Thread: The human vs. the road police.

Originally Posted by alexB

What does it feel like having a modern powerful car and always restraining yourself from going over the speed limit, which must be not so high? .

Don't know, I don't drive...

The Autobahn (a motorway system in Germany) has no speed limits. You can go as fast as you want, more or less. It's 4 lanes each direction, I think. Mainly the direction is North - South. I went on it as a child and it felt a bit scary if you have never experienced really fast speed before, or really wide motorways. I don't like it. My father scared the life out of the whole family by driving at an insane speed on the way to Austria. Ugh!

In England there are roadworks all the time. They dig up the road to fix electricity... Then 2 weeks later... the gas! Then.. water.... Cable, broadband... Etc ad infinitum

Sweden has great roads compared with England and a lot less traffic. No wide motorways at all, since it is not needed.

Originally Posted by Selexin

Can the police in the US commandeer a private vehicle to block a road with it for capturing a suspect like it happend the other day in Moscow?
http://inforotor.ru/visit/2689012?url=h ... cle3139444

Basically, Yes!
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... ndeer-cars

From the Moscow Times:

The Hard Lives of Police and Prostitutes

Traffic police and prostitutes have a lot in common. Both stand by the side of the road and try to get what they can from passing motorists.

Originally Posted by capecoddah

Traffic police and prostitutes have a lot in common. Both stand by the side of the road and try to get what they can from passing motorists.

That's a very old source of jokes in Russia. http://video.bigmir.net/show/105086/

In the US there are some unofficial guidelines about driving, specifically about speed.

On the major freeways it would be very unusual for a traffic cop to stop someone for speeding if they were not driving at least 10MPH above the posted speed limit. The purpose of the traffic police is to encourage safety on the road. On the interstate freeways most cars drive faster than the posted limit if there isn't too much traffic. As long as you are not driving crazy or something the police usually will not bother you.

On city streets things are a little different. Just speaking for myself, I try to obey the speed limits exactly when I'm driving on any city street. Some cities tell the police they need to write a certain number of traffic tickets each day, so you can be stopped for smaller offenses sometimes. Normally police will not stop people who haven't done anything too serious. If it is a matter like you describe where it is hard to tell what you should have done, police in the US will sometimes just give you a warning about it.

Often police will stop people for small infractions if they are looking for someone in particular, or just because it is a good way to catch criminals. When you are stopped they enter your license plate information and your driver's license number into a computer to see if you are a wanted criminal or if someone reported the car as stolen. This has worked pretty well, as criminals often don't obey traffic laws, so they get caught speeding or going through a stop light and then arrested for something they had done before.

Just a warning to Russians visiting the US: NEVER try to bribe a policeman here. They would probably arrest you for it.

American police bribe.