Radar detectors allowed in Germany?(rant)

[Brett Dikeman]

At 5:46 PM +0200 5/30/01, Ero Rademer wrote:

>
>So long, have a nice trip, and don't forget: No right turn
>on red except there is a green arrow on a tinny plate...

Ha.  Any New England driver knows how to handle this.  It seems to 
vary on the following scales(with each subsequent scale overriding 
the previous):

-which state you're in
-which county
-which town
-which particular intersection(signage)
-whether there's a cop around
-how big, mean and scary the guy behind you looks, who is honking his 
horn because he can't see the "no turn on red" sign.  Weapons 
immediately make ANY intersection right-turn-at-full-throttle.


I'm a Boston/MA native, so I know the rules well there...turn on red 
is valid, along with passing on the right, the left...driving through 
pedestrian strips is perfectly alright until the person is half-way 
across the road...10 points for jaywalkers(for example, NEVER jaywalk 
in Weston town center.  You do not want to come face-to-grill with 
someone who has just had to stop 4 times in 300 feet to let people 
cross, only to find you, unprotected, a crosswalk 15 feet to one 
side.  Some people even EXPECT you to yield, even if they're not 
standing in a crosswalk.  Horns, followed by "frikin moron!", is 
particularly effective.

The real doozy was the guy who was biking down a narrow street...the 
wrong way.  Most intelligent people know it goes:
-bike with traffic
-run against traffic

Well, this guy thought it was BIKE against traffic.  I explained this 
to him, both of us doing about 15-20mph down the road. 
"Well....WELL...F$CK YOU!"

   I didn't need to retort; a rather surprised person coming around a 
corner in a car handled it veeeery nicely.  By some amazing luck(why 
does it always go to the idiots, so they can spread their genes?) he 
managed to avoid getting creamed, only to continue on the wrong side 
of the road while the driver remained stopped, probably had the life 
scared out of 'em.


Last week, I came around a corner(doing the speed limit, 25, thank 
you very much) only to find, about 10-20 feet after the blind curve, 
one Mercedes E320 with two people, one with her head stuck in the 
driver's side window, talking to the driver.  No flashers on.  Plenty 
of space on the side of the road.  Still in the middle of the curve, 
I put on my flashers, and stayed put(there was a second blind corner 
30 feet ahead, and I was not about to put myself on the wrong side of 
the road to end up having a 40mph Expedition smack into me, thanks.) 
The couple, obviously very affluent, were royally pissed that I 
refused to simply go around them.  Finally they got the idea, and as 
I passed, I said:
"It's a good thing I wasn't going any faster, I probably would have hit you."

"Well, HEY then!  Slow the hell down!  Hey!  Hey you!  SLOW DOWN!" 
He continued yelling after me as I drove off(obviously this makes him 
feel important in front of his wife and friends.)  I decided it 
wasn't worth the effort to stop the car and argue the point that I 
was perfectly legal(both in my speed, conduct, and refusal to enter 
the oncoming lane) and he(stopped, standing in the road, etc) was 
not.  This is, after all, the neighborhood where the residents kept 
putting up signs saying "SLOW DOWN CHILDREN."  Funny thing, but when 
I was little, I knew damn well to stay out of, and away from, the 
road...watch for cars if I was in/near the road, etc.  Instead of 
proper parenting, people try to force every person who drives by to 
go absurdly slow in case their undisciplined child decides to go 
running into the street.

B