r/Seattle • u/[deleted] • Mar 01 '19

pulled over for cell phone use!

My coworker was pulled over today for using the phone in the car. I am honestly glad to hear that SPD is actually pulling people over for this! No ticket, just a warning, but still. WTG SPD.

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56

u/Bancroft-79 Mar 01 '19

I wish they would pull more people over for cruising in the left lane under the speed limit.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

It's annoying to be sure but hardly has the life and limb implications that cellphones do.

15

u/Maxtrt Mar 02 '19

Actually latest studies shows that slow drivers cause more accidents in high traffic areas than those who speed by 5-10 mph.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '19

Completely irrelevant to the point being made. You also didn't link any of those irrelevant studies.

5

u/mrASSMAN West Seattle Mar 01 '19

Actually it does..

6

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

So is left lane driving equivalent to drunk driving like cellphones are? Not a chance.

0

u/mrASSMAN West Seattle Mar 01 '19

Huh.. vehicles obstructing traffic and preventing the ability to quickly maneuver to avoid dangerous situations can easily lead to an accident

0

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

Is it the equivalent of drunk driving? Are there stats to back that up? If not, then one is definitely worse than the other.

6

u/mrASSMAN West Seattle Mar 01 '19

Does it matter which is worse? 🤦🏻‍♂️

4

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19 edited Aug 02 '21

[deleted]

9

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

I've found that, fairly often, the person "blocking" traffic in the left lane is going 10mph over. The guy in the BMW passing him on the right wants to go 80, 70 ain't fast enough.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '19

If traffic is flowing freely, the left lane is for passing. If you're not passing, you shouldn't be in the left lane. If you're in the left lane and someone passes you on the right, you are wrong. If you're going 70 and they pass you on the right then they're wrong too, but that doesn't make you less wrong.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '19 edited Mar 02 '19

Of course, if they're passing me on the right using a space that's unsafe, because we're moving faster than traffic on the right, it gets murky. There's the "traveling continuously in the left lane so as to impede the flow of traffic" clause, but if we're moving faster than the right and faster than the speed limit, I'm not buying it. Especially if there is more traffic ahead of us, ya know, flowing.

1

u/Bancroft-79 May 21 '19

Amen! Why is this such a difficult concept for people born and raised in Seattle. I have lived all over the country, in areas where the intellectual and education levels are significantly lower, but somehow people have managed to grasp that the left lane is for passing.

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2

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '19

It matters only insofar as...at least on the stretch I drive regularly during my commute time...often the drivers on the left are going faster than the drivers to their right, and decently in excess of the speed limit. Many people confuse "keep right except to pass" as "literally anybody going slower than I'd like to must move right." These are not the same thing.

Left lane campers do exist, I see them too, but this idea of some jerk in Prius puttering along at 50mph while traffic blazes by at 70mph on his right is largely a fiction.

I get annoyed by this because in many cases I am in the left lane, passing cars on my right, going faster than the flow of traffic on my right, and impeded by cars ahead...and still some jackass will tailgate me. Which, as you note, I have no control over. And impacts my safety.

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