Path: utzoo!yunexus!maccs!cs3b3aj
From: cs3b3aj@maccs.McMaster.CA (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Re: Highway Driving Rules
Message-ID: <2375@maccs.McMaster.CA>
Date: 8 Apr 89 20:03:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: maccs.2375
References: <8904061731.AA21685@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> <1342@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM>
Reply-To: cs3b3aj@maccs.UUCP (Stephen M. Dunn)
Distribution: ont
Organization: McMaster U., Hamilton, Ont., Can.
Lines: 71

In article <1342@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM> brian@ncrcan.Toronto.NCR.COM (Brian Onn) writes:
>In article <8904061731.AA21685@ellesmere.csri.toronto.edu> malton@csri.toronto.edu (Andrew Malton) writes:
>>5) limit speed on ramps (I believe the orange `ramp speed NN' signs are
>>   warning only; some ramps have white legal speed-limits instead,
>>   as on the 400 at Gravenhurst);
>
>Yep.. the orange signs are warnings of a safe speed, usually with a wide
>margin.  With todays cars you can often exceed the posted yellow speeds
>by 10  to 15 kilometers an hour, and still feel safe.  If you like the
>feeling of centrifigul force, you can try it a little faster still :-)
>My understanding is that the legal limit is still the last white sign you
>saw.

Of course, one must be rather more careful in bad weather.  When I was
taking Driver's Ed, I asked my instructor this one day and he said that
they were legal limits.  Now, if this were true, it makes one wonder why
they bother with a different colour sign.

But anyway, it doesn't really matter whether you go faster than the speed
on the sign anyway.  After all, most people do this when there are the
white, "definitely-a-legal-speed-limit" signs around, so why shouldn't
they do the same when the sign is of questionable legal force?

>>6) flash high-beams to communicate with other drivers (as in
>>   `You should move out of my way', or `I am going to pass you now' or
>
>Gawd... I *hate* drivers who do this.  Makes me feel like they think they
>own the road.  I *do not* think this is in the HTA.  I certainly hope not.

Well, you may not like it, but sometimes it's necessary.  For example, let's
say you're on a two-lane highway and there's an idiot in the left-hand
lane going at exactly the same speed as the traffic in the right-hand lane.
What do you do to tell him to get the #$@* out of the way?  Tailgating is
not recommended, and besides which, if a driver is thick enough not to
realize that the car approaching him from behind probably wants to pass him,
he is probably thick enough not to get the hint from tailgating as long as
you don't actually hit him.  (Of course, if you _do_ hit him, you have an
even bigger problem)  So what else?  If you honk your horn at him, he'll
probably get pissed off at you and honk back, but once again he's probably
too stupid to realize why you were honking.  But high beams ... a momentary
flash is probably too short for an idiot to understand, but it generally
is the least obnoxious way of letting a sensible driver know.  And if the
driver _does_ turn out to be thick, you can just leave 'em on until he
is forced to get out of your lane to avoid them (:-).

Yes, I can see your point that high-beams can be annoying if the person
using them doesn't realize that a momentary flash is supposed to be short,
but I think they're quite useful for communicating with idiots.  And let's
face it - an alarmingly high number of drivers are idiots.

I would be very surprised if this one's in the HTA.


I'm sure that signals are mentioned in the HTA.  As Brian pointed out, you
get a ticket if you don't use them and the cops catch you, so they must be
required.

One thing I'd like to know is what we can do about cops who don't signal,
who speed from the cop shop to the donut shop, etc.  And don't say they
don't ... I live just about across the street from a police station, and
some of them could probably be given 20 or 30 demerit points for turning
out of the road leading to the station, driving 600m up the highway and
turning at the next lights.  Now, I'm not saying they _all_ break the law
(of course not), just that some of them do, which is not what you'd expect
from a body charged with upholding the law.

-- 
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! Stephen M. Dunn, cs3b3aj@maccs.McMaster.CA ! DISCLAIMER:           !
! This space left unintentionally blank - vi ! I'm only an undergrad !
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