bad police driving

[Max Rockatansky]

I appreciate the intent behind such laws, but they're dumb anyway.  I don't even use my wipers unless the rain is really heavy, but that shouldn't mean I don't have to have my lights on.

Intent or not most traffic laws of the kind could easily be scrapped and nobody would even notice a difference in enforcement.  They certainly don't offer any tangible value or a way to encourage poor drivers to operate their vehicles more safely.  In the past (a practice that seemingly is waning in modern times) certain agencies would use infractions like that to pull people over in the interest of a pretext to find a potential larger crime.

That is actually the reason this came up with my dad!

When I was younger I was pulled over a couple times for inane traffic violations.  One example was not pulling to the most extreme right lane.  The first question that was asked by the officer was "can I look inside your car?"   I would just respectfully reply "not unless you have cause officer."   I'm fairly certain in the circumstance I illustrated it actually netted me a ticket.  I eventually got out of because I knew who the shift sergeant was and he got it waived.

[bcroadguy]

Cops are near me are always staring at their laptops, while constantly pulling people over for "distracted driving" (sometimes legit, but often for simply having your phone connected to your car in the cupholder while not looking at it). I believe there was a recent BC Supreme Court case about a situation like this.

Fun fact: if you're a "novice driver" (has to display a green N sticker) in BC (pretty much everyone between 17-19 and many older people too lazy to do a second driving test, including me until I was 21), you're not allowed to use any electronic devices while driving whatsoever. This includes having your phone connected to Spotify via AUX or Apple CarPlay, so if you want to listen to music in your car, FM radio is technically your only choice. There is not a single person with an N who I have ridden with who ever turned on FM radio (and no we were not listening to silence).

Last year I was driving behind a police car on a two lane road, and as soon as it crossed the border into the neighboring town it sped up to 25 km/h over the speed limit. I followed them at the same speed and nothing happened.

Also, the ONE time I have ever been pulled over, it was by a cop who was following me at 25 km/h over the limit, the exact same speed as the car next to me (why tf didn't I recognize Ford Explorer headlights!??) in a 60 zone. Turns out my headlights were off (I was eating in a parking lot at night the day before and forgot to turn them back on). He made fun of me for buying White Claws and told me to turn my headlights on, but I didn't get a ticket and he didn't even mention the fact that I was speeding. We both went through the Wendy's drive thru right next to where I got pulled over after that lol.