Rotten egg dispenser
Pascal made mention of this in a post back below, and it’s a kind of an interesting idea.
You’re in the middle lane. You want to be in the left lane. You turn on your left turn signal. The guy in that lane, where you have room to be, accelerates to prevent your entry.
Now, with Pascal’s plan, you turn on your turn signal, and the guy behind you in the adjacent lane gets an egg in the face- IF he accelerates rather than letting you in. If he backs off, he’s fine. If he maintains station, he’s fine. If he accelerates, blammo.
Now, Pascal is a nice guy. Too nice for his own good, in fact. I used to think paintballs were the answer. These days, I think the only balls I want to send towards rude drivers are minie.
I don’t know Honorable Og.
I would say that a Maxi from my good old T/C Renegade .54 would work right nice as well.
Problem is of course dominance games and the sociopathic element of our society that not only gets pleasure from hurting other people, but think they have a right to do so.
Hey, look. It has nothing to do with honor, and everything with finding a “friendly” persuasive way to get people to finally use their signals regularly as Og was aiming for in his earlier post.
I didn’t state the reason for my egg-hurling mechanism because I figured Og’s readers would already know (I was wrong) what everybody else in LA knows: when those behind you see a directional signal that’s their clue a space is opening up.
The first guy to signal hasn’t got a chance.
Result: many don’t signal, or wait until the very last moment before changing lanes to do so.
Solution?
The simple idea was that a laser, radar or sonar system can be rigged to the OBC to detect acceleration and it all is initialized when you use your directional signal.
I think the result would be a new national past-time.
Once it became common knowledge that it was both likely and legal to happen, those shiny Cadillac Esplanades and high-end Range Rovers wouldn’t be so cocky in their taking advantage of others using turn signals. The problem of no turn signals and lane change blockers would probably end as quick as people learned not to signal other cars that their headlights were off.
And thus we will have arrived to where Og wanted to be — nearer 100% use of turn signals — all without government coercion and with public enthusiasm!
Heh, heh.
Once in a while road justice occurs. I was driving North on I-5 in Seattle when the exact thing happened to me. Three times.
Yoot with shaved head in a low-rider Accord.
The third time, the car on my left fell back a car length, slipped behind me, then behind the kid in the hot accord. That’s when the blue lights rolled up out of the dash and the siren went off. WSP Sneaky Patrol got ‘im.
Once in a while.
Rolling up 31 just north of Indy last year right after Christmas. Traffic is bad as usual, yahoo from behind starts passing on the shoulder. Comes to a screeching halt behind ISP in unmarked car who was on the shoulder and hit the lights. Entire cars full of people applaud as they drive past yahoo receiving a ticket. Sometimes things balance out.
I had a guy right on my ass as I passed a car doing about 80 on I-5 north of the People’s Repubic of Eugene. The speed limit there is 65, and yes people do regularly go faster than 80, but the guy in the slow lane was under 75 so I figured 80 was fast enough, tailgater or no tailgater. I pull over several car lengths ahead of the slow car, and the tailgater follows me right in, still on my ass. Time to turn off the cruise control. As I went below 75 the dipshit finally got a clue and passed me. That’s when I noticed what he had been concerned about: a patrol car in the fast lane. He passed me, and the patrol car nailed him. I assume the cop was wise to the dipshit’s attempt to get me to speed up and get nailed in his place. I hope he got a ticket for aggressive driving, which is a ticketable offense in Oregon.
I can’t blame him for going over 65 but the sheer arrogance of tailgating someone hoping they’ll run interference for you deserves a whole new ticket of its own.
By the way, Pascal: You lost me at “people learned not to signal other cars that their headlights were off.”
Is that a California thing? I still signal cars their headlights are off, if (very rarely) necessary.
More: an urban legend that grew out of gangs. Flash a car and the gang members (driving around with their headlights deliberately off) woult target you for murder. Not true, but spread widely enough that nobody does it in cali anymore.
Ding, ding, ding.
Yes, Og, that is the correct answer.
What I want is a device that will shoot a dart into their tire. Now, this would be a special dart. It would have a thin hollow tube in it. Let just enough air out for a nice slow flat tire. Gives them plenty of time to get off the road and for me to long gone so that they don’t know I did it. It would be best if the dart also had a little streamer on it, with writing appropriate to the situation. You know, like “use your blinker” or “don’t cut people off” or “there’s a slow lane for a reason”. You get the idea.
When they get out to look at the tire (which probably can’t be repaired because the hole is in the sidewall) they find the little message reminding them of their poor driving habit.
Suffering through a flat and buying a new tire might be just the incentive they need to change their ways.