Japanese traffic signals and other driving fun

[matsuki]

trying to be sneaky and catch you with your cell phone or making a lane change over a yellow line or something

I couldn't agree more forcefully. How very dare them be trying to catch a guilty citizen breaking the law! That is so sneaky! Any decent police force would rely 100% on self reporting -- which they do with 100% confessions.

It's not the citing of violators I have an issue with, it's the bizarre methods. (but I'm sure you knew that) Why go through all the trouble to set up over complicated traps with hidden cops, dangerously placed cops, and undercover vehicles when you'll likely achieve the same qty of citations being in plain sight, as well as discourage other violators?

[Coligny]

.
The second is a speed trap. The guy on foot has a radar box hidden near by and then radios ahead to the UC crown. This one I have a problem with because they only tend to pull over cars that are cheaper or look old. I have seen trains of AMG mercs, BMWs, and more expensive domestics get a free pass so the cop could pull over the one nissan note in the bunch. The police have directly told me "only poor people commit crimes". It's a strange theory but I think it's more like poor people don't have the money to fight back in court.

Bullshit... Nissan Note can't break speed limits even with tailwind in a typhoon...

[wuchan]

.
The second is a speed trap. The guy on foot has a radar box hidden near by and then radios ahead to the UC crown. This one I have a problem with because they only tend to pull over cars that are cheaper or look old. I have seen trains of AMG mercs, BMWs, and more expensive domestics get a free pass so the cop could pull over the one nissan note in the bunch. The police have directly told me "only poor people commit crimes". It's a strange theory but I think it's more like poor people don't have the money to fight back in court.

Bullshit... Nissan Note can't break speed limits even with tailwind in a typhoon...

LOL. My wife had one and I got busted doing 130 in a 60 in it. It did have nismo everything tho....

Definitely does not compare to my late evo or current 370GT-S skyline. Funny thing is I drive the skyline like I stole it and never once got pulled over.

[Yokohammer]

Definitely does not compare to my late evo or current 370GT-S skyline. Funny thing is I drive the skyline like I stole it and never once got pulled over.

That is pretty amazing. Skylines are ... what's a good word ... "notorious".

I'm guessing your insurance premiums are in a fairly healthy bracket?



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[Wage Slave]

trying to be sneaky and catch you with your cell phone or making a lane change over a yellow line or something

I couldn't agree more forcefully. How very dare them be trying to catch a guilty citizen breaking the law! That is so sneaky! Any decent police force would rely 100% on self reporting -- which they do with 100% confessions.

It's not the citing of violators I have an issue with, it's the bizarre methods. (but I'm sure you knew that) Why go through all the trouble to set up over complicated traps with hidden cops, dangerously placed cops, and undercover vehicles when you'll likely achieve the same qty of citations being in plain sight, as well as discourage other violators?

Might work in Tokyo but round here they are rat faced recidivist morons blind to any and all entreatments. Also being inveterate cunning, sneaky fucks themselves they respect the police more if they too are cunning. Getting caught and being punished the only language they understand and respect.

[matsuki]

trying to be sneaky and catch you with your cell phone or making a lane change over a yellow line or something

I couldn't agree more forcefully. How very dare them be trying to catch a guilty citizen breaking the law! That is so sneaky! Any decent police force would rely 100% on self reporting -- which they do with 100% confessions.

It's not the citing of violators I have an issue with, it's the bizarre methods. (but I'm sure you knew that) Why go through all the trouble to set up over complicated traps with hidden cops, dangerously placed cops, and undercover vehicles when you'll likely achieve the same qty of citations being in plain sight, as well as discourage other violators?

Might work in Tokyo but round here they are rat faced recidivist morons blind to any and all entreatments. Also being inveterate cunning, sneaky fucks themselves they respect the police more if they too are cunning. Getting caught and being punished the only language they understand and respect.

Like I said, I got no problem with them citing people that deserve to be cited, it just seems like over complication of something that should be so simple. (and putting a cop at risk of being run over)

I've never seem someone driving like an asshole in Tokyo get caught/cited. On the highway, however, I've seen more than a few braindead fucks go speeding down the right lane at 140kph+ speeds and get lit up by an undercover crown that was cruising in the next lane over.

[wuchan]

Definitely does not compare to my late evo or current 370GT-S skyline. Funny thing is I drive the skyline like I stole it and never once got pulled over.

That is pretty amazing. Skylines are ... what's a good word ... "notorious".

I'm guessing your insurance premiums are in a fairly healthy bracket?



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It's a newer skyline, 2012, better known as an Infiniti G37. Most of the ones sold in Japan had a 2.5L 210hp motor and was purchased by old men who couldn't afford the lower merc c class range. Most people here don't think it's fast and look really confused when I pull away from them on the highway. When I first got it the insurance was 6 man but now it's 4. The tax won't change tho because it's based on engine size and a 3.7L motor puts it into a higher bracket than most. It's a great car tho, basically a fair lady with back seats. The new Q50 skyline is a fucking turd which makes me sad.

[Russell]

ねずみ取りマップ(speed trap map of damn polices)
http://nezumi.my-svr.com/
http://torishimari.sub.jp/

Now, these links are very useful!

[Yokohammer]

ねずみ取りマップ(speed trap map of damn polices)
http://nezumi.my-svr.com/
http://torishimari.sub.jp/

Now, these links are very useful!

Get yourself a radar detector with GPS. Not only do they detect various types of radar and give you a nice big GPS based speedometer display, but they include a database of speed cameras and coil detectors, etc., plus locations the police set up temporary "nezumi tori" traps, and will warn you as you approach. You can usually update the built-in database (nowadays from your smartphone) as new data becomes available.

No need to refer to a website. You get the info as you drive, wherever you drive.

[matsuki]

ねずみ取りマップ(speed trap map of damn polices)
http://nezumi.my-svr.com/
http://torishimari.sub.jp/

Now, these links are very useful!

Get yourself a radar detector with GPS. Not only do they detect various types of radar and give you a nice big GPS based speedometer display, but they include a database of speed cameras and coil detectors, etc., plus locations the police set up temporary "nezumi tori" traps, and will warn you as you approach. You can usually update the built-in database (nowadays from your smartphone) as new data becomes available.

No need to refer to a website. You get the info as you drive, wherever you drive.

Are you rolling on a gold license now Yoko?

[Yokohammer]

Are you rolling on a gold license now Yoko?

Nope. 5-year blue.

I pickup up precisely one speeding ticket just a week or two after renewing to my previous license (which, coincidentally, was also the moment I decided to install a radar detector). About four or five years ago. So my last renewal was not gold (oh, the humiliation!). Maybe next time.



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[matsuki]

....but you'd say it's saved you from at least one potential speeding ticket?

[kurogane]

So my last renewal was not gold (oh, the humiliation!).

However do you sleep at night!!?????

[Yokohammer]

....but you'd say it's saved you from at least one potential speeding ticket?

Haven't been handed a ticket since I installed 'em (both cars), so I'd say probably. But then, I'm not really a speed demon.


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[Coligny]

I don't know if yours react like mine but it's a nice solar activity reporter. Usually when it start giving an endless stream of false positive not long after I receive Nasa's space weather wurnang advisory email...

[Yokohammer]

I don't know if yours react like mine but it's a nice solar activity reporter. Usually when it start giving an endless stream of false positive not long after I receive Nasa's space weather wurnang advisory email...

Now that is really interesting. It hasn't happened much, but there have been a few days in the last four years or so when it just beeps every few minutes. Solar storms, eh?


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[Coligny]

Since it happened synchronouzely with the alert emails in place were no radar could be placed hidden, solar activity is the culprit of choice...
Either empty riverside road with no feature to hide anything or roads that are short and so continuously locked up by traffic that speeding tickets would be for pedestrians not the cars...

[Takechanpoo]

brain-melting j-elders driving

[matsuki]

Take, did't some old fart, suffering from dementia, run over a child and make the news recently?

Driving from west to east yesterday, I almost had a head-on collision with some jiji asshole who was apparently pulled over on the side of the road (facing me) and decided to turn on his high beams and enter traffic on the wrong side of the road. Maybe it was a suicide attempt? I swerved and kept on my way....

[matsuki]

Just saw my first undercover kei car...fucker almost ran into me head on. Came blindly wheeling around traffic at an intersection on the wrong side of the road (1 lane, not much passing room) with no siren, just a pop up light and flashing high beams. The ridiculous level of risk/urgency I've seen with undercover patrol cars is bizarre when we all know the ambulances here cruise at a senior driver speeds with barely audible sirens.

[Coligny]

color of the beacon ?

[matsuki]

color of the beacon ?

Red...but being on top of a kei-sized vehicle meant it wasn't visible til I was about to plow through it head on.

[matsuki]

Targets...targets painted all over me and my vehicle....

Coming back from a car event tonight, following two Aussie friends of mine in a 2 van caravan, we decided to just grab a quick meal at the next service area. My buddy pulls to the very front row and what luck, two open parking spaces next to each other! He pulls forward and starts backing in his space, I do the same....only as I'm halfway in, a vehicle from the 2nd row goes flying through the clearly marked "zebra" pedestrian walkway between us and speeds into the parking space at a fucked angle to a thud as it meets the back of my bumper. ( minor thud, no way there is any damage so more upset that concerned) I'm soon greeted by a fatty 20 something ore ore gyaru otoko talking shit. (he quickly stepped back once I start talking shit back in Japanese and my Aussie friends promptly confronted from behind, full bogan.) Still....drive like an asshole, double down on asshole behavior when you're clearly in the wrong?? To make a drawn out and over dramatic story short, he calls the police and we got to block traffic and waste an hour of time for him to get a totally pointless police report for his spineless friend's "bent license plate." (Yes, wasn't even his car and no, it wasn't bent but he insists he's taking it to the dealer to be replaced!! )

More importantly, what we learned is a new level in exercising Japanese logic that....well, let me just spell it out. Basically, they said "Yes, what he did was dangerous and had there been any actual damage, he may be found at fault in a civil case...but no, his maneuver was not illegal or any kind of violation as far at the law goes. You can drive on the pedestrian paths, you can park on the pedestrian paths. According to the crime scene investigators and police, the parking areas are basically a free for all, scramble cluster fuck, and as far as the law is concerned, the lines and arrows on the road do not mean anything at all. Merely suggestions which need not be heeded. You can drive wherever you want, whatever direction you want, park wherever you want, and block whoever you want. Although you might get fucked in a civil suit if you hit someone, there is absoooofuckinglutly nothing the cops can do about it or ticket you for. The more you know...eh?

Eventually the gyaru boy crew walk off, and the 3 of us are left there, pretty speechless. We just came from a car event and our vans are loaded with tools...but the cops have all my info so the suggestions like a brake fluid bath for asshole's car are out of the question...and one of the cops is still there finishing his paperwork. My friends are still in disbelief, yelling at him about how children are currently walking in the path, face buried in their keitai, and could have easily been killed by the asshole. The cop seems nice enough, says he understands what we're on about....but then gives us some "you need to understand....nihojin wa...." spiel. I replied something to the effect of "but most Japanese don't usually drive like assholes through pedestrian walkways though." He conceded, "Maa.....soudesune." I put my hand on the main cop's shoulder, told him I understand he doesn't make the rules, apologized for wasting his time, and then let my friends know I have an idea. We pop open my trunk, open my toolbox, and I pull out two tire valve tools. I didn't need to say another word. By the time the cop heard the hissing and walked back over to the asshole's car, all four valve stems were removed. All the stems and caps on the roof of the car. I point out to the cop that nothing was damaged, all 8 of his parts are still there, and you can't arrest them for stealing air. His reaction was priceless. Wide eyed, jaw dropped "Saa..." We decided it would be best to take our leave then, while the cop was still there....so asshole couldn't come back with some BS claims of damage. The katsu curry at the next rest stop never tasted so good.

[Russell]

Targets...targets painted all over me and my vehicle....

Coming back from a car event tonight, following two Aussie friends of mine in a 2 van caravan, we decided to just grab a quick meal at the next service area. My buddy pulls to the very front row and what luck, two open parking spaces next to each other! He pulls forward and starts backing in his space, I do the same....only as I'm halfway in, a vehicle from the 2nd row goes flying through the clearly marked "zebra" pedestrian walkway between us and speeds into the parking space at a fucked angle to a thud as it meets the back of my bumper. ( minor thud, no way there is any damage so more upset that concerned) I'm soon greeted by a fatty 20 something ore ore gyaru otoko talking shit. (he quickly stepped back once I start talking shit back in Japanese and my Aussie friends promptly confronted from behind, full bogan.) Still....drive like an asshole, double down on asshole behavior when you're clearly in the wrong?? To make a drawn out and over dramatic story short, he calls the police and we got to block traffic and waste an hour of time for him to get a totally pointless police report for his spineless friend's "bent license plate." (Yes, wasn't even his car and no, it wasn't bent but he insists he's taking it to the dealer to be replaced!! )

More importantly, what we learned is a new level in exercising Japanese logic that....well, let me just spell it out. Basically, they said "Yes, what he did was dangerous and had there been any actual damage, he may be found at fault in a civil case...but no, his maneuver was not illegal or any kind of violation as far at the law goes. You can drive on the pedestrian paths, you can park on the pedestrian paths. According to the crime scene investigators and police, the parking areas are basically a free for all, scramble cluster fuck, and as far as the law is concerned, the lines and arrows on the road do not mean anything at all. Merely suggestions which need not be heeded. You can drive wherever you want, whatever direction you want, park wherever you want, and block whoever you want. Although you might get fucked in a civil suit if you hit someone, there is absoooofuckinglutly nothing the cops can do about it or ticket you for. The more you know...eh?

Eventually the gyaru boy crew walk off, and the 3 of us are left there, pretty speechless. We just came from a car event and our vans are loaded with tools...but the cops have all my info so the suggestions like a brake fluid bath for asshole's car are out of the question...and one of the cops is still there finishing his paperwork. My friends are still in disbelief, yelling at him about how children are currently walking in the path, face buried in their keitai, and could have easily been killed by the asshole. The cop seems nice enough, says he understands what we're on about....but then gives us some "you need to understand....nihojin wa...." spiel. I replied something to the effect of "but most Japanese don't usually drive like assholes through pedestrian walkways though." He conceded, "Maa.....soudesune." I put my hand on the main cop's shoulder, told him I understand he doesn't make the rules, apologized for wasting his time, and then let my friends know I have an idea. We pop open my trunk, open my toolbox, and I pull out two tire valve tools. I didn't need to say another word. By the time the cop heard the hissing and walked back over to the asshole's car, all four valve stems were removed. All the stems and caps on the roof of the car. I point out to the cop that nothing was damaged, all 8 of his parts are still there, and you can't arrest them for stealing air. His reaction was priceless. Wide eyed, jaw dropped "Saa..." We decided it would be best to take our leave then, while the cop was still there....so asshole couldn't come back with some BS claims of damage. The katsu curry at the next rest stop never tasted so good.

You're making this up, right?

[matsuki]

I wish...but I have the pics and report slip to let me know it wasn't a hallucination....and now my glove box will always contain a spare valve stem tool. (though next asshole will get no confrontation from me, can't have a logical discussion of traffic rules/manners where they don't exist....might as well save some time and just give em a free lowrider)

[legion]

The car park is off the public road so the rules of the road don't apply.

However letting the guy's tires down in front of a cop was not the smartest move, they have these things called computer databases these days. They might not take overt action but they will note it down. I suspect there is a lot more goes on under the radar than people think. The apparently arbitrary enforcement of the legal system here looks a lot like social engineering to me. You can expect to be stopped in a "random" check soon, and since it is bonenkai time you will most likely be stopped and breathalyzed.

[matsuki]

The car park is off the public road so the rules of the road don't apply.

...not as far as traffic violations go but as the cop pointed out, had there been any real damage, a civil case would not necessarily feel the same way. That being said, one of my buddies was basically hounding the cop with "so no place in the car park is safe? so we should just pull up and park next to the curb to avoid it all together?" To which he replied, "it's not good manners and I'm not suggesting you do it...but there is no penalty, ticket, or fine if you do."

Just to be clear, it wasn't me that relieved him of all that hot air...but regardless, "random" checks have been almost a weekly occurrence in Tokyo lately. (this wasn't Tokyo BTW) Last stop was last month. That all being said, the cop wasn't upset, last thing he said was more of a "let's go home now boys." I'm guessing he didn't stick around as he seemed to be heading back to his car as we left. No angry phone calls either...remember, the asshole has my keitai #

[Takechanpoo]

fucking bicycles running in the opposite direction
and most of the reversely running bicycles are WOMEN.
fukin bitches having a chaotic thinking circuit.

[matsuki]

fucking bicycles running in the opposite direction
and most of the reversely running bicycles are WOMEN.
fukin bitches having a chaotic thinking circuit.

All the idiot bicyclists I come across are either women or the elderly...but the women have by far been the worst as the seem to think stop signs are only for cars or something.

[Takechanpoo]

takao-san interchange in hachioji

takao.jpeg.jpg

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