no cops in the dark...

I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience during the power outage... I was driving the I90, which is of course not lighted so that experience should not have been different than usual. However, that couldn't have been further from the truth. Traffic was flying down the expressway. I soon realized that it was because everyone shared the belief that all on-duty police were manning traffic lights, getting people out of elevators, or guarding banks; certainly no one would be sitting behind bridges with radar guns. A few moments later I hear the same thoughts being expressed on a radio call in show. So I continued on at a nice clip. People were alert, signaling, etc. - Even with my son in the car, it was nice to have a little bit of an autoban in NY experience... I'd like to share an interesting observation. During my whole trip, I observed NOTHING that was an unsafe condition brought about by speed. Every problem that I saw (and due to the lack of a police presence, there were many) was the result of basic driver stupidity like unsafe lane changes etc... So why is it that the police always seem to focus on speed and tend to not care about the folks who change lanes unsafely, eat/drink/cell phone, etc... I haven't gotten a ticket in four or five years (and that one was a 40 something in a 35) and I'm not an advocate of free-for-all speed on the freeway, but this interesting situation made we wonder again why police enforcement (and quotas) always seem to be solely about speed when I think some of those other violations are much more problematic on a day to day basis.

Scott5, I had a similar experience...was flying along the Belt Parkway (which is normally unheard of due to traffic)...no cops...just a few REALLY bad drivers (I think the power outage effected many people's turn signals)...

Scott5, Good observations! The most common cause of accident is driving too closely...I talked to a Florida state trooper about why I never hear of anyone getting a ticket for this...his answer. "when i was a new cop, i'd write tickets for people following too closely and the judges would throw them out telling me that it was unreasonable to expect drivers to be able to keep a safe distance in areas where traffic is heavy (i.e. cities). So, I, like other police have adapted to what is more enforceable." I would imagine that many other violations are difficult to prove because there is not video, or some other means of "accurate" data collection. For example, I can hear a good attorney saying, "is it possible that my client used his turn signal, but you did not see it due to other traffic, blinking, etc." What about when they see a policeman...even if they are driving the speed limit, they will still hit their brakes. Lots of idiots out there! Or how unsafe police make the highways with their own "above the law" bad habits.