Innocent by Law, Guilty by State Farm

Several months ago, I was involved in a traffic accident. The police officer who arrived on the scene took statements from three witnesses and the other driver before approaching me with a ticket in his hand charging me with "careless driving".

A few things annoyed me about the charge. For one thing, the term "careless driving" is really broad. It doesn't really tell you what you did wrong, just that you didn't do something right. For another, I believed I was following the laws and acting not only according to what I believe was correct (especially with reference to what the Colorado Driver's Handbook says to do at a malfunctioning traffic light), but with how other cars present at the intersection at the time were behaving. Also, the fact that the cop issued the ticket without getting my view, but only that of the other driver and some witnesses, made me feel like the decision was obnoxiously one-sided. Finally, the fact that the officer's report stated the other driver was being cautious didn't fit the facts that, I felt, were obvious.

I was determined to fight what I felt was an unfair assessment. And after finding out how much it would cost to obtain a lawyer (from the one firm that found it worthwhile to actually return my call), I decided I could only afford to fight it if I fought it on my own.

To make a very long story short, the judge agreed with me, that I did take into account the situation (the malfunctioning traffic light, the large number of cars stopped at this light in all directions). One of the witnesses was key in this decision, as she happened to be behind me at the time of the accident, and she testified that I did in fact stop for plenty of time to analyze the situation before entering the intersection. It also sounded like the was about to say the other driver was at fault for entering against a flashing yellow when there was a car already in the intersection (which I was able to prove I had first, by a large margin), before she interrupted herself and gave her ruling, that the prosecution failed to prove my guilt. So, against the odds of representing myself in court, I prevailed.

With that ruling, I thought it would be prudent to contact State Farm and let them know that not only was I found not at fault, but a competent lawyer could likely take this case and go after the other driver's insurance for the loss — hey, if an incompetent fool like myself could win the case, imagine what someone with appropriate skill could do. Boy, was I ever in for a surprise. When I was connected to the agent in charge of processing my claim, and I explained the situation, she told me she didn't think they had a case. And then this State Farm agent proceeded to tell me why: because the other driver had the right of way, she had no obligation to watch for traffic in the intersection because I should not have been there; basically all the arguments the prosecution made at my trial, that were ultimately rejected by the judge. When she mentioned details that were just wrong (like the other driver having a regular yellow light and I ran a red light) and I tried to correct her, she accused me of changing my story. (I don't know if, in the heat of the moment when I first reported the accident, I got some details wrong; but the condition of the traffic light was a fact clearly spelled out in the police report for crying out loud.) She even went so far as to claim that there was no difference between a flashing yellow light and a green light! I was in shock.

I suppose ultimately it's their decision to pursue the case or not, but to just dismiss the results of a trial and accuse me of guilt after I had been found not guilty, does not sit well with me. I believe it is time for me to find a new insurance agent, one that does not stubbornly hold to an assumption of my guilt even after being found not guilty in a court of law, like State Farm has done.

My $6000 mistake

After my 2004 Prius was totaled, I had one prevaling thought when it came to transportation: I needed to replace the car. As such, I went looking for another Prius, loaded, with the JBL sound system, bluetooth, and GPS navigation. My wife strongly encouraged me to look for a later model, as it would be better covered by warranties and have less of a chance of something going wrong. Because rising gas prices have been driving up the demand for hybrids, and because the recent tsunami in Japan was hindering supply, my choices were rather limited. I found a couple dealers with Priuses, and it came down to a 2005 base model and a 2009 loaded touring edition. The '05, without any options, felt too much like "just a car"; while the loaded '09 offered all the bells and whistles I was used to, plus had newer components which made for a better warranty and piece of mind.

The cost, however, was really tough to swallow. After the check from my insurance company, I ended up owing over $13k, which I financed with the intention of pulling money from various accounts and paying off as soon as possible.

After a couple weeks of driving, however, I noticed the strong new car scent had given way to a strong cigarette smell. Not a smoker myself, the smell was beyond irritating — and the fact that I take my kids to school in the morning made me more concerned about the environment I was using for transportation. This and the out-of-pocket expense weighed heavily on me for the following weeks.

When fabric cleaners and deodorizers failed to improve things, I came to the conclusion that I had made a terrible mistake.

I knew I would take a small bath on the cost of the car compared to its trade-in value, so I began the search for an inexpensive and economical car (and, to satisfy my wife's concerns about warranties, a relatively late-model with a good warranty). My search led me to a used 2010 Chevy Cobalt previously used as a rental car, which I couldn't beat for the mileage/year/economy at that price.

It's a good car, drives well, is comfortable, and, very imporantly, does not have a cigarette smell. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of the Prius, but those are features I didn't really need — my phone can serve as a GPS well enough (and one that's continually up-to-date), and plugging the phone's headphone jack into the stereo's auxillary input (which I do out of habit anyway, as I listen to podcasts or audiobooks almost exclusively) is a more-than-acceptable substitute for a wireless handsfree bluetooth connection. Plus, the Cobalt has features that even the 2009 Prius didn't: a tire pressure and oil life monitor, daytime running lights, automatic headlights (seriously, for all the bells and whistles, how can the Prius not have automatic headlights?), and doors that automatically lock when the car is in gear. Plus, the Cobalt does not attempt to control everything through a single LCD touchscreen. (It seems cool, but it ends up being far more distracting and annoying when you have to switch screen modes just to adjust the temperature or see what radio station is playing — which might be why the 2010 model Prius went back to discrete radio and climate control panels.)

The car cost me just about the exact price of my late Prius, but after figuring in the loss on trade-in, taxes, and two dealer delivery charges, I estimate I lost somewhere in the ballpark of $6000 on the deal. But it was a huge weight off of my mind to be able to pull that money together, write a single check, and buy the car outright without any financing whatsoever.

The cost all comes down to a simple mistake. When I went to get a replacement car, I focused on replacing my old car with a near-equal match. If I had instead focused on what I need instead of what I want, I could have avoided the extra cost — or taken that extra money and considered more expensive but more economical or featured cars.

Do I miss my old Prius? Absolutely. It was my fun car, and I enjoyed it for the nearly seven years I was privileged to drive it. I'm glad I was able to get my fun car. But what I didn't initially accept was, it was time to move on. Now that I've accepted that, I feel much better about my old car's replacement, and I can move ahead.

Maybe treating it as a four-way stop is best

Long ago, I wrote about my annoyance at people who get the rules about malfunctioning lights backwards. I rather wish I had one of those "ignorant" people on the road today.

At the intersection leading into the train station, the lights were completely out. Four-way stop. I was going straight. As I stopped, the car next to me turning left started to go, so I did as well. Someone coming from the cross street in the far lane (on the other side of a full lane of traffic at a stop) plowed through the intersection and hit me.

As I sat in my car (the door was jammed, so I couldn't get out right away), I looked up to verify the lights were in fact dark. They were — in my direction only. The lights in the opposite direction, however, were flashing red, and the lights on the cross street, the one the other driver "plowed through", were flashing yellow.

We both acted on information we had; the street light just gave two completely different sets of information.

I made sure to point this fact out to the officer on the scene, who noted it. I do have to appear in court in a couple months to answer a charge of "careless driving" because I failed to yield to her yellow light, so I can only hope the judge will acknowledge the screwed up lights and realize I acted appropriately.

Of course, it wasn't until I was on the train in to work that I realized I should have taken pictures and video, especially of the lights in question.

School Zones are for Losers

I drive the speed limit. When I see a speed limit sign, I moderate my speed to that number, and I set my cruise control. It's not out of any sense of moral superiority (although I will admit such thoughts do cross my mind when someone starts riding my bumper in an effort to push me above the legal limit); it's simply because I've received two speeding tickets in my lifetime, and I've decided that is plenty. Even if the chances of being pulled over for going a mile or two or five over the posted limit are remote, I've just decided it's not worth any added stress.

Does that mean I sometimes get to my destination later than someone else who might push the pedal down a little further? Sure. I've seen plenty of people speed by me and get rewarded for their transgression by getting through a street light that turns red after they pass but before I do. I've also seen plenty of people speed by me and get caught by street lights or traffic and end up no further ahead for their efforts.

Some people seem to take offense at being forced to follow the speed limit, though. Aside from the aforementioned tailgater who will follow dangerously close when I'm traveling the speed limit (usually when the limit drops or, for some reason, is posted slower than what one would think is necessary for a particular road), is this situation that I encounter each morning:

Traveling left to right (in this picture), I enter a school zone, which at the time of day is almost always active (lights flashing). I approach this intersection after making a left turn on a light from another main street, and it seems the lights are timed such that, after making that left turn and traveling to this point, I nearly always am stopped at this red light (often behind a long line of cars — there are probably about 10 car lengths between the start of the school zone and the light). Shortly after the intersection (just a few yards) is a rather large "Speed Limit 40" sign — however, this is not the end of the school zone, as evidenced by the (much smaller) "End School Zone" several yards beyond it (and the corresponding "Begin School Zone" for the traffic in the other direction at the same point). I have to wonder if the large "Speed Limit 40" sign was placed there with the intent to confuse people and entice them to accelerate to 40mph early — but that's the conspiracy theorist in me thinking.

As I approach the 25mph blinking school zone sign, slowing down is not usually a problem, as, as I've noted, there is usually a long line of stopped cars waiting for the light. Even if there are no cars or the light is green, I can typically slow to 25 without incident, although people in the left lane rarely slow completely to that speed. (I'm always in the right lane, as at the next intersection beyond this, I need to make a right, usually as well as a long line of people that would make trying to push in from the left lane difficult [but not beyond what some people will do to try and save a few seconds].)

What is more common is, after being stopped by the red light, when the light turns green, people will "forget" that they're in a school zone and begin accelerating. I'll get up to 25 and set my cruise control, as people in front pull ahead and people on my left pass me by.

What happens here more often than not is the person behind me will ride my bumper for a while, usually about halfway between the "Speed Limit 40" sign and the "End School Zone" sign. They will then lose patience and speed around me. If they've waited too long (i.e. I've reached the "End School Zone" and started accelerating to 40 myself), they will then slam on the gas to get around me.

And what do they get for their efforts? Well, I've yet to see a cop there in this, my third year of driving this route in the morning, so not even the chance of a ticket. But it does put them in front of me (although pulling away isn't possible — remember the line of people turning right at the next intersection ahead that I mentioned earlier?), and I guess that's all that matters. ^*sigh^*

How dare you obey the rules of the road

According to the Colorado Driver Handbook, which I just downloaded from the DMV website for confirmation, section 10.1a, if a traffic signal is malfunctioning or not operating, the intersection should be treated as a four-way stop. If the lights are on but flashing yellow, it is a warning of hazard, to slow and proceed with caution (but not "treat as a four-way stop").

For some reason, people in Colorado don't seem to understand these. When they're not completely ignoring them, they get these rules completely backwards.

Last week, I was driving home in the middle of the day to shuttle my wife to the auto shop, as we were down to one car while the minivan was having some maintenance (an $800 repair of the climate control system — ouch), when I noticed a stoplight was completely out. The road I was on was a six-lane divided road, and the intersection was with a small, two-lane road. A pickup was waiting on the cross street.

I slowed to a stop. A truck in the lane next to me blowed through the intersection, and I honked at him — which earned me an irritated honk from the truck behind me. I waited patiently as three more cars blew through the opposite direction before the pickup finally got his turn to go through the intersection, which, as you'll note in my first paragraph above, is legally a four-way stop at this point.

The next street light is also in a "non-standard" mode, but this one is blinking yellow. (The street I'm on has reduced to a two-lane road by this point.) Wouldn't you know it, traffic coming the other way is actually stopping at this blinking yellow light. I slow a bit, to make sure the car waiting on the cross street at his blinking red light doesn't try to pull out in front of me, and cautiously proceed through the intersection.

After I pick up my wife, we head back on the same road. I notice people are now treating the dead light like a four-way stop, but I believe this is due to the police car that has stopped beside the intersection, as a cop is donning an orange vest to direct traffic.

Slow down, so I can cut you off!

My friend, the "Top Hat Rabbit", just made a blog post that reminded me of a driving incident. This happened many years ago, but I still remember it clearly.

I was driving home from work one day, and to avoid traffic, I cut through a neighborhood, taking a route I had taken many times before. At one point, I came around a curve, where a side street joins the main road I was on. A couple guys in a little red convertible were at the stop sign. The driver was talking to his passenger, not paying any attention, and started to pull out in front of me as I came by. To avoid getting hit, I hit the gas and swerve around him. My sunroof was open, so I heard him yell, "Slow down, a**hole!"

Of course, he couldn't let this go. He had to prove to his friend how big a man he was. Up at the street light exiting the neighborhood, I waited to turn left, and he pulled up beside me in the right turn lane, arm and middle finger extended. When I refused to so much as glance in his direction, he tried to get my attention. "Hey a**hole!" he called. Still no reaction. (Nice language to be shouting in a neighborhood, I thought.)

He inched his car forward, I suppose so he could get a look at my front license plate, which I guess he wrote down, because he then started waving a piece of paper in the air, calling, "A**hole!!!"

The light turned green. I finally looked over at him, blew him a kiss, and drove off.

Hope I didn't make his boyfriend jealous.

I may be slow, but I'm FIRST!

I've been meaning to add this to my driving posts for a while. I just read an interesting article on Ars Technica, titled Selfish driving causes everyone to pay the Price of Anarchy, which is a pretty interesting discussion about an upcoming research article on traffic patterns and how, when each person is driving according to their own personal best interests, the entire group (including themselves) suffer.

It doesn't really have anything to do with this particular post, but it did remind me of one behavior I've observed and thought worth mentioning.

Many times, I've approached a stop light on a multi-lane road, where my lane is clear, but adjacent lanes have multiple people waiting at the light. Since I tend to accelerate fairly quickly "off the block", I like seeing this, because it means I'll get to reach cruising speed much faster. (One theory is, for better gas mileage, one should accelerate more slowly; however, in a hybrid car such as I drive, the theory is reversed, as faster acceleration is supposed to induce more assistance from the electric motor and actually decrease gas consumption.)

However, quite often, as I'm approaching the stop light, someone from an adjacent lane will pull out in front of me and take the "pole position". (If I'm lucky, it'll happen far enough in advance that I won't have to slam on my brakes to avoid a collision.) There are two possible, logical reasons for this behavior: (1) this person likes to accelerate quickly, and therefore wants to be where no one is in front of him, or (2) they need to make a turn soon and are changing lanes while they have a chance. However, way, way too often, this person will end up accelerating more slowly than the person they just got out from behind, and keep going straight for quite some time (i.e. several miles), even moving back into the lane they just left.

So what was the point of changing lanes? A better view of cross traffic before the light changed? A desire to witness the changing of the light for one's self? Mistrust that the car in front of them would actually be able to go once the light changed? Or that irrational fear of someone passing them, that same one that causes people in the right lane on the interstate to suddenly accelerate as I approach alongside in the left lane (note that I habitually drive with cruise control, so I'm reasonably certain my speed is constant)?

Or maybe this pathological desire to be "FIRST!" extends beyond internet comment boards?

Not in MY lane!

Driving the kids to school yesterday, we were in the middle lane of a three-lane road (in our direction), behind what looked like one of those rented moving vans, except it lacked any markings whatsoever. Anyway, that was the approximate size and shape of this vehicle. Traffic was a little heavy, as the right lane was blocked due to some road work (morning rush hour being the ideal time to tear up a piece of road, naturally). Up ahead was an intersection with a double left turn. Since traffic in the left lane splits up into people going straight and two lanes of people turning left, the left lane has a tendency to empty a little more quickly. And, since the right lane was blocked off and people needed to merge, the middle and right lanes were moving much more slowly.

I'm usually one who just stays in his lane, because if I try to switch to a faster lane, invariably I end up reliving the opening scene to Office Space, where as soon as I switch lanes, I come to a complete stop as the lane I just left speeds up. And on the rare occasions when I do seem to gain ground, I notice that a car I passed up manages to catch up to me two lights later anyway. So why stress, right?

In this case, this truck in front of me decided he wanted to merge left. Possibly because that lane was moving faster, possibly just to make room for the people in the right lane to merge. Either way, he waited until the left lane traffic lightened a bit. As soon as there was an opening, he'd turn on his signal.

The instant that signal came on, the people in that left lane would hit the accelerator and close the gap, making sure they got across that two or three car lengths of empty space before that truck dared to get in front of them, and then slam on their brakes to narrowly avoid hitting the stopped car in front — but at least they prevented the unthinkable, someone merging into their lane.

I watched this happen two or three times. Different people each time, because it would actually put them in front of that truck, so the next time it was someone else coming from behind to claim the empty space as theirs.

And what did they gain? Despite being two or three cars ahead, traffic as a whole was still moving rather slowly. Whether you are behind a big truck or not, you're still not moving more than 5mph at best, and it's still three light cycles before you get through the intersection.

If you don't like my walking, stay off the crosswalk

Idiot driver of the day.

I was out walking today, as I'm trying to get into the habit so I get at least some exercise during the day. I come to a busy intersection, press the button for the crosswalk, and wait. The cross traffic gets a red light, and the left turn lights for the traffic running parallel to me light. The crosswalk light is of course still red, so I still wait. The left turn lights cycle off, and the straight lights go green, and the crosswalk also turns green. I start walking.

Because I'm on the left side of the intersection, the first half of my walk is in front of stopped cross traffic. I get past the halfway point, and this old white pickup truck has come from behind me to make a left turn. Note that I am still in the crosswalk, whose light had turned green (although started blinking red while I was crossing).

He pulls out and starts to make his turn, fortunately stopping just before he hits me. The guy leans out his window and starts yelling something at me. Since I'm listening to an audiobook, I don't know what he says, but I refuse to so much as acknoledge his presence. He's turning left, he must yield to oncoming traffic and most certainly pedestrians in the crosswalk.

Apparently my failure to beg his forgiveness for my existence made him mad, because then he laid on his horn until I had cleared out of his way. I didn't look at him or even alter my pace, but I was sorely tempted to stop and stand still.

The passing paradox

I could probably fill a whole blog by itself with annoyances in relation to being on the road.

As I was driving across some of the western states with my family, I experienced a phenomenon that one would think would be statistically unlikely, yet somehow happens all too often. I can be on the interstate, cruise control locked at the speed limit in the right-hand lane for dozens of miles without encountering a single other car. And yet, it's just as I start to come up on a truck or RV that I need to pass, that suddenly, another car going slightly faster will be passing me on the left, timing it just right that he's right beside me as I'm right behind the truck.

It's almost as if somehow it was orchestrated, that the vehicles were positioned and timed just so, such that all three of us would converge on this single, seemingly random point on the interstate in the middle of nowhere.

Somewhat related, it seems that no matter how many unoccupied miles I pass through, if there is a "construction area" where one lane is blocked off for a few miles (which is another rant; why do they block off 10 miles of road when they are only working on 50 feet at a time?), I will invariably have to go through it stuck behind someone who feels the need to go 30MPH under the posted speed limit.

And somehow, this improbable convergence seems to occur consistently at the very start of the lane closure.

It's almost like I'm stuck inside a video game, the way these events that I would think statistically unlikely to occur as frequently as they do, happen with almost scripted regularity. Except that I can't drop the pedal down and reach unreasonable speeds, crash and respawn, and outrun cops until an indicator on my heads-up display disappears.

Although that would stand a greater chance of keeping me awake driving through the Nevada desert.