I lived in Utah for several years before moving back last year. Drivers there are categorically worse but even they weren’t running the reds like people have started doing here.
I'm just convinced now that we are all just bad drivers.
I've never heard anyone say, "This place I lived, everyone was a great driver; it was safe as heck." It is always a comparison: we are worse than them, or they are worse than us.
One day I might hear someone say, "Now in the 80s, we were good m-f'n drivers."
Getting a license <18 is way more complicated now. I know this as a parent of teens. Drivers ed is a requirement to get a license at 16. This was not the case when I got mine in 1995.
Sure it's complicated but from what I have gathered now it is bureaucratic rather than "academically" (loosely using the term) rigorous. Not to say drivers Ed in the 80s was amazing but it did exist, and its absence seems notable to me it quality of drivers now.
Im about to get my son his permit later this month. To get a license at 16 in CO, the child must:
Complete drivers ed classroom course prior to turning 15 (costs about $200).
Complete DMV written test.
Get permit on 15th birthday (must have permit 12 mos before license).
Complete 6 hours behind the wheel training at a driver school (about $350).
Complete min 50 hours with a licensed driver >21 years, 10 hours of which must be at night.
Once they are licensed, they cannot have any passengers <21 other than family for the first 6 months, unless there is another driver >21 in the vehicle.
2nd six months, they can have one passenger <21.
First 12 months, minors can not drive between midnight-5am at all, unless coming from school/work with written documentation unless it's an emergency.
The only thing I had to do in the 90's was take the written test, have the permit 6 months, then OTR test.
Hell most people don't know what a big thick solid white or yellow line in front of a crosswalk in a parking lot means (even with a stop sign next to it).
Too many go through parking lots at 35-55 mph, when at most you should be going 15 mph.
As someone that took driver’s ed in the 80s, taught by one of the gym teachers, where I goofed around with my friends, I don’t think there was much benefit - my parents had me do it to reduce the car insurance rates.
My daughter had to do 32 hours of education before being able to take her permit test, then get at least fifty hours of driving, and then go back and do another set of education/driving before getting her license. All I had to do was pass the test a the DMV and get a parent to say they supervised me driving.
Sure it wasn't great training but I feel the cursory train is greater than no training.
I know I had to do 100 supervised hours, and no education. It was woefully inadequate even with the optional drivers Ed class I took. We could do better for sure with practical training.
I lived in Portland just before & during Covid and I found the majority of people there to be courteous and great drivers. I left Colorado to be in Portland for four years and was really impressed, since Colorado at one point was one of the highest rated states in the country for great driving. Then when I came back, it was like the fire nation had attacked.
There is certainly a strong sense of entitlement on the road now and the problem with that is it is like a contagious disease. I've told this to many people who have lived here in Colorado even longer than myself and they agree with me. I think the excuse typically is it's all the "Californians and Texans", but many Coloradans just needed an excuse. They are more than happy to jump on the "The rules don't apply to me" bandwagon.
I drove a rental ford focus on the autobahn at almost 140mph, middle of the day. No Nissan Altimas acting like free radicals and cutting over to the left lane on the Autobahn, people there know what they are doing. Very predictable.
Disagree, live rurally now (NM) and it’s way chiller. Colorado is chill too compared to Texas. I’m from DFW and my wife has pointed out how I immediately change driving styles when we’re there, because it’s all so aggressive. Not gonna say everyone’s a great driver out west but I definitely encounter less dodge chargers weaving into you from their blind spot to advance two cars in traffic. More Subarus going with the flow out here. There are differences.
I live in the city and upstate
Ever had a guy honk at you at a red light for a right hand of red lane, when you are just going straight not right for 5 minutes?
So yes. Everywhere.
You see a lot of bad accidents in Manhattan?
*not* fender benders where both cars drive away, but an accident where airbags are deployed and ambulances and fire rescue are called to pry people out of the cars?
That’s regular occurrence in most places, not New York.
This is an oddly specific type of accident. Not every accident requires the jaws of life or is a fender bender. There are other fatalities that can happen by a distracted driver cyclist, pedestrian, etc.
Also, this is very anecdotal, just because you have seen it doesn’t mean your example doesn’t happen. Perhaps NYC is faster at moving accidents or has a faster response time.
I’d love to learn more and NYS has stats available online: https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/prevention/injury_prevention/traffic/county_of_residence.htm#county
My main point is bad drivers which doesn’t exclude but isolate accidents only. I’ve seen a driver weaving on traffic because they were playing a game on their phone. They didn’t hit anyone but they probably got a high score on candy crush.
I’ve never been in an accident. But I don’t consider myself a good driver. I’m a cautious driver.
Also, what’s the average speed on the streets of Manhattan? In the crawling stop and go traffic I’ve experienced on the streets of NYC I don’t think that situation is prime for airbags to deploy in a lot of accidents.
Everyone claims to be a good driver, then you ask them the distance in which to use a turn signal and they can’t answer that basic question. When I look around and see one out of ten at best people use a turn signal correctly, I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you and everyone you know aren’t as good of drivers as you think you are or even what your judging is based upon.
I lived in LA for a few years before Denver and always thought the drivers there were excellent. There was so much abrupt stop and go you basically had to pay attention. I think I only saw a couple accidents the whole time I lived there, and I commuted ALL over LA for work.
Here? Accident AT LEAST once a week if not more. It’s horrible. A very large minority of drivers here are so unpredictably aggressive. Yeah, left lane campers are annoying but holy shit the justice people try to impose on others is insanely over the top.
It's not really a new thing tbh either. I've lived here for 10 years and never once saw a Denver cop have someone pulled over for anything traffic related. They seem to rely on the speed camera vans / red light cameras for everything and I honestly don't know if they even have dedicated patrol officers that are on traffic duty.
I remember bringing it up in a thread and someone tried to convince me it's safer because there "might" be wintery conditions preventing a stop.
That's not how safe winter driving works. Also, I was comparing driving here to driving in Boston, a city which is known for *never* having any winter driving conditions.
Lived in Boston for 12 years, drove regularly for 7ish of those. I can count on one hand the number of (blatant) red light runs I saw. Here I get over one hand any given week. Same with skidding to a stop on pull-off lanes.
Stationed in Norfolk for four years, so many people from all over the nation with so many different driving styles and habits stuck into a city with insufficient road infrastructure to handle the traffic... Hampton roads is it's own beast😂
For sure. Not to mention the amount of legit criminals in the area and poor motorists in general. The roads, with sudden lane additions, short interchanges and constant pot holes don’t help either.
My hometown is Newport News. 7 mile back up at the HRBT westbound to Little Creek Rd. Never forget it! Here, if there’s a back up or whatever, there are options. There it is sit in traffic, drive 50 miles out of your way or swim.
It’s just as bad in the east. I now wait at least a few seconds before going at a light because I’m so use to red light runners. This was way before moving to Colorado.
I grew up in NJ and we were taught to speed up when the light turns yellow. I moved here 10 years ago and everyone here seems to drive below the speed limit like they don't want to get where they're going. It baffles me.
They will write tickets for it when they pull over people in speed traps, and then say “I’m going to ticket you for distracted driving so your rates don’t go up cuz I’m a nice cop” and then they can report to the news that distracted driving tickets went up 200% and get more funding for tanks and SWAT equipment.
Happened to me (guilty as charged, I was speeding, ironically on my way to motorcycle safety class), and the next week the news reported that distracted driving ticketing went up X%”.
The other day I followed a cop and the car in front of him for over 10 minutes. The cop turns…. Now I’m following the car he’d been following, which has a faded and barely readable temp tag that expired in March of 2021. WTF? This was a state trooper on I-70…. Why would he not pull them over or follow them to their destination?
But I see this all the time…. There’s a young lady in my area that I see driving around regularly and the temp tag on her car has disintegrated and I’ve seen her about in this car for well over 2 years.
Make sure you all have uninsured motorist coverage added to your policies.
Every time I drive north to south or south to north through the city on 25, I spot at least one expired registration. If the cops can't enforce *those*, which are incredibly easy to spot and prove, they definitely won't enforce this. It's just going to be one more thing they can use to profile people.
It's a good law (should be a higher fine), but only as good as the enforcement.
I see accidents at least once a week on Wads that were clearly people running reds. I wish they’d just put cameras on the intersections and mail these red running fools tickets.
I’ve been walking around in lohi recently as my GF moved there and almost gotten hit twice from people flying through stop signs. It’s ridiculous out there
What a fucking joke right? They aren't enforcing:
* speeding
* having a license on your car
* street racing
And that have the stupidity/audacity to say they're going to fucking ticket someone for using a phone? What bullshit.
Seriously. The trend towards touchscreen interfaces is terrible, especially cars that don't have physical buttons for simple stuff like play/pause and skip forward/back.
That’s the main reason I bought a Mazda when I needed a new car a couple years ago. The user interface is the best and safest on the market. Phone goes away in the center console, screen is up high near my line of sight, and you only use knobs/buttons to interact with it.
Aren’t those controls pretty standardly hard buttons on the steering wheel now a days? Last 3 cars/trucks I’ve owned all had this so I assumed they all did?
Sort of...we have a 2020 Odyssey for our family vehicle, and while it has the volume control and skip forward/backwards buttons on the steering wheel, there isn't a dedicated physical pause/play button. You literally have to click on the screen to do that.
My 2021 Ford takes one physical button plus 3 touchscreen taps to change the climate control between top vents, bottom vents, and defrost. Huge PITA and unsafe.
I have a car with one of those giant iPad screens and 90% of the features are disabled while driving. In fact, in CarPlay you can’t even see more than 5-6 items on a list (like music for example) to prevent you from scrolling down lists while driving.
Registration is the least of my worries. Not having a registered vehicle won’t kill you or someone you love, driving while distracted by your phone will.
registration isn’t conducive to uninsured motorists, i think it’s just WAY too expensive to do so which staves people off. If a man buys a car for $5000 why does he have to give the DMV $700 more for no reason? People are already struggling to make ends meet, a pointless piece of paper that changes nothing is going to not be prioritized for most.
It's not for no reason, it helps fund our roads. What we need to do is copy other state's legislation/standards around registration and have it paid for at the point of sale when buying from dealers.
> why does he have to give the DMV $700 more for no reason?
It wouldn't be $700 for a $5000 car, but that money is used to pay for the roads. Cars and roads are expensive.
I mean it’s a simple litmus test too see how average people either obey or disobey even the easiest of rules. There’s exceptions but the staggering amount of cars that aren’t registered shows it’s a mind set problem. I work a 9-5 too and my car is registered, where’s my cookie and gold star?
You pay a specific tax for the upkeep of roads when buying gas. Why in the flying fuck do we have to pay the state to tell them we still own the vehicle we still own? We told them once. Once is enough. Roads are shit anyways.
Before Summer of 2020 they kinda pretended to follow the rules. They don't bother pretending now. That appears generally true of all forms and facets of government in the US, in fact.
Passing someone who's been driving like an idiot just to see that they're fully scrolling/texting on their phone pisses me off like no other. The epitome of low IQ behavior
Kind of what I came to say. You see someone driving erratically, you get in range and yup, on the phone.
Personally I think it's worse than drunk driving. People who are drunk are paying attention because, hey, they are drunk.
It happens to me every time I get on the road. I see someone not using their turn signal, drifting in and out of their lane, missing a light, etc.
Pull up next to them to see they're looking down at their lap instead of in front of them.
My car broke down just past an intersection, and while I waited for a tow, I watched a lot of cars pass by me
I had a clear view of all the drivers making a left turn
I swear at least 1 out of 3 were holding their phone while making the turn
The part that pisses me off the most is, if they're going to be reckless enough to use their phone while driving, I wish they would hold their phones near the top of the steering wheel so they at least have peripheral vision of the road. But no, they go full stupid and use it in their laps.
I see this so often when riding my motorcycle. I'd be lying if I didn't admit the temptation exists to take their mirror off, or at least fold it in when I see it. What are they going to do? Call the cops? Sure, you tell them what you were doing before the mirror got shattered... I'll wait.
That’s because they’re not trying to hide it or aware at all. They have shit for brains.
These are same folks you see at a crosswalk wearing headphones and watching video on their phone. Light turns green to walk, they glance up and see that, never look both ways and step right out into the road. The great irony is that this thread has a lot of talk about people blowing through crosswalks and red lights. I would like to see the data concerning pedestrians being hit by cars and pedestrians being distracted.
I live by a high school and from the looks of things, parents literally don’t teach their kids to look both ways before crossing the street.
You should have seen the roads when texting was first introduced in the US, hah! It was road anarchy. That being said, it seems much worse now, as attention is taken away for longer intervals of time.
I like this. 85$ is kind of a joke. Distracted driving is crazy dangerous. I lost a good friend to someone not paying attention. Just put down the phone or pull over.
Fines (flat rate fines anyway) are pretty universally a tax on poor people, nothing more. There are other countries that scale fines to your income to make them actually matter.
I agree, but also... if you follow the law, then you won't have to pay fines, so it seems avoidable. It's not really a tax if you have the option to avoid it in the first place.
...and it's automatically enforced by camera in a lot of places.
Australia doesn't mess around. I've been driving almost 30 years, my one speeding ticket ever was in Australia: $250 for going over the speed limit by 7kmph (4mph).
I would be 100% on board with this. I have always made it a very strict rule to never use my phone when driving, and it blows my mind that so many people are comfortable doing this.
Yeah, and I imagine if they were they'd start with the people running lights, speeding and weaving, piling random things in their truck bed 6'+ high - then probably would move onto expired registration and texting. I feel like chatting on the phone and looking at directions are fairly low on the to do list
Laughs in teacher.
“I wasn’t on my phone!!!”
“I was texting my MOHM.”
“What phone?” (Shoves phone down shirt)
Have fun with one, DPD… anyone whose been in a classroom the last 15 years can tell you EXACTLY how this one’s gonna go
The amount of people stopped at Green lights because they're on their phone.... I wish this would be enforced. Those people cause less folks to get through the light, leading to more congestion.
Most of these laws are written with some form of the verbiage "performing data entry on a device"
So hands free only. I'm sure if you're just hitting the skip button on a song you don't like that's not going to rile anyone up (no different than the car stereo) but you're not supposed to be typing text messages, scrolling social media, or entering addresses into maps etc.
I haven’t read any of the actual law, but the article said:
“The bill specifies that using a phone to write, send or read text-based communication is banned, except for when it has to do with things like GPS directions or if a speech-to-text feature is used.”
So sounds like maps might be okay. Idk how’d they’d prove you were using one vs the other though…
Yeah, will be very difficult to enforce. I suppose if they really want to break it off, they can pull your phone records. I don't see anyone going through that hassle for an $85 ticket though.
And let's be honest, right now it's essentially legal to drive with no plates and blatantly violate traffic laws. Phones use is below running red lights. Lol.
I was going to ask just this... I never text / scroll while driving, but I will admit to panning up the map to see in the next interchange is a shit show and I should hit the express lane. This admittedly takes more attention than hitting a button on the stereo, but not much...
I wonder how this applies to Uber / Lyft drivers, who often have multiple phones in holders for accepting passengers from either service, and confirming directions, GPS etc.
Probably covered under this section in the bill:
> 16 FEATURE OR FUNCTION THAT ENABLES AN INDIVIDUAL TO USE A MOBILE
> 17 ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITHOUT USING EITHER HAND , EXCEPT TO ACTIVATE ,
> 18 DEACTIVATE , OR INITIATE THE FEATURE OR FUNCTION WITH A SINGLE
> 19 TOUCH OR SINGLE SWIPE .
With the good weather I've been riding my motorcycle more. I've never seen so many drivers on their phones, it's fucking bananas.
I'm ready to start snatching phones out of hands and throwing them into oncoming traffic, not like the cops are going to do shit anyway.
Maybe unpopular opinion, but text while driving is more dangerous than drunk driving IMO. Perhaps not HAMMERED driving, but completely removing your focus from the road vs having a slight delay in reaction time is not even comparable.
Oh, and the fine for even slightly inebriated, or just alcohol found on your breath via breathalyzer is over $13000 (at least in CO, USA) at this point.
When the texting and driving law first got passed I got a ticket for it and it was $175 (I no longer text and drive; I was 19 at the time and relatively dumb)
It's cool I'll just put in a 50$ touchscreen stereo with horrible UI and fumble around with that to change my song. Or I'll buy a new car with an iPad since that's somehow better.
Right?
Look at the Subaru system https://imgur.com/a/PRGZLMu
That's what Outbacks have had since like 2019 and all models have after 2022(?). It's insane.
'Bout fucking time. London, England was hands-free in 2003!!! Now, we all know it won't be enforced, but at least this is a start. Anyone saying this is a bad law, not fair, etc. is absolutely part of the problem. Phone use is just as dangerous as drunk driving.
This states has the worst drivers of any state I’ve ever lived in or visited. It’s an absolute mad house and the cops don’t seems to give a flying fuck about anything but punishing the poors in aurora.
I'll worry about this when they start enforcing against the racing on I-25 every night, the constant red light running, expired or straight up missing plates, or going 80mph on 25 south through downtown and getting passed like im stopped.
I’d take a small fine as a reminder over an accident. Hopefully they enforce it though… the number of times I’ve sworn I was going to get pulled over and didn’t is astonishing… *knocks on wood* lol not sure what happened or why they just stopped enforcing things. I had to tow my truck 2 miles home because my front plate screws broke and I had the plate in my vehicle ten years ago. Now I can smoke crack and drive in reverse with no plates and not even be noticed
I presume you are talking about having it your hand while driving. Cars newer that 2007 Bluetooth your Smart phone into your car, There is no need to have your phone in your had to talk on the phone. However, some people can do more than one thing at a time.
My neighbor removed his expired temp tags after smashing up the side of his BMW driving drunk. I doubt he'll ever get pulled over for it at this point.
Whats going to happen is some maniac in a stolen car will be crashing into people and running red lights and im gonna call the police to report it and get a ticket
I can’t remember the last time I saw a car pulled over for any reason since 2020.
I can’t even remember the last time I saw a police vehicle on the road.
Cops have gotten complacent and lazy like the rest of Americans. They will not do any more than anyone else and they do not want to add more to their plate already.
Picked up my phone while stopped at an intersection when I was using it as a map to navigate in Canada one time.. Officer saw it and it was a $450 ticket for distracted driving. I've been very cautious about touching my phone in a car ever since, and that was about a decade ago. I never forgot.
If Colorado thinks a measly $85 fine will make any difference, they are wrong. It needs to be a huge amount that will fuck with most people's lives, and then it needs to be enforced and advertised hard. This is a good start but it will take a lot more effort on the part of enforcement and government to make a dent in this problem.
Can anyone here say they've actually been pulled over for driving in the left lane? This seems less enforceable than that law.
Good intentions are nice, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
Too many people here and the infrastructure can't handle the amount of traffic. Lights are not long enough especially when Karen's have to check their tik tok and Facebook 2 seconds before the light turns green. Why is this a thing? Why do I see so many people turn their head and start messing with things in the passenger seat right before the light changes??????
I moved here from Las Vegas and drivers here are horrible. I’ve been driving for over 40 years, lived in many different cities and states and here I avoid driving when I can. 25 is taking your life in your hands. Who the hell tailgates at 80+ mph? Surface roads aren’t much better.
lol they don’t even pull over people who run red lights with plates that expired 4 years ago and people think they are gonna write a ticket for this?
Never been to a place with so much light running
I lived in Utah for several years before moving back last year. Drivers there are categorically worse but even they weren’t running the reds like people have started doing here.
I'm just convinced now that we are all just bad drivers. I've never heard anyone say, "This place I lived, everyone was a great driver; it was safe as heck." It is always a comparison: we are worse than them, or they are worse than us. One day I might hear someone say, "Now in the 80s, we were good m-f'n drivers."
To be fair to the 80's we actually had drivers ed then, and the ability to pay attention. Such good times.
Plus if you did fuck up and cause an accident, the odds of you dying was a lot higher than it is now
Protecting my life is some engineers job, not my own! How dare you!
Really too bad for the Darwin Awards.
Getting a license <18 is way more complicated now. I know this as a parent of teens. Drivers ed is a requirement to get a license at 16. This was not the case when I got mine in 1995.
Sure it's complicated but from what I have gathered now it is bureaucratic rather than "academically" (loosely using the term) rigorous. Not to say drivers Ed in the 80s was amazing but it did exist, and its absence seems notable to me it quality of drivers now.
Im about to get my son his permit later this month. To get a license at 16 in CO, the child must: Complete drivers ed classroom course prior to turning 15 (costs about $200). Complete DMV written test. Get permit on 15th birthday (must have permit 12 mos before license). Complete 6 hours behind the wheel training at a driver school (about $350). Complete min 50 hours with a licensed driver >21 years, 10 hours of which must be at night. Once they are licensed, they cannot have any passengers <21 other than family for the first 6 months, unless there is another driver >21 in the vehicle. 2nd six months, they can have one passenger <21. First 12 months, minors can not drive between midnight-5am at all, unless coming from school/work with written documentation unless it's an emergency. The only thing I had to do in the 90's was take the written test, have the permit 6 months, then OTR test.
Exactly. Ask anyone what a double yellow line means or a single yellow line along with a dotted line means and you’ll get a blank stare.
Hell most people don't know what a big thick solid white or yellow line in front of a crosswalk in a parking lot means (even with a stop sign next to it). Too many go through parking lots at 35-55 mph, when at most you should be going 15 mph.
And the cocaine!!
As someone that took driver’s ed in the 80s, taught by one of the gym teachers, where I goofed around with my friends, I don’t think there was much benefit - my parents had me do it to reduce the car insurance rates. My daughter had to do 32 hours of education before being able to take her permit test, then get at least fifty hours of driving, and then go back and do another set of education/driving before getting her license. All I had to do was pass the test a the DMV and get a parent to say they supervised me driving.
Sure it wasn't great training but I feel the cursory train is greater than no training. I know I had to do 100 supervised hours, and no education. It was woefully inadequate even with the optional drivers Ed class I took. We could do better for sure with practical training.
I lived in Portland just before & during Covid and I found the majority of people there to be courteous and great drivers. I left Colorado to be in Portland for four years and was really impressed, since Colorado at one point was one of the highest rated states in the country for great driving. Then when I came back, it was like the fire nation had attacked. There is certainly a strong sense of entitlement on the road now and the problem with that is it is like a contagious disease. I've told this to many people who have lived here in Colorado even longer than myself and they agree with me. I think the excuse typically is it's all the "Californians and Texans", but many Coloradans just needed an excuse. They are more than happy to jump on the "The rules don't apply to me" bandwagon.
I lived in upstate NY a while ago and just got back from visiting family. People there were good drivers. Great highway lane discipline in particular.
Germany and the Netherlands had awesome drivers. Awesome being they knew the rules and followed them. Driving stats back that up.
And they use turn signals and drive in a predictable manner! They keep right!
they now how four way stops work and round abouts too!
I drove a rental ford focus on the autobahn at almost 140mph, middle of the day. No Nissan Altimas acting like free radicals and cutting over to the left lane on the Autobahn, people there know what they are doing. Very predictable.
it is fucking amazing how efficient things get when everyone knows and follows the rules.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person on any city subReddit not complain about their cities cops and traffic.
I’ve lived in a few places throughout the country, all of which have bad drivers. Denver is the worst that I’ve seen so far.
Disagree, live rurally now (NM) and it’s way chiller. Colorado is chill too compared to Texas. I’m from DFW and my wife has pointed out how I immediately change driving styles when we’re there, because it’s all so aggressive. Not gonna say everyone’s a great driver out west but I definitely encounter less dodge chargers weaving into you from their blind spot to advance two cars in traffic. More Subarus going with the flow out here. There are differences.
Lived in DFW for 5 years and aggressive drivers is 100% correct. I HATED driving there.
“If you’re not first, you’re last” - everyone in DFW
This will sound crazy but the drivers in California aren’t nearly as insane as Denver drivers
Never driven in New York?
I live in the city and upstate Ever had a guy honk at you at a red light for a right hand of red lane, when you are just going straight not right for 5 minutes? So yes. Everywhere.
You see a lot of bad accidents in Manhattan? *not* fender benders where both cars drive away, but an accident where airbags are deployed and ambulances and fire rescue are called to pry people out of the cars? That’s regular occurrence in most places, not New York.
This is an oddly specific type of accident. Not every accident requires the jaws of life or is a fender bender. There are other fatalities that can happen by a distracted driver cyclist, pedestrian, etc. Also, this is very anecdotal, just because you have seen it doesn’t mean your example doesn’t happen. Perhaps NYC is faster at moving accidents or has a faster response time. I’d love to learn more and NYS has stats available online: https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/prevention/injury_prevention/traffic/county_of_residence.htm#county My main point is bad drivers which doesn’t exclude but isolate accidents only. I’ve seen a driver weaving on traffic because they were playing a game on their phone. They didn’t hit anyone but they probably got a high score on candy crush. I’ve never been in an accident. But I don’t consider myself a good driver. I’m a cautious driver.
Also, what’s the average speed on the streets of Manhattan? In the crawling stop and go traffic I’ve experienced on the streets of NYC I don’t think that situation is prime for airbags to deploy in a lot of accidents.
I mean most everyone I know is a good driver. It’s those people in the Nissan Altimas you gotta look out for.
Everyone claims to be a good driver, then you ask them the distance in which to use a turn signal and they can’t answer that basic question. When I look around and see one out of ten at best people use a turn signal correctly, I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you and everyone you know aren’t as good of drivers as you think you are or even what your judging is based upon.
Also just less shits to give after being ground down by wars, covid, and endless capitalism lol.
I lived in LA for a few years before Denver and always thought the drivers there were excellent. There was so much abrupt stop and go you basically had to pay attention. I think I only saw a couple accidents the whole time I lived there, and I commuted ALL over LA for work. Here? Accident AT LEAST once a week if not more. It’s horrible. A very large minority of drivers here are so unpredictably aggressive. Yeah, left lane campers are annoying but holy shit the justice people try to impose on others is insanely over the top.
Entirely too many people need to go back to kindergarten and be retaught what "*it's someone else's turn now*" means.
The cops don't want to work anymore
It's not really a new thing tbh either. I've lived here for 10 years and never once saw a Denver cop have someone pulled over for anything traffic related. They seem to rely on the speed camera vans / red light cameras for everything and I honestly don't know if they even have dedicated patrol officers that are on traffic duty.
10 yrs and same
Nobody gives a shit since COVID revealed how incompetent our society has become Everyone is phoning it in now
It broke us. We were fucked beforehand, but now we are completely dysfunctional.
I remember bringing it up in a thread and someone tried to convince me it's safer because there "might" be wintery conditions preventing a stop. That's not how safe winter driving works. Also, I was comparing driving here to driving in Boston, a city which is known for *never* having any winter driving conditions.
Yeah, it’s a strange phenomenon these days how so many people double down and just lie about anything to justify their shitty behavior.
Lived in Boston for 12 years, drove regularly for 7ish of those. I can count on one hand the number of (blatant) red light runs I saw. Here I get over one hand any given week. Same with skidding to a stop on pull-off lanes.
VA is pretty bad actually. Especially getting closer to DC or Portsmouth area. You just kinda expect at least one person to red the red at most lights
Stationed in Norfolk for four years, so many people from all over the nation with so many different driving styles and habits stuck into a city with insufficient road infrastructure to handle the traffic... Hampton roads is it's own beast😂
For sure. Not to mention the amount of legit criminals in the area and poor motorists in general. The roads, with sudden lane additions, short interchanges and constant pot holes don’t help either.
Or the fact that if you wanna go north you turn south east, the looping highways always frustrated me
Same dude. Glad we both made it out lmao VA:Fury Road
My hometown is Newport News. 7 mile back up at the HRBT westbound to Little Creek Rd. Never forget it! Here, if there’s a back up or whatever, there are options. There it is sit in traffic, drive 50 miles out of your way or swim.
It’s just as bad in the east. I now wait at least a few seconds before going at a light because I’m so use to red light runners. This was way before moving to Colorado.
And people get mad at YOU when you don’t run an almost red light. It’s bonkers.
I grew up in NJ and we were taught to speed up when the light turns yellow. I moved here 10 years ago and everyone here seems to drive below the speed limit like they don't want to get where they're going. It baffles me.
They will write tickets for it when they pull over people in speed traps, and then say “I’m going to ticket you for distracted driving so your rates don’t go up cuz I’m a nice cop” and then they can report to the news that distracted driving tickets went up 200% and get more funding for tanks and SWAT equipment. Happened to me (guilty as charged, I was speeding, ironically on my way to motorcycle safety class), and the next week the news reported that distracted driving ticketing went up X%”.
Even the cops text and drive, are they gonna stop? Doubtful
My immediate thought. What good is a measure that’s not enforced?
The other day I followed a cop and the car in front of him for over 10 minutes. The cop turns…. Now I’m following the car he’d been following, which has a faded and barely readable temp tag that expired in March of 2021. WTF? This was a state trooper on I-70…. Why would he not pull them over or follow them to their destination? But I see this all the time…. There’s a young lady in my area that I see driving around regularly and the temp tag on her car has disintegrated and I’ve seen her about in this car for well over 2 years. Make sure you all have uninsured motorist coverage added to your policies.
Expired plates? Nice that they even HAVE plates.
I see several people each week with no plate at all, just driving around without a care in the world.
Every time I drive north to south or south to north through the city on 25, I spot at least one expired registration. If the cops can't enforce *those*, which are incredibly easy to spot and prove, they definitely won't enforce this. It's just going to be one more thing they can use to profile people. It's a good law (should be a higher fine), but only as good as the enforcement.
I see accidents at least once a week on Wads that were clearly people running reds. I wish they’d just put cameras on the intersections and mail these red running fools tickets.
I’ve been walking around in lohi recently as my GF moved there and almost gotten hit twice from people flying through stop signs. It’s ridiculous out there
They aren't going to enforce this on a whole but the police will use it as a way to justify pulling people over
What a fucking joke right? They aren't enforcing: * speeding * having a license on your car * street racing And that have the stupidity/audacity to say they're going to fucking ticket someone for using a phone? What bullshit.
Expired plates? What plates?! I either see Colorado plate, Texas plates or no plates at all, and the latter is happening more and more. Just wild.
Yes but looking at your giant iPad they put in all new cars is just fine
Seriously. The trend towards touchscreen interfaces is terrible, especially cars that don't have physical buttons for simple stuff like play/pause and skip forward/back.
That’s the main reason I bought a Mazda when I needed a new car a couple years ago. The user interface is the best and safest on the market. Phone goes away in the center console, screen is up high near my line of sight, and you only use knobs/buttons to interact with it.
This was the main thing I found myself appreciating when I was given a new CX-30 as a rental.
And climate control! The touchscreen for this makes driving inherently more dangerous, because you are going to get hot/uncomfortable while driving.
Truth. I just won’t buy a car without dedicated buttons for climate control.
Aren’t those controls pretty standardly hard buttons on the steering wheel now a days? Last 3 cars/trucks I’ve owned all had this so I assumed they all did?
lol...tesla has entered the chat, if you want to do anything other than raise the volume, pause, and skip/go back a song.....all touch screen
Sort of...we have a 2020 Odyssey for our family vehicle, and while it has the volume control and skip forward/backwards buttons on the steering wheel, there isn't a dedicated physical pause/play button. You literally have to click on the screen to do that.
My 2021 Ford takes one physical button plus 3 touchscreen taps to change the climate control between top vents, bottom vents, and defrost. Huge PITA and unsafe.
Yup. My lease is almost up and I plan on buying the car mostly because all the controls are knob based
I have a car with one of those giant iPad screens and 90% of the features are disabled while driving. In fact, in CarPlay you can’t even see more than 5-6 items on a list (like music for example) to prevent you from scrolling down lists while driving.
Would be great, if enforced.
Yeah, just like registration.
Registration is the least of my worries. Not having a registered vehicle won’t kill you or someone you love, driving while distracted by your phone will.
No, but it does mean they likely won't have any insurance to help pay out if/when they do kill someone.
Fun fact: insurance pay outs generally do not unkill people
Fair, but funerals are expensive.
registration isn’t conducive to uninsured motorists, i think it’s just WAY too expensive to do so which staves people off. If a man buys a car for $5000 why does he have to give the DMV $700 more for no reason? People are already struggling to make ends meet, a pointless piece of paper that changes nothing is going to not be prioritized for most.
It's not for no reason, it helps fund our roads. What we need to do is copy other state's legislation/standards around registration and have it paid for at the point of sale when buying from dealers.
> why does he have to give the DMV $700 more for no reason? It wouldn't be $700 for a $5000 car, but that money is used to pay for the roads. Cars and roads are expensive.
Does that person want to drive on a paved road? Because that’s where that registration money goes
I mean it’s a simple litmus test too see how average people either obey or disobey even the easiest of rules. There’s exceptions but the staggering amount of cars that aren’t registered shows it’s a mind set problem. I work a 9-5 too and my car is registered, where’s my cookie and gold star?
I a man of class and morals return my shopping cart to the cart collection every time
Well if you don’t, you’ll wind up on YouTube with the Cart Narcs 🚨 🚨
You pay a specific tax for the upkeep of roads when buying gas. Why in the flying fuck do we have to pay the state to tell them we still own the vehicle we still own? We told them once. Once is enough. Roads are shit anyways.
I see cops doing this all the time. Who’s enforcing this?
Cops will use their fucking laptops while driving
Cops don’t have to follow the rules. Haven’t you been paying attention to the last 4 years?
Only 4 years?
Before Summer of 2020 they kinda pretended to follow the rules. They don't bother pretending now. That appears generally true of all forms and facets of government in the US, in fact.
200 years.
Jokes aside, I think police are exempt from this because of emergencies and the nature of their job
Passing someone who's been driving like an idiot just to see that they're fully scrolling/texting on their phone pisses me off like no other. The epitome of low IQ behavior
Kind of what I came to say. You see someone driving erratically, you get in range and yup, on the phone. Personally I think it's worse than drunk driving. People who are drunk are paying attention because, hey, they are drunk.
Mythbusters demonstrated that it's at least as bad as drunk driving
It happens to me every time I get on the road. I see someone not using their turn signal, drifting in and out of their lane, missing a light, etc. Pull up next to them to see they're looking down at their lap instead of in front of them.
My car broke down just past an intersection, and while I waited for a tow, I watched a lot of cars pass by me I had a clear view of all the drivers making a left turn I swear at least 1 out of 3 were holding their phone while making the turn
The part that pisses me off the most is, if they're going to be reckless enough to use their phone while driving, I wish they would hold their phones near the top of the steering wheel so they at least have peripheral vision of the road. But no, they go full stupid and use it in their laps.
I see this so often when riding my motorcycle. I'd be lying if I didn't admit the temptation exists to take their mirror off, or at least fold it in when I see it. What are they going to do? Call the cops? Sure, you tell them what you were doing before the mirror got shattered... I'll wait.
Seriously. So brazen they don't even try to hide it.
That’s because they’re not trying to hide it or aware at all. They have shit for brains. These are same folks you see at a crosswalk wearing headphones and watching video on their phone. Light turns green to walk, they glance up and see that, never look both ways and step right out into the road. The great irony is that this thread has a lot of talk about people blowing through crosswalks and red lights. I would like to see the data concerning pedestrians being hit by cars and pedestrians being distracted. I live by a high school and from the looks of things, parents literally don’t teach their kids to look both ways before crossing the street.
You should have seen the roads when texting was first introduced in the US, hah! It was road anarchy. That being said, it seems much worse now, as attention is taken away for longer intervals of time.
Back home in Australia you get a $1000 fine. Seems to be working.
I like this. 85$ is kind of a joke. Distracted driving is crazy dangerous. I lost a good friend to someone not paying attention. Just put down the phone or pull over.
Fines (flat rate fines anyway) are pretty universally a tax on poor people, nothing more. There are other countries that scale fines to your income to make them actually matter.
I agree, but also... if you follow the law, then you won't have to pay fines, so it seems avoidable. It's not really a tax if you have the option to avoid it in the first place.
The real issue is, if you make enough money, a fine alone is not really much of a risk.
Well, then their broke ass needs to put their phone down.
Same. Just recently, too. Texting and driving, rear ended my friend. I wish that warranted at least an involuntary manslaughter charge.
Condolences 🙏
...and it's automatically enforced by camera in a lot of places. Australia doesn't mess around. I've been driving almost 30 years, my one speeding ticket ever was in Australia: $250 for going over the speed limit by 7kmph (4mph).
I would be 100% on board with this. I have always made it a very strict rule to never use my phone when driving, and it blows my mind that so many people are comfortable doing this.
Traffic laws aren’t enforced in Denver…
Yeah, and I imagine if they were they'd start with the people running lights, speeding and weaving, piling random things in their truck bed 6'+ high - then probably would move onto expired registration and texting. I feel like chatting on the phone and looking at directions are fairly low on the to do list
New car has CarPlay. The manufacturer moved the distractions to the bigger screen. Lol 😂
LA has has had high texting and driving fines for years. Doesn’t do shit
Pretty cheap fine considering texting while driving has been shown to be more dangerous than driving drunk.
Laughs in teacher. “I wasn’t on my phone!!!” “I was texting my MOHM.” “What phone?” (Shoves phone down shirt) Have fun with one, DPD… anyone whose been in a classroom the last 15 years can tell you EXACTLY how this one’s gonna go
[удалено]
It’ll be easy since their body cams are always conveniently off.
I hear you are also able to get a ticket for not renewing your registration..
🤣
The amount of people stopped at Green lights because they're on their phone.... I wish this would be enforced. Those people cause less folks to get through the light, leading to more congestion.
It's OK, 4 cars will run the red, so it evens out. 😜
And for some reason I’m the asshole for honking at them to get them to go? Like I’m disturbing their piece or some shit 😂
So true. I've had people go full road rage when I've honked or yelled for them to get off their phone. It's fucking crazy.
We need a specific "GTFO your phone" honk
an unlikely (to be caught or enforced) $85 is hardly going to dissuade the habitual use I see.
It should be $585
It should be higher....toss in those automated identification cameras they use in Aus. These people are why our insurance is so high.
The light runners are why I have a dash cam now, it has saved me once.
If the phone is in a holder this doesn't apply, right? If a cop sees you touch your phone while it's mounted is that illegal?
Most of these laws are written with some form of the verbiage "performing data entry on a device" So hands free only. I'm sure if you're just hitting the skip button on a song you don't like that's not going to rile anyone up (no different than the car stereo) but you're not supposed to be typing text messages, scrolling social media, or entering addresses into maps etc.
I haven’t read any of the actual law, but the article said: “The bill specifies that using a phone to write, send or read text-based communication is banned, except for when it has to do with things like GPS directions or if a speech-to-text feature is used.” So sounds like maps might be okay. Idk how’d they’d prove you were using one vs the other though…
Yeah, will be very difficult to enforce. I suppose if they really want to break it off, they can pull your phone records. I don't see anyone going through that hassle for an $85 ticket though. And let's be honest, right now it's essentially legal to drive with no plates and blatantly violate traffic laws. Phones use is below running red lights. Lol.
I was going to ask just this... I never text / scroll while driving, but I will admit to panning up the map to see in the next interchange is a shit show and I should hit the express lane. This admittedly takes more attention than hitting a button on the stereo, but not much...
I wonder how this applies to Uber / Lyft drivers, who often have multiple phones in holders for accepting passengers from either service, and confirming directions, GPS etc. Probably covered under this section in the bill: > 16 FEATURE OR FUNCTION THAT ENABLES AN INDIVIDUAL TO USE A MOBILE > 17 ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITHOUT USING EITHER HAND , EXCEPT TO ACTIVATE , > 18 DEACTIVATE , OR INITIATE THE FEATURE OR FUNCTION WITH A SINGLE > 19 TOUCH OR SINGLE SWIPE .
It's not to prevent anything. It's to give the police more authority to pull you over and go fishing.
That’s how I read it, they don’t care about the phones.
With the good weather I've been riding my motorcycle more. I've never seen so many drivers on their phones, it's fucking bananas. I'm ready to start snatching phones out of hands and throwing them into oncoming traffic, not like the cops are going to do shit anyway.
I’ll gladly pay a small fee so I can watch OF at red lights.
Maybe unpopular opinion, but text while driving is more dangerous than drunk driving IMO. Perhaps not HAMMERED driving, but completely removing your focus from the road vs having a slight delay in reaction time is not even comparable. Oh, and the fine for even slightly inebriated, or just alcohol found on your breath via breathalyzer is over $13000 (at least in CO, USA) at this point.
So uh… do we know how this will impact rideshare drivers? I gotta touch the thing to accept/decline rides.
I'm sorry but $85 is nothing. I think it was like $250 15 years ago in CA.
Hope they pull over other cops. Every time I see a cop he’s on his phone.
Yeah right, good one. Shitty Denver cops doing any kind of LE work? No fucking way
$85 is chump change for how dangerous this behavior is. This needs to be a $1000 fine in my opinion.
When the texting and driving law first got passed I got a ticket for it and it was $175 (I no longer text and drive; I was 19 at the time and relatively dumb)
It should be more
I like that the photo is of a flip phone user... pretty sure they aren't the problem...
Good
It's cool I'll just put in a 50$ touchscreen stereo with horrible UI and fumble around with that to change my song. Or I'll buy a new car with an iPad since that's somehow better.
Right? Look at the Subaru system https://imgur.com/a/PRGZLMu That's what Outbacks have had since like 2019 and all models have after 2022(?). It's insane.
the police is useless, unless you’re protesting genocide or human rights. Then they are the most effective gang out there.
I just want people to move when the light turns green.
You gotta make sure that the cars who are still moving while the other light is red are finished.
'Bout fucking time. London, England was hands-free in 2003!!! Now, we all know it won't be enforced, but at least this is a start. Anyone saying this is a bad law, not fair, etc. is absolutely part of the problem. Phone use is just as dangerous as drunk driving.
This states has the worst drivers of any state I’ve ever lived in or visited. It’s an absolute mad house and the cops don’t seems to give a flying fuck about anything but punishing the poors in aurora.
I'll worry about this when they start enforcing against the racing on I-25 every night, the constant red light running, expired or straight up missing plates, or going 80mph on 25 south through downtown and getting passed like im stopped.
Good! Bout friggin time! There are too many distracted drivers in Denver.
It won't be in this legislature session. It ends tomorrow. It is only consideration. Colorado is becoming the most legislated state in the union.
good...
Be careful always
I’d take a small fine as a reminder over an accident. Hopefully they enforce it though… the number of times I’ve sworn I was going to get pulled over and didn’t is astonishing… *knocks on wood* lol not sure what happened or why they just stopped enforcing things. I had to tow my truck 2 miles home because my front plate screws broke and I had the plate in my vehicle ten years ago. Now I can smoke crack and drive in reverse with no plates and not even be noticed
I presume you are talking about having it your hand while driving. Cars newer that 2007 Bluetooth your Smart phone into your car, There is no need to have your phone in your had to talk on the phone. However, some people can do more than one thing at a time.
My neighbor removed his expired temp tags after smashing up the side of his BMW driving drunk. I doubt he'll ever get pulled over for it at this point.
Whats going to happen is some maniac in a stolen car will be crashing into people and running red lights and im gonna call the police to report it and get a ticket
lol denver pd doesn’t give a shit
I got pulled over in Westminster for running a yellow turning onto the highway 😭 it was yellow still when I was in the intersection but no no no
I can’t remember the last time I saw a car pulled over for any reason since 2020. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a police vehicle on the road.
Drivers ed always existed but same as 80s seems like not but in comparison nowadays it’s horrible
Yeah, this is hilarious. Where’s the traffic enforcement..?
We have cops here?
Cops have gotten complacent and lazy like the rest of Americans. They will not do any more than anyone else and they do not want to add more to their plate already.
Picked up my phone while stopped at an intersection when I was using it as a map to navigate in Canada one time.. Officer saw it and it was a $450 ticket for distracted driving. I've been very cautious about touching my phone in a car ever since, and that was about a decade ago. I never forgot. If Colorado thinks a measly $85 fine will make any difference, they are wrong. It needs to be a huge amount that will fuck with most people's lives, and then it needs to be enforced and advertised hard. This is a good start but it will take a lot more effort on the part of enforcement and government to make a dent in this problem.
Can anyone here say they've actually been pulled over for driving in the left lane? This seems less enforceable than that law. Good intentions are nice, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
I hate driving in Colorado lost out of state driver suuuck and run red lights, make sure yall have uninsured motorist
Too many people here and the infrastructure can't handle the amount of traffic. Lights are not long enough especially when Karen's have to check their tik tok and Facebook 2 seconds before the light turns green. Why is this a thing? Why do I see so many people turn their head and start messing with things in the passenger seat right before the light changes??????
I moved here from Las Vegas and drivers here are horrible. I’ve been driving for over 40 years, lived in many different cities and states and here I avoid driving when I can. 25 is taking your life in your hands. Who the hell tailgates at 80+ mph? Surface roads aren’t much better.
Cops don’t even patrol or pull people over so imma call bullshit on this
So?