Thank you officer!!!!!!!!!

[Bill Robertson]

We have Progressive insurance. A few months ago we did the "Snapshot " device on one of our cars. It saved us $90 every six (about 30%) on that car so we're doing on two of the other cars now. They say they analyze a number of factors but the one they show you is "Hard Brakes" so you try to avoid them. Well, this makes for a decision every time a green light turns yellow right at that "do I stop or get on it a little and go". Today on the way home from church on the north Kilpatrick access road I had that choice and went through the light. I turned red just as or a hair before we got there. Maybe a bit more than a hair. Then I saw the M/C cop on the cross street watch me run the red light. His head followed us as we passed. He pulled in our lane and followed us for a couple miles but didn't stop me. He had an easy, slam dunk ticket and passed it up. Thank you!

[ljbab728]

I have a similar device on my car through Allstate. I generally opt for the "hard brake" in those situations and I've never found that it happened often enough to change my good driving discount.

[catch22]

The primary flaw with those devices are situations you describe above -- it puts a conscience decision in people's mind to choose dollars over safety. Hard braking can be the difference in life or death, and the insurance companies penalize people for it, thus encouraging the wrong decisions in some situations.

[jompster]

The primary flaw with those devices are situations you describe above -- it puts a conscience decision in people's mind to choose dollars over safety. Hard braking can be the difference in life or death, and the insurance companies penalize people for it, thus encouraging the wrong decisions in some situations.

^ This. I opted not to get one through State Farm for this reason. I don't want to be in that position. Also, I sometimes find it necessary to temporarily speed to bypass unsafe drivers since we seem to have so many of them here. Hopefully they would recognize the "distance" of the speeding rather than the fact that it simply happened, but I'm not willing to take that chance. My insurance isn't too high anyway, so a 30% discount isn't going to save me a lot.

[ljbab728]

The primary flaw with those devices are situations you describe above -- it puts a conscience decision in people's mind to choose dollars over safety. Hard braking can be the difference in life or death, and the insurance companies penalize people for it, thus encouraging the wrong decisions in some situations.

I'm not sure how many times that has to happen to be penalized but I always err on the side of safety and have never been penalized for it.
This gives a little more detail about my plan.

5. How is the driving behavior performance calculated?

The Performance Rating combines information from your driving behavior with an overall profile that is used to calculate your Performance Rating score. The information collected includes:
•Driving time of day
•Hard and extreme braking
•Speeds at or above 80 mph
One event is unlikely to have a significant effect on your score. For example, we understand that braking may be necessary to avoid an accident. However, a pattern of frequent hard braking could affect your Performance Rating.

[BBatesokc]

We have those devices on our vehicles through AAA. My wife's primary car and two of our other cars all qualified for 20%+ discounts after using them for about 4 months. My primary vehicle has yet to qualify. While we have nice vehicles and trucks, I usually drive the Prius because it's cheap to drive and maneuvers easily - so, I thought, "how could this thing not qualify for a discount?"

Come to find out, one of the factors AAA uses is how much you drive and at what times. I was told I don't have any hard breaking, but I do have higher speeds. They actually said that's not what hurt my score. What hurt it was the fact I drive at all hours and many times during the day.

My wife primarily only drives twice a day - to work and back home. However, her speed averaged on the high side also. But, because she drives a predictable route at predictable times, her score gave her the discount. Our other two cars took a bit longer to qualify because rarely drive them.


I get 'shadowed' by LE on I-35 every so often because I tend to cruise it at 80MPH or so depending on other traffic flow.

They must be obviously profiling because they tend to pull up next to/behind me, pause, look and then go on. My truck gets this reaction more than any of my other vehicles.

[jerrywall]

^ This. I opted not to get one through State Farm for this reason. I don't want to be in that position. Also, I sometimes find it necessary to temporarily speed to bypass unsafe drivers since we seem to have so many of them here. Hopefully they would recognize the "distance" of the speeding rather than the fact that it simply happened, but I'm not willing to take that chance. My insurance isn't too high anyway, so a 30% discount isn't going to save me a lot.

Assuming you trust them on this, there's no downside. They won't increase your rates based on any data they get. You just may not get the maximum (or any) discount. So at worst someone would be where they are now.

The caveat to this is that if you've been lying about your estimated mileage, and get the low mileage discount (for under 7500 miles a year). You could lose that discount.

[jompster]

Assuming you trust them on this, there's no downside. They won't increase your rates based on any data they get. You just may not get the maximum (or any) discount. So at worst someone would be where they are now.

The caveat to this is that if you've been lying about your estimated mileage, and get the low mileage discount (for under 7500 miles a year). You could lose that discount.

I understand that they wouldn't raise it. And I don't get low mileage discount because I drive about 20,000 miles a year. I just don't want to get the box and then worry about scrounging for that discount, so I decide to not brake for a yellow, or something to that effect.

[Bill Robertson]

Just to be clear. As I said, the light turned red just as I got to the intersection. So no one would have been entering the intersection on the cross street unless they practice drag racing starts and have 1500 horse power. And I probably never hit 55 in a 45 to get through it. It wasn't really a dangerous situation it's just something I wouldn't normally do and the cop had a gimme ticket he passed up.

[Anonymous.]

Just so you know the actual law, you are allowed to enter the intersection on anything but red. So as long as the nose of your vehicle is over the 'limit line' and the light is not yet red, you did not run the redlight. A lot of people think that being in the intersection while it turns red is against the law.

I was pulled over in The Village after crossing a yellow late at night. I knew the officer was fishing for more than a traffic violation, and his excuse was that the law was any part of the vehicle being in the intersection on red is a violation. Which of course, is incorrect. (officer was lying)

[Tritone]

This might be a misperception, but I've noticed that when certain small-town law enforcement officers stop me for something that in my limited knowledge of traffic laws is entirely legal I'm given a "warning" rather than a citation. "Well, I'll let it slide this time." Wouldn't stand up on court, huh?

[RadicalModerate]

So . . . Just today, I was thinking outside the box (listening to NPR) and pushing the envelope while simultaneously motoring south at 28 mph on Penn just north of the dreaded Nichols Hills Speed Trap (25 mph) when, nearly out of nowhere, a Nichols Hills police car appeared, all lit up, from a side street to my immediate left, at the intersection less than half a soccer field ahead of me.

I hit the brakes, hard (without squealing the tires--28 mph) and yielded to the emergency vehicle in question. Then it got all weird.

The police car didn't move. Nor did I. It was sort of like a non-PC "Mexican Standoff."

I gave him The Universal Wave indicating, "Go on, [Officer] . . . " along with The Internationally Recognized Shrug translated, "Whazzup, Dude. (where's the friggin' fire?)" and included the popular palms up gesture affiliated with historical hand gestures.

He shut off his lights and took his proper place southbound on Penn, back into his jurisdiction. Right behind me.

For just a moment (or a just moment?), I thought that I had somehow violated an ordinance or whatever. I guess it's a good thing that I'm a semi-senile old white guy instead of a young man of color. Although I would simply have taken the ticket--or warning--without argument or further discussion about the boundaries of jurisdiction or jurisprudence. =~)

Thanks, Officer. De Veras, Amigo.

(Please be advised: The above referenced strategy, vis-à-vis Law Enforcement, don't work on Olde Route 66 up around Luther. They have The Speed Trap down to a T.)

(Con su permiso: Please remove any and all genderist references contained in the post, above. Including, yet not limited to, -ette . . . as in Police Officerette. Thank you.)