I grew up in CA in one of the most popular cruising areas around.
Cruising was simply just being out, being seen, and checking everyone out. Yeah, if you had a cool car it was a bonus, but it never really mattered what you showed up in. Yelling at your friends when you passed, pulling over to grab a burger when you saw some friends doing the same, it was just a big hangout scene. Bumper-to-bumper traffic on Friday and Saturday nights on about a mile or so of road from about 8-11 pm. It was a big tradition for decades in our town, people from outside towns and even larger areas would come hang out.
No, it wasn’t all innocent. Always some fuckers gotta start shit. Aggro assholes starting fights because reasons. Looked at each other wrong. Revved an engine too loud. Tailgated. Whatever, stupid fuckers. Drinking. Gangs were a pretty big thing and they’d show up and start some gang shit sometimes. Got pretty bad and they lowered the banhammer because they got sick of dealing with the assholes and killed cruising.
Newsom signed AB 436, which will prohibit cities from enacting new laws restricting the display of customized classic cars by cruising on city streets.
Not sure what the point is. “New laws”. There’s already a shitload of laws banning cruising, so it seems worthless to stop water that’s already passed under the bridge.
He’s getting ready to run for president and wants all the positive press to make him likable by the GQP. That’s the only reason for any of these new laws he has signed recently.
Demographics indicate that repubs are mostly car lovers due to their comservative nature and don’t want to replace cars with public transportation. Cruising is right up there.
I live where that was filmed. McHenry is gonna suck even harder if people start cruising again. Shit’s already got a lot of traffic without people just driving around for the hell of it.
I like clean air and a quiet neighborhood. Shame they can’t understand that. However i understand that no one would even acknowledge their existence if they weren’t obnoxious because they are losers.
Sorry, but IDGaF about Newsome anymore. He has been vetoing some good bills lately, and while this is probably long overdue for repeal, it feels like a wink to oil companies in light of his other recent actions.
Pander harder, Gavin. Unless you demonstrate a better pattern of behavior, you won’t get my vote in the primaries.
Controversial opinion here, I have no problems with speed cameras. Speed cameras only ticket people breaking the law unbiasedly. The easiest way to not get a speeding ticket, is to not speed. That’s it.
My only problem is when the ticket is set to low, as in a ticket is issued within 10% or the speed limit. There has to be room for error between speedometer, tire size, and just human error.
If you can’t maintain a reasonable speed in the posted area, then you shouldn’t be on the road. If you can and you excessively speed anyway, then fuck you, take your ticket.
This opinion comes from someone who consistently speeds, but keeps it in relatively close.
Imo it’s just a bullshit revenue generator, and an invasion of privacy/expansion of the surveillance state. Cops should only be focused reckless drivers, drunk drivers, and people on their phones that are actually putting people in danger. Someone accidentally doing 35 in a 25 isn’t a danger. I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket in over a decade, and I’m a very safe driver. I can almost guarantee once these go into effect, they will put them in places where the flow of traffic is generally not going the speed limit on most days, and just rake in money. I’ll probably start getting tickets, and it will impact my insurance premiums.
How often do you “accidentally” go 10 mph over the speed limit, especially in locations that you frequently travel? I live in a state that has speed and red light cameras. In my city I can specifically point to at least 7, 2 on my commute to work. I’ve never got a ticket from any of them. Legally, there has to be signs around that say there is photo enforcement. If you’re paying attention to the road, like you should be when driving, there is almost no excuse for getting a speed camera ticket. Sure it’s a revenue generator, and I very much subscribe to, “all cops are bad” but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s enforcing laws with absolutely no bias. I’ve never seen a traffic camera shoot an unarmed civilian at a routine traffic stop and they are effective at slowing traffic in those areas, anecdotally speaking.
Not arguing with your main point, but “absolutely no bias” is a stretch. The camera itself may not be biased, but other factors like camera placement, street design, and fines that aren’t scaled to income mean they still disproportionately impact black, brown, and poor people.
Highway 280 in the bay area was designed for high speed driving according to my uncle who was a caltrans engineer. He says it was designed for 80 mph speed limit in some parts. I’m trying to find a source on that, but found mostly reddit posts saying the same. If you go 65, you will be tailgated. Some people here call it “Do 80” and the traffic flows at 75 -80 mph. The people who are actually putting people in danger on that road will be going 90+. Highway 5 as well as highway 99 traffic routinely flows at a higher rate of speed than the posted speed limit as well. 10 mph is negligible for highway driving imo. I rarely even look at my speedometer when driving, just go with the flow, move to the right if someone is coming up driving faster, pass on the left when applicable. That’s how it should be, not having people try to focus on going some arbitrary number. People should be focusing on the road, not the speedometer. The biggest danger to drivers and pedestrians is people under the influence, people on their phones, and reckless drivers who change lanes frequently and tailgate people. We should be focusing our efforts there if we want safer roads, but the state doesn’t want that, they want revenue. Instead of going after true nuisance drivers, their solution is to put cameras that catch anyone going above an arbitrary number and give them a ticket. It’s bullshit.
I can almost guarantee once these go into effect, they will put them in places where the flow of traffic is generally not going the speed limit on most days
So you are saying they will put these cameras in places where a lot of people are breaking the speed limit?
That’s not how speed limits work. They are legally required to be raised if traffic is going faster:
“Once the road is built, engineers will evaluate the existing speeds by measuring the operating speed. They often do this by measuring the speed that 85 percent of drivers are travelling at or below, called 85th percentile speed.”
Tell me 1 instance of a freeway that raised speed in recent years. Practically every freeway in CA that’s not the 5 has a 65 mph limit. Traffic absolutely doesn’t flow at that speed on a bunch of them.
No, I’m saying we have low speed limits relative to what’s actually a safe driving speed, and putting a camera there to punish everyone for driving as they normally do is a shitty move.
He’s out of his mind if he thinks any conservative is going to be interested in him as a centrist. Just the word “California” makes conservatives in my area shudder.
What has? The article literally never explains what the fuck it’s talking about. I would assume it’s not referring to the common English definition of turning on cruise control.
If you’re referring to your magnum dong, congrats. If your referring to my magnum dong, we might have different definitions of the word, ‘magnum’. Anyways, can I offer you an egg in these trying times?
Look, you can’t just go around scattering magnum condoms on the floor if you don’t have a magnum dong. She’ll end up disappointed and you’ll have to D.E.N.N.I.S your way out of it.
Cruising is just driving around a given area, showing off your car, talking about cars, doing general car guy shit. Imagine it being illegal to drive your car around the block where a bunch of people are hanging out.
But of course it's something that's selectively enforced. You will absolutely never see a cop roll up on a classic car night at whatever local burger joint hosts one unless said burger joint just happens to be in an area that's not majority white. Middle aged mayo motherfuckers such as myself have zero issues. It was and always has been a cudgel against minorities, like a FUCKING TON of laws that were enacted in the 50's.
But given that it’s really not about a homosexual mating ritual, I guess it’s still different from just driving from A to B? Like are they blocking traffic by driving intentionally slow, swerving, not using their turn signals? I assume there would be some kind of element to it that makes other people want to see it banned?
Yeah... it's an easy way to harass Hispanic and Black people while selectively not enforcing it against white people.
Those oh-so-amazing 50's just happened to be full of racist-ass laws enacted by the racist-ass "greatest generation" after they got back from PTSDland with nothing but alcohol and spousal abuse to help them cope.
One of the more interesting things about it is that the busses have to cross over each other so the doors are on the correct side for passenger pickup, which is REALLY FUCKING CONFUSING when you don't know that and you're watching the southbound traffic fly past a northbound bus stop.
I can't dump on it too much though. There are definitely worse uses for the anus of an interchange.
Here are the two most significant paragraphs that were removed:
The ordinance or resolution adopted pursuant to this subdivision shall regulate cruising, which is the repetitive driving of a motor vehicle past a traffic control point in traffic that is congested at or near the traffic control point, as determined by the ranking peace officer on duty within the affected area, within a specified time period and after the vehicle operator has been given an adequate written notice that further driving past the control point will be a violation of the ordinance or resolution.
[…]
It is unlawful to operate any passenger vehicle, or commercial vehicle under 6,000 pounds, which has been modified from the original design so that any portion of the vehicle, other than the wheels, has less clearance from the surface of a level roadway than the clearance between the roadway and the lowermost portion of any rim of any wheel in contact with the roadway.
I have absolutely no idea what this is defining cruising as. What even is repetitive driving? Whats a traffic control point? Google is bringing up military stuff.
I see you've never been in Alabama on a Friday night.
Ok just kidding. There's a diff. In Alabama there's so little to do people would hop in each other's cars and just drive slow around the block, usually around some central point like a Mcdonald's.
In Cali it's to showoff. This caused some.. problems. Traffic, yeah, they called it traffic.
Don’t bother with the socket set they are usually one way. Unless you have the opposite direction socket? Regardless go steal that shit before it ends up in a dumpster.
In my small town we had two drive in restaurants (Sonic and a local joint), people would drive from the one on the South side of town to the one on the North side. We would stop at one or the other for a short time and look for friends or to try and plan a party somewhere.
It's not even a mostly Black or Latino thing. It's a car guy thing in general. You'll just never see white boys in 1970 Challengers being pulled over for doing it.
My dad has tons of stories of cruise nights from when he lived in SoCal in the 70's. Various drag racers and celebrities he'd run into. Nothing about being arrested, even though he looks like Tommy Chong. Then again I think most dudes looked like Tommy Chong in the 70's...
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