Minor things that bother you

[Scott5114]

When I see a Texas plate far away from Texas I assume rental car.

I always assume it's a Texan seeking out new and exciting places to complain about not being exactly like Texas.

Florida, though, I assume is a rental car.

[Rothman]

I want a "Remedium Homnibus" license plate now.

[thspfc]

When I see a Texas plate far away from Texas I assume rental car.

I always assume it's a Texan

. . . which is reasonable for someone that lived in Oklahoma for what I presume was a long time.

I base my assumptions off the observation that Texas plates are much more prominent in this area than California, Florida, and New York plates.

[SSOWorld]

The state I've seen on the plate of a rental most often was Florida, followed by Tennessee. The agency's going to go with the lowest bidder when possible, but there may be states out there that insist that the car be registered in said state.  Hawaii? It's obvious that you can't drive a car there, so Hawaii plates it is, as such with Alaska.

[Scott5114]

When I see a Texas plate far away from Texas I assume rental car.

I always assume it's a Texan

. . . which is reasonable for someone that lived in Oklahoma for what I presume was a long time.

I base my assumptions off the observation that Texas plates are much more prominent in this area than California, Florida, and New York plates.

There are way more Texans than you think there are, and they tend to travel by car more than you think they would.

The reason why I don't tend to think they're rentals is that my family rented cars in Oklahoma fairly often, and I can only think of one case where we got Texas plates, which you'd think would be common for an origin point so close to Texas. Normally they were Florida or Tennessee. (One trip to Vegas we rented a car with Florida plates, and the windshield cracked in the heat, so we swapped the car out for one that had Nevada plates. So I assume there's a random rental with Nevada plates bouncing around Oklahoma now.)

[kkt]

Normals often do care or have a perception, especially if they don't travel.  The only time my brother in law has been to California was for my wedding.  He grew up on a farm in Michigan hearing nothing about how California is supposed be nothing but a liberal hell hole.  Imagine his surprise getting off the plane at FAT only to be greeted by the John Deere display at the bottom of escalator.  Taking him to the tractor part depot and Sierra foothills changed his mind quick. 

Travel is good for people.

[vdeane]

Sidestepping politics, but there are a few combinations of "renting a car in state A, but its license plate is state B" where I'd ask for a different car. I definitely want to blend in.

You're spending way too much time on social media if you think regular people care about that.

It's well known that people from far away tend to get targeted for more police enforcement because they're less likely to contest the ticket (as they won't be nearby to go to traffic court).

[ZLoth]

Getting stuck for three hours on Westbound IH-30 between exits 81 and 79 in Royce City, TX because of an overturned 18-wheeler and all lanes blocked.

For three hours. With my mother.

[Bobby5280]

That doesn't sound like a "minor" thing at all. I'm sure there was a bunch of vehicles piling onto that part of I-30 from the new Buc-ee's nearby.

[Rothman]

Sidestepping politics, but there are a few combinations of "renting a car in state A, but its license plate is state B" where I'd ask for a different car. I definitely want to blend in.

You're spending way too much time on social media if you think regular people care about that.

It's well known that people from far away tend to get targeted for more police enforcement because they're less likely to contest the ticket (as they won't be nearby to go to traffic court).

I wonder how true this is nowadays, when some courts find it simpler to handle traffic violations without appearances at all, essentially handling non-guilty please through online portals and the mail.

[Takumi]

When I see a Texas plate far away from Texas I assume rental car.

I assume military, since I'm not far from an army base. I once saw a Noble M12 GTO-3R on Texas plates at a local strip mall. I'd safely assume that wasn't a rental.

[Plutonic Panda]

I think rental cars give themselves away. No bumper stickers, no license plate frames. Generally little to no tint. And the way people drive.

[oscar]

I just got an obvious scam text message claiming to be from "EZDriveMA" (what the?) claiming I must pay my unpaid tolls by today.

I received a roughly similar text message earlier today (Saturday), supposedly from FasTrak. Since it's been ages since I've been on a California toll road, I instantly reported the message as junk, though I didn't keep a copy.

[Rothman]

I think rental cars give themselves away. No bumper stickers, no license plate frames. Generally little to no tint. And the way people drive.

I don't know.  Those assumptions seem far too vague and would lead to overestimating rentals, I would think.

[formulanone]

I think rental cars give themselves away. No bumper stickers, no license plate frames. Generally little to no tint. And the way people drive.

I don't know.  Those assumptions seem far too vague and would lead to overestimating rentals, I would think.

Those qualifications might be 10-50% of all vehicles in a given day or random location.

[ZLoth]

Getting stuck for three hours on Westbound IH-30 between exits 81 and 79 in Royce City, TX because of an overturned 18-wheeler and all lanes blocked.

For three hours. With my mother.

That doesn't sound like a "minor" thing at all. I'm sure there was a bunch of vehicles piling onto that part of I-30 from the new Buc-ee's nearby.

Eastbound IH-30 was clear, it was westbound that was jammed. And, what do some vehicles do? Drive on the grassy median to the frontage road to escape. Isn't that... uh... illegal?

As time went on, the backup extended to almost exit 85. Here is a "News article". My mother and I were on the drive home from Mineola, TX where we ate at East Texas Burger. This was a journey that should have taken less than two hours to get home especially since we were taking the scenic route, and we are about 35 minutes away from home when we got stuck in traffic. Ofcourse, my mother had to start asking "Do we have enough gas?" which I responded that yes, we have ¾ of a tank of gas having stopped at the Royce City Buc-ees to top off on the way out. She then commented about how many people were running out of gas standing there as well as the truckers who weren't making money sitting there.

[Bobby5280]

Eastbound IH-30 was clear, it was westbound that was jammed.

I got turned around. Derp. Maybe some of the motorists were trying to get to that Buc-ee's at the WB I-30 Exit 79 ramp.

Either way, emergency responders should have been more Johnny-on-the-spot with handling traffic. They should have started diverting thru traffic onto the frontage road at Exit 81 as soon as they arrived on scene. Google Earth imagery also shows an outlet to the frontage road a short distance East of Exit 79. It may be for DOT/first responder use. Still, that could have helped clear a lot of the traffic blockage.

I sure wouldn't recommend anyone try to drive off the main lanes, thru the grass to reach a frontage road. I've seen vehicles get stuck in drainage ditches that were deeper than they realized. Other hazards might be present.

Getting diverted to frontage roads isn't much fun either. About a decade ago I got caught in a traffic jam on I-45 North of Houston late at night. All the Southbound lanes were blocked due to a multiple vehicle accident. We got diverted to the frontage road. It took a good while to get through, thanks in part to red lights at intersections lasting for-freaking-ever. People can't resist the urge to read their phones. So they screw lots of other motorists behind them out of making the green light. Big picture view: at least the situation was more work-able than being stuck motion-less on the main lanes til the accident was cleared.

[ZLoth]

Maybe it would have helped if I had Google Maps running. It is pretty good about routing you around accidents. But I didn't since I'm familiar with the drive on IH-30 home.

I'm just going to attribute this to plain bad luck. I had a ice chest with drinks in the trunk, so I grabbed one or two while I was stopped.

[JayhawkCO]

When I see a Texas plate far away from Texas I assume rental car.

And I'm the opposite with so many Texas plates here in CO. One can be from one part of Texas to one part of Colorado in about 35 minutes, but Dallas to Denver is the same approximate distance as Dallas to Atlanta or Louisville.

[jeffandnicole]

Getting stuck for three hours on Westbound IH-30 between exits 81 and 79 in Royce City, TX because of an overturned 18-wheeler and all lanes blocked.

For three hours. With my mother.

That doesn't sound like a "minor" thing at all. I'm sure there was a bunch of vehicles piling onto that part of I-30 from the new Buc-ee's nearby.

Eastbound IH-30 was clear, it was westbound that was jammed. And, what do some vehicles do? Drive on the grassy median to the frontage road to escape. Isn't that... uh... illegal?

As time went on, the backup extended to almost exit 85. Here is a "News article". My mother and I were on the drive home from Mineola, TX where we ate at East Texas Burger. This was a journey that should have taken less than two hours to get home especially since we were taking the scenic route, and we are about 35 minutes away from home when we got stuck in traffic. Ofcourse, my mother had to start asking "Do we have enough gas?" which I responded that yes, we have ¾ of a tank of gas having stopped at the Royce City Buc-ees to top off on the way out. She then commented about how many people were running out of gas standing there as well as the truckers who weren't making money sitting there.

Were the police stopping it?  If not, then they were ok with it at the time.  It's either do that, or stay stuck in traffic until the incident is cleared. 

Eastbound IH-30 was clear, it was westbound that was jammed.

I got turned around. Derp. Maybe some of the motorists were trying to get to that Buc-ee's at the WB I-30 Exit 79 ramp.

Either way, emergency responders should have been more Johnny-on-the-spot with handling traffic. They should have started diverting thru traffic onto the frontage road at Exit 81 as soon as they arrived on scene. Google Earth imagery also shows an outlet to the frontage road a short distance East of Exit 79. It may be for DOT/first responder use. Still, that could have helped clear a lot of the traffic blockage.

No.  The responder's primary mission is to help those IN THE CRASH.  They need to attend to people that have been injured, then need to work the scene, talk to the drivers, determine what's being hauled, are there any hazardous fluid leaks, etc.  Drivers that are stuck are unfortunately going to be stuck.  If there's available manpower, they can try to close the road at the previous exit to divert traffic, but as you said, that also puts pressure on frontage roads, at which point the next thing to be said is "why can't police also direct traffic at the intersections". 

It sucks to be stuck on the highway like that, but if you were the victim, you wouldn't want to hear "oh, the first responders decided to help those not involved in the crash first.  You can just wait".

[SEWIGuy]

A car burns through about a half gallon per hour idling. If anyone ran out of gas sitting in a traffic back up, they cut it too close anyway.

[Max Rockatansky]

Back during the summer of 2011 there was a huge wreck on I-10 east of Hovatter Road that shut the freeway down. In that particular instance a trucker had a heart attack and went across the freeway into a van carrying eight people (killed seven if I recall correctly).   The shut down last about seven hours and a lot of people ran out of gas.  I got by the closure myself using Avenue 75E and Salome Road (lots of dirt).  My thought is that 3.5 gallons in the tank so close to Phoenix was reasonable aside from a scenario like this.   

[Bobby5280]

No.  The responder's primary mission is to help those IN THE CRASH.

If the police, fire dept, etc have a situation like an overturned semi-truck blocking the lanes on a major Interstate highway at the edge of a giant metro they're gonna have to send A LOT MORE than just one police vehicle or fire truck.

First responders can manage multiple tasks at once, if enough first responders are dispatched to the accident scene.

Here's another very important point. First responders MUST alert motorists well ahead of a new accident location so they don't inadvertently crash into it. It's worth repeating way too many motorists drive distracted. One crashed vehicle can turn into a bunch of crashed vehicles due to people driving with their heads up their asses.

The situation is bad enough in my town that if I'm stuck at a traffic signal behind some idiot unaware the light has turned green I'm bracing myself for getting rear-ended by some other idiot not paying attention. Those damned phones are just so important.

[mgk920]

I think rental cars give themselves away. No bumper stickers, no license plate frames. Generally little to no tint. And the way people drive.

In Illinois and Wisconsin, they could very well also have special design non-expiring 'FLEET' plates.

Mike

[wanderer2575]

Fresh on my mind:  The bullshit one goes through to set up an online account to pay bills.  I'm not storing my credit card information; I'm not uploading or downloading PII documents, I just want to pay the damn bill.  First I have to pick a password that meets a dozen criteria, then I have to remember my kindergarten teacher's last name or what was my favorite color or song when I set up the account or what is my mother-in-law's favorite food, then I have to go through the Captcha crap (sometimes multiple times).  Screw it, I'll mail you a check (let's not get into how more or less secure that is) and you can deal with handling it.

The only plus side (sort of) is that I learned CAPTCHA actually is an anagram:  Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.  Lord, have mercy on us.