Is it just our perception, or are drivers increasingly ignoring traffic laws? We’re accustomed to driving the speed limit and having folks overtake us—that’s one thing. But it just seems that it goes beyond the, “I can drive five over and it shouldn’t be a big deal” attitude. Traffic lawbreakers seem to be adopting the old beer slogan—“Go for the gusto!” and don’t worry about who else might go with you.
Traffic lawbreakers—our own recent experiences
This weekend, we were motoring down Arizona’s Highway 95. The traffic was fairly light, and there was a motorhome ahead of us. The RVer stopped for a traffic light, and a pickup rolled to a stop behind the motorhome. We were coming to a stop behind the pickup when that driver crammed it in reverse, then pulled into the lane to the right of the motorhome. The driver just kept going, making a left turn in front of the stopped motorhome. That red light was still red.
That’s just one part of a stretch of roadway that we’ve begun to dread having to drive. In the last two weeks, we’ve watched as drivers belt down the 55-mile-per-hour stretch, easily doing 80 or more.
And no passing zones? Evidently, those funny solid yellow lines on their side of the center marker are open for interpretation. A few months ago, a semi-truck passed us, crossing over a clearly marked “no passing” indicator. There was no clear line of sight as to oncoming traffic, but before he was clear of our rig, the driver must have spotted danger. Had we not dodged to the shoulder of the highway, that semi-driver would have taken us out.
Some frightening statistics
Going faster than the speed limit may get you there sooner. It may also get you to the mortician’s office sooner. In 2022, the last year for which nationwide statistics were available, 12,151 people died as a result of a speeding driver. Put another way, more than 33 people were killed EACH DAY in a speed-related crash.
What about those who figure that the “Go for the gusto” attitude shouldn’t preclude them from having a few beers (or other alcohol) and taking to the road? Again, in 2022, 13,524 lives were lost because of drunk drivers.
LEO sees an attitude issue
Maybe it’s attitude. We spoke with a retired Arizona law enforcement officer. He said that he’s seen an interesting change in attitude among people. He shared a couple of experiences that had come up in just the last few weeks. In one case, he mentioned to a younger woman that he had encountered an unmarked police vehicle, staking out a traffic intersection where stop-sign running was common. The young woman told this ex-cop, “Well, you know, you don’t have to stop if an unmarked police car tries to pull you over.” When asked where she learned this interesting “fact,” she replied, “Well, everybody knows it. You just don’t have to stop.”
On another occasion, the retired LEO said he was talking with a young man who told him that if the police stopped him, he didn’t need to show them his driver’s license, nor other seemingly required documentation. Our friend was flabbergasted. “Where do you get this—you don’t have to show your license?” The young man replied he’d learned it from a YouTube video.
Somehow, it didn’t come as a surprise. We’ve seen a large number of videos lately on social media where the posters seem to be bragging about how they can “cop bait.” They film police officers and deliberately provoke confrontational situations to elicit a response. Perhaps they stand on a sidewalk and film a building until a manager comes out and confronts them. They then goad the person into calling the police. They then continue the filming as they argue out the finer points of the law. Yes, it may be legal to take video where they are, but it just seems the “flaunting” attitude and the seeming desire to goad anyone into stepping over the legal line of authority is increasingly front-and-center.
“It seems society has tipped”
Traffic lawbreakers don’t always push their way into a car crash, or worse. We wrote recently about how a number of states are trying to crack down on folks who use so-called license plate flippers. In the driver seat, one can push a button and your official license plate flips over, and a fake plate appears on the bumper. It’s apparently great if you want to evade paying a toll. Or perhaps speed in front of a speed cam, or run a red light in front of a red light camera.
In an opinion page posting in the Indiana Capital Chronicle, writer Niki Kelly ruminated on the seeming uptick in lawlessness. “I realize people will always break laws, but it seems society has tipped more that way in recent years. Scrolling through social media is full of videos where people are beating each other up and bystanders cheer. And, often, the comments are encouraging the vigilante behavior.”
Kelly wondered, “Shouldn’t they be calling the police instead of taking a video?”
Tailgater adds us to the statistics
It got a wee bit too personal for us a couple of weeks ago. Down that same stretch of Arizona 95 we went. For several miles, a semi-truck paced us, often way too close for our comfort. We crossed out of Arizona and into California to an area where we were boondocking. The semi was still behind us, and close.
With a left-hand turn ahead of us, crossing the oncoming lane on the two-lane highway, we were pretty concerned that we might have to stop and wait to cross traffic with the big rig behind us. We breathed a sigh of relief when we saw there was no oncoming traffic, but even so, our turn signal went on a quarter-mile before the turn.
That sigh of relief was short-lived, and turned into an outcry. The semi mashed right into us, shoving us on into our turn. Thank goodness there was no oncoming traffic.
We were both hurt, and the car is a lot worse for wear. Our “run in” with a traffic lawbreaker just makes us one more statistic. Some 2.5 million rear-end accidents happen in the U.S. each year.
How about you? Have you noticed an increase in traffic lawbreakers? Please comment below.
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##RVT1203b
Yes! The drivers out there are totally nuts and rude. At least there are a few of us “normal” drivers out there.
I just dread hitting a larger city, especially in my motor home.
Yes it has gotten substantially worse over the years. According to statistics from the NCSHP nearly 30% of the vehicles on the road on any given day are being operated illegally. That doesn’t include traffic violations.
People have forgotten that driving is a PRIVILEGE! Even if your license is suspended or revoked people will continue to drive anyway.
My job required driving an average of 50k miles a year. Just about the time I thought I had seen it all someone would prove me wrong.
All you can do is drive as defensively as possible, have a dash cam, good insurance and pray.
Agreed, folks just ignore signs as a whole, with that making up the rules of the road as they go. This is very evident as I witness over the eight years living in Arizona, by far the worst drivers I ever encountered stateside or overseas!
How many of the bad drivers in Arizona are snowbirds?
When I lived in Tucson, a lot of them were snowbirds.
I’m sorry to hear that you were hurt. I’m getting to where I don’t want to travel anymore more. These people are so out of control and some days I wish social media did not exist.
Actually, sometimes it seems like they’re in control!
I’ve had people pass me on the interstate highway on the berm of the road. I constantly see people going thru red lights and rolling thru stop signs. Plus drivers not observing yield signs. Why should Americans observe the law when our presidents and politicians don’t. Examples start from the top.
Exactly.
Hopefully you didn’t pull a muscle with that stretch.
I’m assuming you meant the 46th president.
I have a stop sign right in front of my house at a 3 way stop intersection. It’s not uncommon to see 90% of the vehicles going straight through the intersection without even slowing down and usually speeding. What’s worse, the local law enforcement doesn’t seem to care.
A possibility for why so many people ignore traffic laws is the mountain of debt they carry, the cost of living and the realization that they will never ‘get ahead.’ People are stressed out and their driving shows it!
And yet people think tariffs will help
You have that 100% on Ron.
Ron, you’ve been paying tariffs your entire life on anything imported. Clearly, you’re not aware of it and have just been awakened by a hostile media continuously pushing a failing agenda. Look up “Harmonized System”; I was an importer for over 40 years, I know.
Another heads up, EVERY single president since Jefferson has imposed tariffs; up until the time of income taxes, it was how our gov’t was funded. Lastly, you don’t seem aware that Biden not only kept Trump tariffs in place, but actually ADDED more of his own. Where was your selective outrage then? I’m honestly curious….
Amen.
We’ve definitely noticed more people breaking road laws. The worst are the tail-gaters when we’re minding the speed limit, and they don’t want to. Then there’s the speeders who pass everyone they can, cutting off others in the process,not to mention those who pass in ‘no passing’ zones. Every time we go on an errand, it becomes an adventure as we watch for the law-breakers to potentially cause us trouble.
The amount of punks…young and old…who run the highways at 80-90 mph in their jacked up monster trucks with straight pipes is mind boggling. Cops….hahaha…nowhere to be found.
So the only people who drive bad drive monster trucks? REALLY
I think the lawless attitude has definitely taken over our country. We have a felon for a president so it’s open season for everyone except of course immigrants who are here illegally.
Why did you have to make your comment political?
See the comment by mrpavet, below, for your answer.
Because everything is political with him
Why not. Its the truth.
Totally true. The president sets the example that you can ignore the law, norms, and authority any time you want…
Yes he has. If it’s good for one, it’s good for all.
And the last administration? Many of their actions overturned in courts as well and millions upon millions of sanctioned illegal entries that brought major metros to their financial knees, caused chaos and even citizen deaths.
But, that’s your party, so that was OK. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
Actually, it would just be better if RVTravel disallowed all political comments and frankly, quit occassionally baiting them. Maybe we’d all be happier.
Hi, Mikal. It doesn’t matter what we write about or how we say it– everything seems to turn into a political debate.🤨 Have a great day. 😀 –Diane
That includes 46 and the left.
Could not have said it better. This all started in 2016
Hogwash.
I concur…100%.
I fall into the category of speeding. I drive a city cab. Hard to do pickups and drop offs anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minutes. It seems like I’m always behind picking people up. I tell our dispatchers we need more time between pickups and drop offs but it falls on deaf ears. The town where I drove in the cops pretty much leave us alone. Once I am done with work I watch my speed. I live in a town of 9,000 people.
The “dispatch” issue is one in common with the trucking industry. My inlaws were team OTR truckers (this was some time ago.) Many times the delivery times given them could never be done by following speed or rest requirement laws. That was before electronic log tracking. I can still remember my FIL “completing” his log book days after being home. Until the companies that engage in this activity are dealt with, the Truckers pay the price.
We live in Arizona and are well aware of the changes in driving habits. It angers me that people show a complete disregard for safety and the law. Red lights and stop sign running, 30 mph over posted speed limits. But it is telling when our state legislators are exempt from speeding tickets! And unfortunately our law enforcement agencies are often at a disadvantage when trying to enforce the law for various reasons mentioned in the article and comments.
On a decent trip from MN to AZ and back, I was shocked by the rudeness of the modern day, so called “professional drivers” (truckers). It has become a stressful, nightmare to be on the road with them.
Most of these “drivers” are young and inexperienced, and I hate to say, foreigners. They are paid by miles driven, so the faster they get to their destination, the more they make.
You can blame the trucking companies for this problem.
I am also a proponent of red light and traffic cameras. The police cannot be everywhere, but cameras can.
We have a convenience store/gas station near us, and two people had died while trying to cross the road. Both incidents were because the drivers ran a red light.
Ironically, one was in a school zone while the signs were lit.
Agreed Bob…..they should be at all controlled intersections.
Look at many of the drivers…their head gear alone tells the story.
I always enjoyed stopping the “I don’t have to id myself” or the “Im not driving, I’m travelling” individual. I would take out my stop sticks, place them behind and in front of their tire, explain that any attempt by them to leave the stop would result in flattened tires. Id, if they had a valid one, was almost always produced.
It seems the “Rules of the road” are now considered as mere suggestions! Stopping at red lights are thought of as optional, making right turns onto exits from 3 lanes over, merging into 60MPH traffic at 35MPH etc, etc. Watch any cop show and a large percentage of their traffic stops involve people that haven’t had a license for years. I knew a guy that got 4 tickets – at $200 dollars each, by speed cameras in a school zone and can’t understand why the city keeps bothering him. Hasn’t figured it out they’re trying to tell him to slow down. Morons! And it’s getting worse every day.
Just returned from Phoenix, home of the most dangerous drivers, IMHO. Idiots. Everyone wants to be there before you. Days after days of freeway crashes and closures. Plus, there is a lot of cars being driven around that folks don’t bother repairing after an accident. There are some real beaters on the streets of Phoenix. No. It’s not Grand Theft Auto or video game driving!
I’m 73 years old and have seen driving practices degrade for years. Stop signs mean nothing, people slow down and if nobody is coming they just roll right thru. Stop lights used to mean red = stop, yellow = start stopping, green = go. It seems now yellow = step on it so I don’t have to stop. No passing zone? What the heck I can make it. I not only remember when cars came with turn signals, I remember when people actually used them. Freeway speed is 70MPH and there are idiots going 80MPH+ weaving back and forth with no regard for other drivers. Heck in our state kids don’t even have to pass a drivers ed class. Thanks for letting me vent. 🙂
I hear you 5×5.
Gary is right in my opinion. This is a culmination of poor requirements and poor policing for decades. Eventually you end up where we are.
Poor policing? Hard to issue tickets when they are so often tossed out, or reduced in a plea bargain.
I agree with Gary 100%, I used to drive OTR and when I started in 83 we were a brother hood out there and people respected us and we respected them, now it’s every man for himself, no one cares about anyone other than themselves, I retired and now I have a class A and I still travel but now I stay closer to home, I no longer go long distances besides the traffic and idiots out there trucks and cars alike the price of gas is crazy, especially at 7 mpg.
Here in Nevada ( Las Vegas) they are trying to bring in red light cameras ( for the 3rd or 4 time ) at intersections that incur the most red-light runners. These civil liberties excuses frustrate me for not doing it. Should have been this way years ago. Not a day goes by that I don’t see someone running one.
The headline claims more drivers are ignoring traffic laws and yet just cites 2 data points from 2022. What is this claim based on?
1. Drive defensively
2. Buy a good dash cam.
Some professional drivers are paid by the hour, others by the mile, and others by the load. While there are many very courteous pro drivers; that attitude seemingly decreases in the above order. To be fair, I’ve seen a few RVers who also need to go back to remedial driving school.
And I have known for a long time that RVs who pay attention to the speed rating on their tires are not welcome on the Interstate. We do our darndest to avoid them. In some places the only alternative is either very long work around or roads that can be difficult or dangerous for RVs.
My husband has been a commercial truck driver for 23 yrs & has definitely noticed 4-wheeler AND 18-wheeler drivers getting dumber & more reckless. Somehow, there are truck drivers with US-issued CDLs who can’t even read or speak English – exponentially increasing semi-related accidents. BUT they can look at their fans while driving just like too many other drivers!
I want to reply to see if you’re both going to be OK. I’m sad for your car and yourselves. Take care.
According to the NHTSA, the number of traffic fatalities has decreased for 10 consecutive quarters.
Source: https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/car-crash-statistics/
It’s easy to count off the dozens of poor drivers encountered daily while dismissing the hundreds that drove by without incident. Especially as highways become increasingly congested.
Big shift in attitude. If they put a thug in the white house, they can be a thug on the road.
The thug, his cocaine addled son, and their entire criminal enterprise were booted last November. How did you miss that?
Good one Dodger! 5 Thumbs-up for that one.
What’s in your left handed cigarette?
Right on.
Social Media needs to be outlawed.
AMEN.
We have wintered in AZ for the last 3 years. Tombstone, and now Casa Grande. Horrible fatal accidents at least once a week in either place, more of them here in Casa Grande though. At least 3 times a day there are EMTs, fire engines and LEOs rushing to the next carnage on the pavement on Pinal Blvd. I was in the suicide lane coming up to my turn when a lifted, loud extended cab 4×4 turned left right in front me. I locked up the brakes on my Jeep and barely avoided him.
I drive very defensively in anything I drive.
Agreed…those ignorant punks need a good lesson and be made to walk with no drivers license.
It has been getting worse for years. I got rear-ended 25+ years ago, because I actually stopped for a red light. I’ve watched people ignore the stop sign across from our house for 35 years.
At first, I thought it was just my new home area, but driving elsewhere changed my mind on that – it’s bad everywhere.
I believe that this attitude started during Covid. The traffic was very light & everyone knew that police enforcement was non existent! After Covid many kept driving like idiots & enforcement is still nearly non existent.
It’s not just one area or state, it’s nationwide! 😢
As a retired 35 years State Trooper, I can say drivers have become increasingly more aggressive. There may be many reasons for this behavior, but in years past the moderator was aggressive law enforcement. Today I rarely see a police vehicle, much less on a traffic stop. Once there is no consequence for bad behavior, some will take advantage. NHTSA stats are not the tell all. Lack of enforcement is a result of politicians redirecting resources away from this service.
For DT being the cause, I can assure you this bad behavior didn’t start four months ago by only half of this Nations people.
GeorgeB, You are absolutely right. We hardly ever see police vehicles on the east coast roads anymore.
Entitlement minded people living up to their highest levels of self-importance.
Well said sir
Glad Russ and Tiña are ok. We too were driving our motorhome south on 95 in AZ two days ago and three drivers passed us in clearly signed no passing zones with double solid yellow line. I slow down so they can pass quickly, or one car might not have made it. And it does seem to happen a lot more often recently. We didn’t experience that during our trip from San Diego to BC Canada and back last summer. There are some everywhere who drive like they’re in a video game – however there are no extra lives in the real world.
When coming to a signal when it turns red… be sure to always follow your mirrors and who is behind you. We watched a guy who had planned to run the red,,, but the car in front of him stopped for the red. The guy who was running the light DIED. His daughter did live. People in front (law abiding one) seriously hurt. If all states had a few seconds or 15 seconds where both were red. Then it would have been better to run that red rather than car so close behind you….not hitting you. Tough decisions. Be aware of all cars around you.
All traffic lights have a delay when one turns red. About 4 seconds … maybe not long enough.
Now a Winter Floridian for over a half-dozen years I’ve found the traffic on I-65, 24, and 75 downright scary in recent years. Speed limit is 70 but everyone seems to be in the 80-90 mph range. As a retired firefighter I’ve seen my share of mangled bodies. Talking with the new EMS/ALS crews, the number dying and with severe injuries has skyrocketed. It’s making me consider getting another car – one north and one south – and flying down and back. Driving isn’t what it used to be. Be careful out there. The life you save could be your own!
Eager lawbreakers? — that’s easy — when our “government” thinks it’s OK for millions of illegal people to enter our country … break our laws … live the good life on OUR dime … are you kidding? And now some states (and judges) are fighting our president who is trying hard to bring peace to the country. I’m trying to figure out why George Soros is so eager for a civil war.
YOUR president is making a huge mess…period.
Is traffic and rude driving really that much worse? or do we just complain more?
Driven thru Memphis lately?
No, but I live in the Tampa area where I-75, I-275 and I-4 all meet. The traffic has become insane in the last 56 years since we moved here, but I don’t see that reckless driving and breaking traffic laws is any worse than it was, per number of vehicles/people on the road.
Try the spaghetti bowl in Las Vegas…you will see both in action.
Our Interstate Junction is referred to as Malfunction Junction. The local news even refers to it as that.
I agree. Just the other day I slowly stopped at a red light on a busy highway intersection when I was startled by a screaming loud motorcycle passing my left side so closely that I don’t know how he avoided contact. But he made a right turn in front of me with full throttle and cornering that bike about 30 degrees off the road right through the red light just taking a chance that there was no vehicles accelerating when their light was green. He(or she) was very lucky this time!
BTW-I appreciate your articles and I hope you weren’t badly injured when the semi hit your car.
Driver’s Ed and Training in many school systems has been eliminated, altogether in the state of CA and other states also. Obtaining a driver’s license has become pay your way, which also means less instruction and accelerated classes, which means less impression and less testing. Buuuut, then again…the near total breakdown of societal norms and morality may have something to do with it .
Rules do not mean much anymore. We have a felon in the Whitehouse. He doesn’t follow the rules or have consequences for his actions. So no one else does either. I feel bad for us and the cops.
Hope you’re both OK!
There apparently is a shortage of semi drivers, see the plea on the rear of every trailer, AND there are reports of recruiting illegal immigrants to operate the tractors.
My understanding is the shortage of semi drivers is due in large part to issues in the trucking industry–trucking companies that don’t pay well, harsh driver conditions (not being paid while waiting on loads, but can’t really go to sleep) and so on. The drivers I see at the truck stops on I-80 in northern Cali are a special breed–they are nasty, impatient, inconsiderate, etc. Not sure if that’s a culture difference specific to their country of origin or if the trucking industry can only recruit the worst people ever these days.
As long as the fines for traffic violations remain so small, and are so often dismissed because of some minor issue or a good lawyer, nothing is going to change. Fines should be based on the violators taxable income, so it hurts in the pocketbook. A $150 fine for someone with $150,000 income is of no consequence. Repeat offenders should see fines increased drastically. Second offense, base fine x 2. Third offense, base fine x 3, etc.
I used to think the same. The problem with that logic, however, is that the police would be incentivized to focus on pulling over drivers who appear to have more money–those in expensive cars, or in nice neighborhoods. Might be better to put them to work in community service–maybe scrubbing bloodstains off the highway after a fatal accident.
This is what happens when you give 10 million people a license thanks to motor voter registration that can’t read or write English, an let’s not wonder why a rise in measles and TB.
As a child when we traveled we stayed in hotels. Now you read horror stories of “bed bugs”. It was more of a joke then. Now it is a reality. Gee, I wonder where they came from?
Sounds like you’re doing the famous Quartzsite-to-Parker or Yuma-to-Quartzsite drives. My RV friends and I have been talking about how the last few years, semis don’t give a flying #@($ about how long it takes them to pass a car on that road. I kinda dread it too, in the motorhome. I’ll make my last one of those drives for the season tomorrow. Yes, it’s awful. And so are so many of the new wave of truckers on the roads, especially since that job has gone so far downhill in recent years.
If you play in traffic you are going to get hit. The more you drive the higher the probability of being in an accident. I know it is fun driving around but you spend too much time on the road.
Decent. law-abiding drivers should be able to use the roads without having to worry about the idiots out there who think that “rules are for losers”. Maybe they need to start cracking down more, with heavier fines and even jail time for repeat offenders.
Triple the number of citations by police and this issue would end. But cops are “too busy.” Too busy for dark windows, no front plate, rolling right turns on red, “only 15 mph” above limit, no turn signal etc.
The cops are “busy” since there are not enough to patrol every mile of the highways and still keep the general public safe.
Simple, slow down and follow the rules. Going 10mph over the speed limit won’t get you there much quicker, if at all when traffic starts to bottle neck.
Since I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s people have become more rude and more self centered. There a few reasons for this. You hear people say, I know my rights, but no one ever taught them about their responsibilities. The other thing is lack of punishment. When I went to school, even if your parents didn’t discipline you, you got disciplined in school. We didn’t have school shootings back then because you knew if you did something wrong, you would get punished immediately. In elementary school, most boys carried pocket knives but no one got stabbed. In high school, many older kids brought their rifles or shotguns to school to go hunting afterwards. No one got shot. Times have changed.
I’m really sorry you both got hurt. ( and scared half to death!). People seem to do whatever they feel like these days … rules are for thee but not for me!
Thank you for the information, Russ and Tina! I am sorry that y’all were both injured and your car as well. I guess one needs both a forward-facing camera AND a rear-facing camera just to document the stupid arrogance of others. 🙁 Hopefully y’all got enough information and evidence to put the truck driver into a lengthy “time-out.” Hope your car gets fixed soon, too! I guess Cole Porter was prescient (https://youtu.be/r7NJ9ylAhos?feature=shared). 🙁 Have a great week and safe travels!
I am one of those drivers who tends to drive less than 10mph above the speed limit because I hate being passed by big rigs. Lately, even doing 9 mph over the highway speed limit, I have big rigs passing me — and this is in urban areas! When towing my RV, I drive more slowly, of course, and then I have to contend with tailgaters who get so close I can’t see them. Since covid began, the road rage/ or road recklessness has become much worse.
One reason I have a rear camera and a dashcam.
If police would enforce the posted speed limit, people will slow down. Instead they give you 15 mph over or about that.
The problem is the police can’t be everywhere. Plus when one vehicle is speeding, the rest follow suit. Who is he going to pull over?
I just got back from shopping at big box store about 10 miles down the highway. I was driving 60 in a 55 zone.
There was a patrol car in the median. Everyone slowed but then sped up again. 1/2 mile down the road red lights were flashing. Seems there was a second Leo lying in wait.
I am 100% in favor of traffic and red light cameras.
Proof is in the picture.
Lawlessness is increasing dramatically especially with the political sources calling for violence and protests against authority.
Speeders are everywhere. While traveling and towing our fifth wheel, our speed stays at about 60-65 MPH. For a huge percentage of auto, truck and motorcycle drivers, the speed limits are just suggestions, not to be taken seriously. The city we live in was a medium-sized town and now with housing costs much lower, the Los Angeles drivers have been moving to our city, and now the speeds have gone sky high, and stop signs or lights are not to be taken as laws, they’re just impediments to many drivers rush to get to somewhere.
I believe it used to be called “self-discipline”, which seems to be almost non-existent on the roads today.
I know AZ Hwy 95 too well—2yr ago relocated to Bullhead City AZ and quickly realized it is a take your life into your own hands road. No one follows posted speed limit, or at least 75% do not. Posted speed limit thru town is too fast @45mph, everyone uses center turn lane as a pull in to and merge right lane, and dancing in and out of lanes just to be first—I could go on. I have two neighbors that were rear ended-sound familiar?