Anyone see this?
09-14-2011, 03:17 PM
#21
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: DAL Pilot
Posts: 1,133
My previous neighbor was a California Highway patrolman. CHP is relatively lax about pulling people over for speeding and setting up speed traps. In the rare times they do pull people over, they get them to exit the freeway. They do this for two reasons. First, the officer's safety. The most hazardous part of initiating a traffic stop isn't the threat of a weapon, but being hit by a rubbernecking motorist. Secondly, if the officer isn't on the side of the road the traffic continues to flow and you don't have a bunch of people slamming on the brakes and trying to look on the side of the road. He was telling me they realized it was safer for everybody to just let the traffic flow 5-15 over the speed limit.
Also, if they do end up pulling somebody over on the freeway, they only put their hazards on and not the light bar. Again, it keeps drivers paying attention to the road and not the shoulder.
Of course, this was all prior to California's budget crisis. Now I see speed traps and people pulled over all the time. Safety? Ya right. What causes accidents isn't necessarily the speed of the traffic but the differential speed. If the traffic is flowing at 70, but you get some idiot doing 90 then he needs to be pulled over. But somebody going 72 instead of 65 at 2am on an open interstate is not a hazard. The hazard is the officer who jumps the median, floors the cruiser up to 100 to go pull the guy going a whopping 7 mph over the speed limit over to the side of the road. Illinois State Troopers were notorious for this crap.
Also, if they do end up pulling somebody over on the freeway, they only put their hazards on and not the light bar. Again, it keeps drivers paying attention to the road and not the shoulder.
Of course, this was all prior to California's budget crisis. Now I see speed traps and people pulled over all the time. Safety? Ya right. What causes accidents isn't necessarily the speed of the traffic but the differential speed. If the traffic is flowing at 70, but you get some idiot doing 90 then he needs to be pulled over. But somebody going 72 instead of 65 at 2am on an open interstate is not a hazard. The hazard is the officer who jumps the median, floors the cruiser up to 100 to go pull the guy going a whopping 7 mph over the speed limit over to the side of the road. Illinois State Troopers were notorious for this crap.
09-14-2011, 03:38 PM
#22
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2008
Position: DAL Pilot
Posts: 1,133
Oh, and it's actually illegal in California to flash your headlamps on a two way road (such as a highway or interstate). It's only legal to flash your headlamps indicating your intention to pass a slow vehicle on a single lane road.
09-15-2011, 05:17 AM
#23
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Posts: 650
Only place they use them here is for the cops to run traffic stops. I have a buddy that is a SWAT cop here and they have a parking lot full of random cars they have impounded that they use for undercover. They actually keep them in a warehouse now because they caught people spying on the lot the kept them in so they knew what all the cars looked like. You would have to be a really dumb criminal not to question the undercover cop driving the blue crown vic/charger/caprice/malibu to the drug deal.
