You DO NOT have the right of way......

On Monday this week I saw a scene unfold before me that was unbelievable. First let us examine what the California Drivers Handbook has to say about pedestrians: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/misc_lic_info.htm#pedestrianresp http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/right_of_way.htm

Notice this quote: "Do not suddenly leave a curb or other safe place, and walk or run into the path of a vehicle close enough to be a danger to you. This is true even though you are in a crosswalk. The law states that drivers must always yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian, but if the driver cannot stop in time to avoid hitting you the law will not prevent you, from being hit."

I also found this article written by a police officer very enlightening: http://www.livermorepolice.org/traffic_articlesbicycle.htm

Essentially the point I am trying to establish before I tell my story is that you are only a pedestrian if you are Walking. If you enter the crosswalk at anything besides a walking pace (Running/Jogging/Skateboarding/biking/rollarbladeing) you are no longer a pedestrian in MOST cases.

So now the good stuff. I am heading into work and approaching a very large and busy intersection. The road I am on has 5 lanes of traffic, 2 are left hand turn lanes, the center is a forward only lane, and the right 2 are right hand turn only lanes. During my approach I see the 2 left hand turn lanes are stopped with traffic because of a red left arrow, the center lane has a green, and the right 2 lanes have a green which is about to turn to a green right arrow.

From the left a young man on a skateboard enters the cross walk on his skateboard, and because the traffic lights ahead are green he is doing so on a "Don't Walk" signal for him. So far 2 negatives for the skateboarder. I watch in horror as the skateboarder skates past the stopped cars in the left hand turn lanes and right in front of a VW Jetta that had intentions on proceeding directly through the intersection.

The VW narrowly stops in time to avoid running over the skateboarder who has to pick up his board as he lost control of it trying to stop.

Now, this is where the "unbelievable" part of my story comes into play.

The skateboarder raises his arms at the VW driver in what looked to me like an attempt of body language to say "Whats wrong with you, you almost ran me over". Granted I cannot say for sure if that is what he meant, it just looked like that to me. During this time the main green signal turns red, and the VW driver is going to miss the light, HOWEVER the right hand turn green arrow is alive and well, and traffic turning right never seemed to see the skateboarder or slow for the action happening. Instead of realizing he was in the wrong, the Skateboarder - whose intelligence must be severely lacking - gets back no his board and rides right in front of the moving traffic once again, forcing the traffic 2 cars ahead of me to stop.

Luckily for me I was observing this entire situation and was driving slowly enough to not have a rear end collision from the sudden stoppage of traffic. At this point I am starting to get irritated at this person.

What were they thinking?
How do people of such limited intelligence seem to remain alive?
I am glad I did not have to witness a death on the street that morning, but if one had occurred would I feel bad for the deceased or rejoiced at once less intrusion to intelligent society?

One thing is for sure, I would never blame the driver that hit such a person.

Why is it ok for the CHP Drive like Idiots??

So last week on my ride home (oh yeah I bought a motorcycle to commute on, but that will have to be another post) I was cruising in the number 1 lane going about 80mph following a late 90's 3 Series when on the right 2 CHP's driving Crown Vic's fly past both of us doing what had to be close to 100mph at 4 in the afternoon right at the beginning of drive home rush hour.

At first all I could think was; "glad there was something more important to get to than giving me a speeding ticket".

This made me reflect on that entire concept and wish that was the case the last few tickets I received, isn't there ALWAYS something more important for the CHP to be doing instead of wasting our time with speeding tickets on the freeway? I am not condoning going 55mph through a school zone at 3:30 in the afternoon when kids are rushing around everywhere, this is the freeway, 75-85 IS safe for the modern cars we drive......

Anyway, back to the story. I noticed that both CHP cars entered the Car Pool lane which was just 1/2 mile ahead even though neither had "2 or more persons" as the law states, though one was a K-9 Unit, perhaps he felt his dog was a qualifier....

PLEASE NOTE: at no time during my story did either CHP car roll code (lights flashing and or sirens blaring).

Being on a motorcycle I too entered the car pool lane, legally, and in a short while the CHP cars were out of sight.

Now it gets interesting. I can barely see up in the distance the CHP have moved into the next lane over (not sure if you still call it the number 1 lane when a car pool lane is present...) in an attempt to pass the cars ahead of them. This effort failed as I caught up to them just in time to see both of them cross back over the double yellow into the car pool lane.

Lets check out tally so far:

Speeding in excess of 100mph - CHECK
Driving solo in car pool lane - CHECK
Crossing out of and back into the car pool lane over double yellows - CHECK

If that had been anyone else we would consider them to be (insert expletive name here) drivers, and if the CHP saw you doing that you would enjoy well over $1000.00 in fines and probably get your car impounded.

Now that they were back in the car pool lane and for the foreseeable future stuck behind drivers going 75mph I caught up to them, but not too close.... :-)

Once the car pool lane ends they turn the heat up, the lead driver proceeds to immediately start tail gating the car in front of him, and then swerve to the left into the shoulder to show the guy in front he wants to get by, this is known as Harassment and carries very large fines in the state of California if you are caught doing that to another driver.

When this happens I am kinda shocked, it is one thing to roll code on your way to an emergency, I know I would want people getting out of the way if I was stuck in my car, upside down, on the side of the freeway. But then of course it is the local fire department with the jaws of life that I want to be first on the scene, not 2 CHP officers.

Now, because traffic is somewhat light this afternoon and flowing around 60-65mph I on the bike am able to nimbly move around traffic and keep the CHP officers in view for the majority of my ride home. This harassing behavior continued as long as I could see them. I finally lost sight of them about a mile before I turned off onto another freeway and was just a few miles from home. I went and checked with google maps and can say this crazy behavior lasted 19 miles from the time they first passed me until I finally lost sight of them. I am not sure where they were when they started nor where they ended.

I want to believe that they had an emergency to attend to, but then again if that was the case why not roll code? Why instead harass drivers who are just trying to avoid all the jerks on the road and have a safe trip home? Why set a bad example of CHP breaking the law because they can and you the average driver cannot do anything about it?

I just have this sinking feeling down inside that this is just another case of law enforcement using their badges to blatantly break the law for their own selfish reasons.

Final tally:
1> Excessive speeding (30mph or more over the limit)
2> Solo in car pool
3> Crossing double yellow lines twice
4> Tail gating over and over, at least 20 cases from what I saw
5> Harassing drivers over and over, at least 20 cases from what I saw
6> Hiding behind a badge in order to break the law

Yeah, if that was me and I got caught I would be spending the next few week in prison for that behavior........


/sigh