09-23-2016, 04:37 AM
quote:
Originally posted by terracore
...I have a theory.
As far as traffic enforcement goes, the police only enforce the speeding laws. There could be somebody driving 25MPH in the left lane on the highway and the cop will go around them instead of pulling them over. Don't use a turn signal? I think they assume the light is out and it will be fixed within the year so they can get a safety sticker, no reason to pull them over. We have these suicide lanes to get onto the highway from the subdivisions and when somebody doesn't use their blinker getting off the highway the person trying to get on has no idea what they are doing. Headlight out? Tail light out? Nobody ever gets pulled over for that because the safety check will take care of it. On the mainland that's how many of the alcohol/drug/impaired driving busts are made. It's "normal" here for 3-4 people to turn left on a red light. In some intersections (Leilani in Hilo for example) it's 5-6 every time. It's not a secret... if they wanted to give 100 tickets a day, there's a place to do it. Instead they pull people over for driving 6 MPH over the speed limit where's safe to do so. As usual, JMHO.
On Oahu I find the drivers are particularly oblivious. I often imagine their driving strategy to be, "Hey! Watch out for where I'm going!" Followed by random unsignaled lane changes, sudden stopping in the left lane to let someone turn across two active traffic lanes often causing a collision in the right lane and in general not going with the flow of traffic. I've even seen the cops do it.
Here the biggest problem here (besides lack of signals) is people don't seem to know how to merge or get out of the way if they want to drive slowly.
I agree. On both islands I've seen cops completely ignore really bad drivers. Yet I've had them stop me for jaywalking on an empty street, give my friend a ticket for riding a bike for 1 block on the sidewalk where the bike lane quit in the business district.
Even in the Puna roundabout no one signals (even the cops), when it is a law and would be very helpful to know if you're exiting the circle or not.