it's like painting "HEY I HAVE FREE MONEY AND FOOD IN MY CAR PLEASE ROB ME" on your car). I think we have 1 sign tucked away somewhere - but even if we did have them, the city I work in has an incredibly strict sign ordinance (if you have a sign on your car, you can never, ever, ever park it in front of the business, it has to to be parked in the back... and not visible from the street in any way). Said city also banned billboards and almost banned digital signs on/in front of buildings (you can have electronic ones, but they can't have anything moving on them, and have to show a static image for no less than 15 seconds.. then go blank for a few seconds, then show the next image, with no movement). Funny you mention that - I almost t-boned someone that blew a red light 2 years ago, when I worked for a place that did use signs. They called my boss and ripped him a new rear end in a top hat about my "speed" (I was doing 35 in a 40). That's when I started seriously considering dash cams, I nearly got fired over that. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 18:28 on Mar 5, 2014 |
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Mar 5, 2014 18:24
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I still advocate for a louder horn. Loud enough to make someone hit the headliner. I drive around Toledo and I never see anything really bad. Most people are polite, the highway moves at good speeds, etc etc. Its the rich white suburb south of Toledo where people drive like assholes in their huge SUV/CUV things. I've been tailgated so close I would swear they were in my back seat.
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Mar 5, 2014 18:25
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I had a set of Cadillac horns on my Altima; I really need to go hit the junkyard to get a set for the Saturd. The Altima's horn was about 1 step removed from an air horn, it almost drowned out the sound of the poo poo hitting the cotton.  And yeah, this is a rich white suburb; at one point it was the fastest growing city in the US.
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Mar 5, 2014 18:31
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I had an interesting experience the other day. Left turns are allowed only from the left two lanes on the road that goes under the freeway and splits around the pillars. The lane second from the left goes both left and straight. You're warned quite a ways before you go into the split road which lanes go straight and which go left. Of course, this doesn't stop someone with handicapped plates on a Grand Marquis in the third-to-left lane from turning left directly in front of me while I'm going straight through in the second-to-left lane. It made me glad I'd just installed new brake pads.
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Mar 5, 2014 19:34
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atomicthumbs posted:I had an interesting experience the other day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQSRPMFDTSs
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Mar 5, 2014 21:15
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I was walking downtown the other day, and the road I was on is 2 lanes each direction, plus a left turn lane that's also a big wide median half the time. The light turns green, and a woman in the left turn lane forces herself across the front of the other two lanes and starts turning right. When she gets to the point where she's blocking pretty much every possible direction of travel, she stops. And answers her cell phone. Then she starts freaking out when people start honking. What the gently caress, lady.
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Mar 5, 2014 23:53
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TrinityOfDeath posted:I still advocate for a louder horn. Loud enough to make someone hit the headliner. Someone linked the dashcam talk forums a while back, and one of their users put a train horn on his Smart Fortwo, and it certainly gets the point across.
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Mar 6, 2014 09:34
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One of my managers has air horns on his truck (early 00s Chevy Silverado). I don't know if they're actual train horns (probably horns from a big truck instead), but entire graveyards wake up and poo poo themselves when he honks.
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Mar 6, 2014 11:11
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Ulfhednar posted:Someone linked the dashcam talk forums a while back, and one of their users put a train horn on his Smart Fortwo, and it certainly gets the point across. I run airhorns on all the motorcycles and multiple in the VW. Wouldn't have it any other way because people around here have their heads so far up their asses they wouldn't hear anything else.
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Mar 6, 2014 13:50
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Saw a guy in a lifted Ford Escape yesterday with blacked out headlights.  These are the people we share the road with.
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Mar 6, 2014 15:56
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Someone mentioned seeing led light bars being used on the street earlier and I thought at least I've never had to deal with that. Of course guess what I see today: a lifted F250 with a bigass led light bar right at eye level. It was daytime but overcast and it was still blinding.
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Mar 6, 2014 16:59
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Yesterday I had the joy of a riced out civic cut me off right as I was slowing down behind traffic at a red light. When the vehicles finally came to a stop we were probably 10 feet apart, I could see no pavement between my hood and his car and that's significantly closer than I am supposed to stop as per company policy, but the highlight was this civic driver threw his car into reverse and started to creep backwards. I honked my horn a couple times then just laid on the horn as the rear end in a top hat started staring at me in his mirror and smiling the whole time getting closer. . . Eventually, a car beside me saw what was going on and laid on their horn too which finally caused the him to stop backing up and speed off as quick as possible. The dumbest thing about it is I was driving a commercial vehicle with a GPS log and cameras loving everywhere (employer wants to know everything I do). I wish that rear end in a top hat would have hit me, it would have done no damage to the truck or my reputation.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:16
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a real rear end nigga posted:Someone mentioned seeing led light bars being used on the street earlier and I thought at least I've never had to deal with that. Of course guess what I see today: a lifted F250 with a bigass led light bar right at eye level. It was daytime but overcast and it was still blinding. Flatbillers here in SoCal are starting to run those LED light bars as if they are fogs/daytime running lights and its loving beyond retarded given their brightness. At night its ever worse as you might imagine.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:53
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a real rear end nigga posted:Someone mentioned seeing led light bars being used on the street earlier and I thought at least I've never had to deal with that. Of course guess what I see today: a lifted F250 with a bigass led light bar right at eye level. It was daytime but overcast and it was still blinding. I saw a lifted F250 with a LED light bar across the top of the truck. It wasn't on, but it was still stupid.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:41
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LTBS posted:I saw a lifted F250 with a LED light bar across the top of the truck. It wasn't on, but it was still stupid. They're really amazing light sources, I had a 30 LED Baja Designs one for my Charade race car and it was like 1/4 mile of daylight in front of me a few feet wider than the car. It only drew 8A, versus the 27A of halogen lights I had that barely did 200 feet.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:45
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Some loud crotch-rocket with a cruiser front has done done laps around my block all afternoon with a red LED strip on the right of the tank, and a purple LED cluster on the left, speaking of weird decisions people make. Why. And I'm not my own chauffeur but I wish I wouldn't have to share the road with jaywalkers who are too busy to walk ten yards more to where pedestrians belong, but not busy enough to step on it when we're forced to brake. I don't want a dash-cam, I want a license to pelt people with paintballs.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:03
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I saw a car hauler with a Grand Cherokee on top with the lights on.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:10
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MrLonghair posted:Some loud crotch-rocket with a cruiser front has done done laps around my block all afternoon with a red LED strip on the right of the tank, and a purple LED cluster on the left, speaking of weird decisions people make. Why. To this day I dont think I have ever stopped or even slowed down for a jay walker. In my defense, everytime I encounter jaywalkers has been right next to a crosswalk with full traffic lights, often even right at the crosswalk but without using the signal.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:20
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I loving jaywalk all the time, don't use crosswalk signals, etc but I do it AROUND the cars. As in, I wait till they're passing me and the other side is clear before I step out, look both ways, etc. Hell, I usually even keep walking down the sidewalk while keeping an eye on traffic because it means overly helpful morons don't slam on their brakes to let me cross without taking into account the 40mph traffic going the other way (which isn't stopping for me) or the ten people behind them they just forced to panic stop for no reason. Crosswalk signals delay everyone on the road way too long compared to how much time they save me as a pedestrian.
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Mar 6, 2014 22:02
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kastein posted:I loving jaywalk all the time, don't use crosswalk signals, etc but I do it AROUND the cars. As in, I wait till they're passing me and the other side is clear before I step out, look both ways, etc. Hell, I usually even keep walking down the sidewalk while keeping an eye on traffic because it means overly helpful morons don't slam on their brakes to let me cross without taking into account the 40mph traffic going the other way (which isn't stopping for me) or the ten people behind them they just forced to panic stop for no reason. Same. I can't stand people who slam to a stop thinking they're helping someone cross / pull out, without thinking of oncoming traffic or the long line of cars now unexpectedly jammed up behind them. I've actually shouted at people for doing that and trapping people in intersections just to let me cross. I'm on foot, I have eyes, I can loving wait till the coast is clear, no need to gently caress up traffic and nearly cause an accident.
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Mar 6, 2014 22:31
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Snowdens Secret posted:Same. They hosed it up big time around me, put a bunch of "stop for pedestrians" on all the intersections. They never bothered to detail WHEN to stop. This leads to several interpretations: a) Only stop for people in the crosswalk b) Stop for people waiting to cross c) Stop for people who look like they're sort of getting ready to cross d) gently caress 'em all and keep driving It basically means no one knows what the gently caress is going on, ever. Everyone's constantly terrified of getting turned into a hood ornament or ticketed for driving poorly.
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Mar 6, 2014 22:35
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some texas redneck posted:e: I rarely see u-turn lanes under bridges in other states, I guess maybe it's a Texas thing?
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Mar 6, 2014 22:38
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Crotch Fruit posted:To this day I dont think I have ever stopped or even slowed down for a jay walker. In my defense, everytime I encounter jaywalkers has been right next to a crosswalk with full traffic lights, often even right at the crosswalk but without using the signal. Oh there are tons of people who love jaywalking and intentionally making traffic stop for them. Apparently *all* of them live in Everett, WA.
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Mar 6, 2014 22:39
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While on the subject of walking pedestrians and cross walks, I hate the fuckers who hit the cross walk button, and then walk 5 seconds later while the cross sign hasn't changed. Thanks, rear end in a top hat, for making me sit at this light for another day and a half now for no reason at all.
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Mar 6, 2014 23:09
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Cross walk buttons need to trigger immediately (as in start the yellow cycle immediately) and then 2 seconds after they go red, change to a flashing red on the side of the road that triggered them, then 4 seconds after that, flashing red on the other side. In other words, a stop sign; you only have to remain stopped if there's someone in the crosswalk at that point. Of course, no one would actually obey that because people are stupid, but it would be a far better system than the way they currently work, which is as described above.
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Mar 6, 2014 23:59
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Disgruntled Bovine posted:Cross walk buttons need to trigger immediately (as in start the yellow cycle immediately) and then 2 seconds after they go red, change to a flashing red on the side of the road that triggered them, then 4 seconds after that, flashing red on the other side. In other words, a stop sign; you only have to remain stopped if there's someone in the crosswalk at that point. Of course, no one would actually obey that because people are stupid, but it would be a far better system than the way they currently work, which is as described above. These exist - they're called HAWK signals. They're loving awesome for both pedestrians and drivers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReNk2T5ay1c I lived in Tucson when they first started putting them in a bit over 10 years ago, and now they're putting them in some areas of Phoenix. Amazingly enough everyone behaves properly! Seriously, I've never been almost mowed down by someone when walking in one, and only once can I recall a driver not starting to move once it went flashing instead of solid red (assuming their side was clear).
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Mar 7, 2014 00:33
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IOwnCalculus posted:These exist - they're called HAWK signals. They're loving awesome for both pedestrians and drivers. Huh, that seems like a better solution than what we have around here: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.023813,-105.258449,3a,75y,171.02h,80.56t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sofd28DpRWxzm1ezgVPn_dw!2e0 Basically its a cross walk in the middle of the road. Pedestrian hits a button, and the yield signs start flashing. Cars stop until the pedestrians clear the road. No pedestrians around means you can zoom on through. Problem is, pedestrians like to hit the button and just enter the street without waiting or allowing traffic to clear, and expect traffic to instantly stop, which may or may not happen in a 40mph zone.
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Mar 7, 2014 00:45
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Brigdh posted:Huh, that seems like a better solution than what we have around here: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.023813,-105.258449,3a,75y,171.02h,80.56t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sofd28DpRWxzm1ezgVPn_dw!2e0 I seriously hosed up on those when I was visiting the Denver area a couple years ago.. never encountered crossings like that, I had seen the signs but the flashing completely failed to grab my attention. I just hadn't trained myself to be alert for them. If they'd been red lights or something, maybe. But white strobes? Who the gently caress is going to spot that in the daytime unless they're used to seeing it? Fortunately I didn't run anyone over. By the time I was leaving the region I had gotten used to it but those first couple times were a "oh gently caress hope there's isn't a cop nearby" type deals.
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Mar 7, 2014 00:59
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Brigdh posted:Huh, that seems like a better solution than what we have around here: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.023813,-105.258449,3a,75y,171.02h,80.56t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sofd28DpRWxzm1ezgVPn_dw!2e0 That looks retarded. . . Wichita has these everywhere: crosswalk. They do switch to yellow once the button is hit, and they do stay red for a couple seconds after the pedestrian has exited the crosswalk. The first time I saw one used I almost ran the light simply because I had gotten into a habit of always going by "the light that always stays green". . . But IMO the biggest problem is little kids will just push the button and start walking leading to plenty of panic stops. While I admire the idea of the HAWK light, I prefer the simplicity of Wichita's solution because it is so similar to a regular traffic light that every driver knows (or should know) what to do when the lights change. Yeah it wastes a few seconds but it's not like I won't just waste those precious two seconds of my life some other way.
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Mar 7, 2014 01:03
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Bajaha posted:Also gently caress those people who drive around on the high beams all the time. It seems like it's always a brand new civic. I swear this has gotten more common the past few years. I wonder if, as cities start to roll out apps that let you send in photos of offending vehicles, we'll see a trend towards more awareness. I'm not optimistic, but it'll probably be a cash cow for the city either way. About ten years ago, Texas started a thing where you could call the state on vehicles that were obvious gross polluters and they would check up on their emissions tests.
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Mar 7, 2014 05:57
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IMO the bigger problem is people driving with no lights on. I blame cars that have gauge clusters that light up without the headlights being on. Its loving stupid and when you combine that with people that are barely conscious as they go through their driving routines is loving scary. A few weekends ago I rolled down my window and yelled at the woman next to me that her headlights were off (after driving a few miles next to her). This was at 9PM. She looked at me in disbelief and pulled away at the green. How people like that have valid licenses is beyond me.
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Mar 7, 2014 06:07
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Speaking of cell phones, I'm still kind of amazed that usage in cars isn't illegal in more states. It'd be a ton of money in tickets and I haven't seen a study yet that doesn't equate text messaging with being wasted. As someone with a motorcycle that is almost sideswiped multiple times a week by people staring at their phones, I very much look forward to this oppressive law. Chinatown posted:IMO the bigger problem is people driving with no lights on. I blame cars that have gauge clusters that light up without the headlights being on. My friends that've bought new cars lately have actually complained about this to me. Like, cars that have lit gauges, but don't have automatic headlights to go along with them. It's a pretty horrible design idea and when you're in the city, it isn't always obvious when your lights aren't on since the road is already so well lit.
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Mar 7, 2014 06:25
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Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOpyz7z5vpw
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Mar 7, 2014 06:43
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Holy poo poo drivers please stop using your high beams on the opposite side of a 6 lane highway. Just because its wider doesn't mean it isn't blinding everyone on the other side as well as all the people less than 100m ahead of you.
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Mar 7, 2014 08:12
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LED headlights are somehow more obnoxious than HIDs. There was a newer Acura behind me, and it was positively blinding. I'm at work, and this kid in a mid 90's BMW 3-series convertible just rear ended a lady in a mid 00's Ford Explorer as she was stopped to make a left turn into the parking lot. It's a 25 mph road, his car is pretty clearly totaled and being hauled away on a flatbed. The Explorer was spun around into the opposite lane, but only has a small crack in the bumper. She's already sitting at her desk, and this kid is out there now cleaning up road debris with the cop standing there looking on.
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Mar 7, 2014 15:17
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FogHelmut posted:LED headlights are somehow more obnoxious than HIDs. There was a newer Acura behind me, and it was positively blinding. You're not kidding. I work in an area that has a lot of high-end cars and now that they all come with those always-on LED strips under the headlight itself, it is extremely distracting because they're so loving bright.
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Mar 7, 2014 15:57
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Sir Tonk posted:Speaking of cell phones, I'm still kind of amazed that usage in cars isn't illegal in more states. It'd be a ton of money in tickets and I haven't seen a study yet that doesn't equate text messaging with being wasted. Connecticut has made all non-hands-free cell use, including texting, illegal. It has accomplished zilch.
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Mar 7, 2014 16:02
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FogHelmut posted:LED headlights are somehow more obnoxious than HIDs. There was a newer Acura behind me, and it was positively blinding. Idiots in the new Corolla should not have such powerful headlights. And the new Audis are blinding even with their low beams on. And you are extra hosed when the giant SUV Qsomething gets behind you, all you can see is loving bars when you close your eyes.
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Mar 7, 2014 16:30
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