In your opinion has rubbernecking in traffic situations gotten worse over the years?
Asked by
SQUEEKY2 (
23427
)
October 14th, 2018
Let me give a few examples that I have witnessed.
A while back heading east out of the lower mainland traffic was crawling stop and go 10kph max type thing, after a half hour of this we came across a boat cushion laying on the far left line of the passing lane, once past this evil cushion we all went back to highway speeds.
Just the other day heading west same highway we came to a crawl again, after while in this I noticed a tow truck picking up a broke down SUV in the east bound lanes, once past this we went back to highway speeds, why did our side of the highway have to slow down?
Now this one one heading west again we came to stop and go crawl along, after over half and hour in this we came across a cop giving an RV a ticket, after that we went back to highway speeds.
The law here is slow down to 70kph for emergency vehicles, and move over if you can, NOT stop and rubberneck the scene.
First responders get annoyed with these idiots stopping and gawking most times yelling at them to keep moving.
Has this become the norm in your area as well?
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12 Answers
Probably about the same, maybe a little worse.
The problem, as I see it, is that a law against rubbernecking is stupid and unenforceable. The police are working the wreck; no police force is out there trying to identify and catch rubberneckers – that would slow down traffic even more.
So it’s silly to have laws that can and will never be enforced. People know that and are going to continue to gawk out there car windows no matter what.
If you want to really stop the problem, then outlaw the actions that causes accidents in the first place. (Texting while driving, etc.)
Texting and driving has been illegal here for some time and people still do it.
We recently had a case of ultimate rubbernecking in the Netherlands.
A serious traffic accident happened, with severely injured people involved.
Some people on the other opposite direction stopped their vehicle, pulled out their smartphones, and photographed and filmed the happening….
On top of that, they were hindering the emergency responders, and messing with evidence tracks (by walking through the scene).
Sick.
My guess is that the roads are more congested, presenting more opportunities for incidents, and (much worse) many more rubberneckers. Just think about it, if there are twice as many people who “want to see” as there were 10 years ago the pileup before the “sights” must not only be longer, but much slower if the looky-lus all want that 2–3 second peek.
No, I’d say about the same ratio as always.
Why don’t these rubber necks realize they are backing up traffic for miles with their 3 second gawk?
Are they just stupid, or simply couldn’t give a shit?
My best guess?? Just stupid.
I am going to totally agree with you on that one.^
I don’t think that it happens more. I think there are many more people, and vehicles, and distractions. And at least in America, our infrastructure hasn’t come close to keeping up with population growth.
I don’t think it has gotten worse but with the proliferation of cell phone cameras I believe more people are trying to get pics and that makes it seem worse.
I think it’s about the same as it always has. It’s in our nature to examine unusual stuff, especially when it involves one of our own. But @rojo has a very good point.
@rojo Yeah we truckers were joking about that, these idiots have to get a picture to post to FB or instagram, or just email it to someone,and they are backing up traffic for miles just doing that.
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