WARNING: Illinois' enforcement of Scott's Law is abusive and is entrapment

[linicx]

It is not a stupid law. It is a law for those who have no common sense or parents to teach them how to drive. And it is possible to avoid a ticket. Pull off until you can merge safely or wait for oncoming traffic to pass.

The second Scott's Law violation is $500 and no license for a year. And you'll pay for mandatory safety school.

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by linicx

It is not a stupid law. It is a law for those who have no common sense or parents to teach them how to drive. And it is possible to avoid a ticket. Pull off until you can merge safely or wait for oncoming traffic to pass.

The second Scott's Law violation is $500 and no license for a year. And you'll pay for mandatory safety school.

maybe the spirit of the law isn't stupid but the enforcement of it is often is stupid. even if im on a desolate highway if im in the right lane and there's a car off to the shoulder ill move over regardless of whether they need the space or not. i try to do the same thing with cop cars as well.

that said its not always possible, sometimes you come around a bend and dont have time to move over, sometimes there's traffice besides you and its not possible. this is oftentimes just used as a petty revenue generating thing and not for safety.

[Davie County Fan]

Originally Posted by linicx

It is not a stupid law. It is a law for those who have no common sense or parents to teach them how to drive. And it is possible to avoid a ticket. Pull off until you can merge safely or wait for oncoming traffic to pass.

The second Scott's Law violation is $500 and no license for a year. And you'll pay for mandatory safety school.

It is a wise law and, knowing how a lot of Illinois roads are (flat, straight, unobstructed) the driver typically has time to see and take action. However, on some of the very busy urban roads, a driver taking the correct action may end up in a wreck - not because of what they did, but because of how the a*hole driver coming up behind them reacts. If there are 100s of cars behind you, and the lane to the left is full, what can a person do? Certainly slow down (and by "slowing down", I mean start tapping your brakes. don't screeeech to a halt), put on your hazard flashers, perhaps flash your headlights and indicate that you are aware of the situation and are doing your best to react to it.

The actions by the police to pull over everyone and slam them with a ticket is ham-handed and abusive. It's clearly a set of actions that verges on entrapment. As someone with a long history of association the state, I'm ashamed to see this. It wasn't so bad when I lived there previously but then, the state was solvent and services were meant to be a positive benefit not a punitive one.

[linicx]

There is nothing to indicate police are pulling over 'everyone'. If they did they would be concentrating where the vast majority of residents live and drive rather than isolated areas of the state. I suspect they congregate on busy routes near large universities where there are many inexperienced drivers.

I don't live where the roads are flat, boring, straight or unobstructed. It is just as easy to come around an double S curve, or come over the top of a steep hill at 55 and find myself facing the rear end of a Deere that is moving at 20mph while towing equipment. I don't have time to consider options; there is none. I use the brake liberally. It's a Pavlovian response to having no desire to Big Foot a Deere, shove a disk up my engine, or kiss a tank of ammonia. Diving in urban traffic isn't any different. It makes no difference if it is the 1-10 in New Orleans, the I-35 Loop in Dallas, or the 1-5 in SoCal. Drive defensively as if every sob on the road is trying to kill ya - and you'll live to drive another day.