Traffic jam.
Sen. Mike Merrifield wants to legislate common sense and manners, because those traits don’t come naturally to Democrats, by passing a law requiring drivers to pull over on mountain passes if they are causing massive traffic back-ups.
And by massive, we’re talking about five cars.
“So many times I found myself getting into the mountain passes and getting stuck behind a slow-moving truck, or even worse, an RV, and the driver just goes blindly along, either not caring, or not noticing that they backed up a huge amount of cars behind him,” Merrifield said.
It frustrates us as well, so we usually pass those vehicles when it is safe to do so, because we have common sense.
Individuals don’t own the roads, although we know a few civil engineers who claim that because they built it, they own it.
And, we’ve always suspected that drivers who don’t have the common courtesy to pull over and let us pass are Democrats who think it’s their mission to keep us from driving the speed limit in a misguided attempt to save Mother Earth.
But passing an obscure law defining traffic jams by five cars and mandating that cops pull over slow-pokes to give them ticket only causes severe traffic congestion from rubber-necking, and creates safety issues for the officer and other drivers.
Common sense shouldn’t be legislated. Merrifield needs to pull this bill off the road.
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Same for me in my RV. I pull over when there is a safe place to do so.
This is complete ignorance in one aspect. I drive a commercial vehicle for a living and the long grades make it impossible to to maintain a high speed. Truck are close to 80,000 pounds and we can't maneuver as well as smaller vehicles. This yahoo needs a reality check that he needs to be patient. We can't always find a safe place to get out of the way and if we come to a complete stop then we will be moving even slower so it will compound the problem. Typical legislator that has absolutely no clue about a given profession but want to write laws governing it.
This is a good law and I have seen it in action in other places (highway patrol pulled over a vehicle with 10-15 cars behind it). It is especailly important in areas of mountainous two-lane roads where the ability to pass safely is limited. Unfortunately, there is nothing common about sense or courtesy and people who drive considerably under the speed limit in these areas and refuse to show the common courtesy to pull over and let traffic flow safely should be ticketed. Allowing people to create moving traffic jams creates a situation where people attempt to pass in unsafe areas which result in much worse outcomes (head-on collisions with multiple fatalities) than a traffic citation.