POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Physics, geometry, psychology of "no-swerve-to-left" laws in traffic. (US) : Physics, geometry, psychology of "no-swerve-to-left" laws in traffic. (US) Server Time
4 Sep 2024 15:17:35 EDT (-0400)
  Physics, geometry, psychology of "no-swerve-to-left" laws in traffic. (US)  
From: gregjohn
Date: 31 Dec 2009 11:00:00
Message: <web.4b3cc9ba141aa2f634d207310@news.povray.org>
I had to go to traffic school about 20 years ago while living in the state of
Florida. Basically everyone with a moving violation in the past quarter was
assembled to take a safety class in order to avoid certain license or insurance
penalties.  One young lady said her crime was to swerve to the left in order to
save her life. She said a car was coming right at her, into her lane, and so she
had to swerve left.  She said the police officer who came to the scene gave her
a very severe penalty, specifically  for swerving left.  I guess the rationale
was it was better to get hit in your own lane than to create new hazards for
folks in the other lane.  I always thought it was a dubious law, or a dubious
telling of it.

Anyway, today on my way to work on a snowy day, I suddenly found a car sliding
sideways into my lane.  Instinctively, I swerved and ended up in someone's yard
on the left side of the road, avoiding all injury and damage to the car chassis.
But of course, I "swerved left."   I suppose there could have been two more cars
in the left lane, and it could have led to a pile-up, in theory.

Has anyone ever heard of such a proscription about swerving? Does it make sense
to instill a general habit in the populace?


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