Excuse me, but I happen to be blind in one eye and have driven for over a decade without incident despite that. Think before you say things like this, please.
I had one transponder for two cars. I didn't have it in one car when I crossed the Tobin. I was charged the discounted fee because it picked off the plate.
I wish people like this driver could be publicly shamed for their awfulness.
It's almost like you wish the State Police would, I dunno, take a picture of their inconsiderate behavior and post it on social media or something like that.
But the social media site the photo was posted to. You can thank the idiot "but what about OUR privacy" tinfoil hat brigade who can't come to grips with the concept that photos like these are taken on PUBLIC roads.
It was obviously blurred by the police, if it was the social media site, both cars license plates would have been blurred. Instead the cop's plate is clear but the license of the person being pulled over is blurred.
the license number from a photo taken of a vehicle stopped on a PUBLIC road? Just like with the GSV people, it's because of pressure from the tinfoil hat brigade.
Modern management theory says that to influence group behaviors, you want to provide just the right amount of shame; too little is ineffective; too much just turns people against you.
The classic example, for something you're trying to measure and manage, is to post a performance rating chart with an anonymous dot for each employee, and separately to provide each employee with his or her own number. That way, you know you got a '347', you can look at the chart and see how '347' stacks up to how everyone else is doing, but nobody else knows what anybody else's rating is.
I will admit I drove to work today with an ice pack on my roof. It took me a half hour to get the windshield pack off and I can not reach the roof of my car. I drove very carefully with my heat on high pointed at the ceiling hoping to get things moving up there. When I got to work I pulled up next to a wall where there were mounds of snow and got my brush and other objects up under the pack and began prying. It had melted enough to peel it off in giant pieces and I tossed it into a pile. I never drive with snow on the car but I just couldn't do it any other way today.
This guy though, not even getting the windshield fully cleaned off and hitting the highway???
Last night, after the kids were in bed I went out and cleared the snow off of the roof of three cars. It was after it stopped raining but before the temperature dropped freezing everything (which every forecast predicted). It was heavy then but not frozen solid so it was pretty manageable.
If you can't reach the roof of your car you need to keep a small step-stool in the back of it along with your ice-scraper and snow brush during the winter months for those occasions. You want to own that car then you need to be responsible for being able to drive it safely.
You say that you "couldn't do it any other way" but you also could've gotten up twenty or thirty minutes earlier or called in to work to say you're going to be late and idled the car with the heat going until it softened up enough to get it off before driving it.
Ah a three car household. Maybe that is why I had to park two blocks from my apartment. I can see your point but you do come off as awfully high and mighty. Where exactly would I put this stool, on the uneasy ice that it will not penetrate? So now I am sitting here in a car for 45 minutes waiting for it to defrost. The alternative was to trek back and forth from my apartment where I was shoveling, while trying to get work done from home , back over to the car two blocks over with a step stool on icy patches I guess.
We also all don't have jobs where it is always ok if you call in late.
You are looking at the world through a particular prism assuming everyone lives the same way you do and everything operates the same way for everyone. Some call that privileged. I won't but some would.
Did I say all three cars were mine? People do clear cars for older relatives and neighbors you know. Did I say that any of them were parked on the street? There are lots of neighborhoods in the city where houses have driveways that will hold multiple cars.
I don't assume that everyone lives the way I do but everyone makes choices. When I lived in a dense part of the city I chose to go car free and rented or borrowed the times when I really needed one. You chose to live in the city with a car without a dedicated spot to keep it in, that means that you need to figure out a way to operate that vehicle safely in all seasons.
Since every forecast predicted that the temperature was going to plummet at night it doesn't take much experience in a colder climate to realize what was going to happen when all of that slush froze. Had you gone out last night to clear the car you wouldn't have faced your problems.
You still take no responsibility in your response and instead prattle off more lame excuses. How do you feel about drunk driving? There are a host of excuses that people use to justify themselves driving home after drinking. Let's translate what you said to that realm. "I was out drinking but it's okay because I was being really careful and driving slowly with the radio off so I could concentrate."
Since every forecast predicted that the temperature was going to plummet at night
I did the same thing. 10 o'clock out on the street, shoveling out the space (because it would have been impossibly frozen the next morning) and clearing off the car. Much easier when you can push it off rather than chipping it off.
I drove very carefully with my heat on high pointed at the ceiling hoping to get things moving up there.
That could easily result in warming the roof, unsticking the whole inch-thick plate of ice, and causing it to blow off in one 50 lb piece, right into the driver behind you.
I was a clueless kid who blasted off in his car after a night of wet snow, rain, then freezing temps. Getting on the highway the next morning, after the engine had a chance to warm up, a huge piece of ice blew off the hood, over the roof - and very luckily, onto the road. That ice chunk could have really hurt or killed someone. As clueless as I was, I realized how lucky I was and haven't done that since.
I have more than once seen someone driving with a glacier on their roof pull up to a stop sign and have the whole mess slide onto their windshield. Then they have no choice but to clean it off.
I long ago lived in Fitchminster and commuted to work on rte 2 east, which for large stretches points directly at the rising winter sun. I saw several geniuses like the one in this post race onto the highway without clearing their windshield, then slam on their brakes when the glare of the sun lit up the ice on their glass and blinded them. You've got to leave room for those bozos to have their teachable moment.
A friend posted this morning that the guy in front of her on her way to work this morning failed to clean off his roof, just like you did, resulting in the ice from his roof flying off onto hers, denting her roof and causing damage to the light on the *inside* of her car. If that ice had dropped a couple of feet sooner, she'd have been in the hospital instead of safely at work. There's a reason it's illegal to drive with snow on your roof. You don't want to be the person who killed the driver behind you because you didn't want to wait a few minutes for the snow to melt or go get a step stool.
What you need to get is an extendable snow brush/ice scraper. I'm short & can't see over the top of my car, but I can clear it off with one of those babies.
Best eight bucks I ever spent at Ocean State Job Lot.
It's a telescoping one, and I expected it to break or become unusable because usually these things are so cheezy, but it's done a great job all winter. As long as I'm using this, I can clear my roof - with a normal car brush, it would take a ladder.
They last a long time! I got a scraper/brush with a telescoping handle when I first got a minivan. It lasted from 2004-2013 (the minivan era). I bought it end of season for small money when I realized that I was way too short to even get to the windshield easily.
My neighbor bought a commercial van the same week that I changed over to a smaller vehicle. I gave him the extension brush. He still uses it, although a piece broke off yesterday. 13 years ain't bad!
I'm very glad that we pulled off the crossbars from our roof rack before the storm. Made it easier to slide off the snow before it froze down solid. Little things!
such as Market Basket, although they're usually available only in late fall or early winter (under the retailer's rules of forcing the next season on shoppers prematurely). My experience has been they typically last me eight to ten years before they break (normally when the telescoping piece fails).
Plastic shovels cost about $10. One lives in my car from November to April. Good for shoveling the car out, shoveling it off, pushing snow off the roof, scraping the windows, shoveling it out of ditches, shoveling snow out from under the car …
A brush is nice but for 10" of slush a shovel is nicer.
...if you waited until Monday to buy a shovel, you might very well have been SOL. The space formerly reserved for shovels is probably all taken up with grills and lawn furniture now.
You and your roof cake are a sibling of this guy. All it takes is that sheet of ice and snow to finally get dislodged, but only slide off when you're braking in traffic to completely block your windshield. Never mind the fact that if it flies off your roof and onto a nearby car, it spells trouble either way.
Even if the windshield was clear the areas where the weather turned rainy meant that the snow on the roof was like a layer of cement. That flying off at highway speed is a huge safety risk and those folks should be stopped too.
It IS illegal to not clear the snow off your roof for that very reason.
Also, recently the Mass Legislature passed a (very good) law requiring use of headlights whenever wipers are on -just like New York state. From what I've seen, an awful lot of people don't know about this.
Perhaps more of the narcissism that is so rampant today: "I can see fine - so what's the problem?"
Many cars have an automatic setting for headlights that have the headlights come on when it gets dim outside. Mine will shift on as soon as I enter a tunnel and turn off as soon as I leave. I've also seen them click on with strong clouds overhead... I can see how people can easily forget about turning their headlights on when they turn on the wipers because the car automatically does it otherwise.
I would like to see the technology get to the point where it turns the lights on when it senses a strong solar glare as that can make other cars almost impossible to see and having headlights on in those cases actually helps highlight the other car in those seconds when your windshield turns into a giant glowing sheet of reflection.
However, it's not truly automatic - you have to set the headlight control to the automatic position for it to work. Once in the automatic position, the headlights will come on not only when it gets dark, but also when you activate the wipers.
FWIW, I suspect the reason many people don't turn their headlights on in the rain or other times when it's not dark out is that, on nearly all late model cars, the dash lights come on regardless of whether or not the headlights are on. In years past, the dash lights were tied into the headlight circuit so at least the running lights(aka parking lights) had to be on for them to illuminate.
I waited until the last minute to clear the snow off the car - it was REALLY easy to do since it was so wet - it just slid off. Unfortunately, more snow and cold temps came late in the evening and iced over the car once it cooled down. But just required a little scraping in the morning and running the car.
If you were lazy and waited to clear your car until the morning... good luck. Way more work for you to clear the layer of ice. Obviously, this person was too lazy and in a rush... and thanks, State Police!
...a little preparation aka do it before its blocks of ice on your car. I really despise those lazy ppl. Soccer moms with SUV's suck in general and they are the biggest culprits. Lazy narcissistic asshats.
I got from Fields corner to prudential center parking with a porthole in a blizzard. When I came back an 2 hours later the 8 inch snow blocks had slid off.
Once I was was in a red civic with a inch layer of ice on my hood. the windshields were all clear. But every time we got above 30 on rte 9 the ice rose up to block the windshield. finally it flew up and broke on the windshield in a million pieces.
Chapter 3 of the MA drivers manual, pg 74 section on WINTER DRIVING........states.....REMOVE ICE AND SNOW FROM YOUR VEHICLE BEFORE DRIVING. CLEAR ALL WINDOWS, WINDSHIELD WIPERS, HEADLIGHTS, AND BRAKE LIGHTS. CLEAR THE ROOF SO ICE AND SNOW DOES NOT BLOW INTO VEHICLES BEHIND YOU.
My neighbor does this every snowstorm. I have plenty of time to snap a pic and send it to whomever would be interested in the 30 minutes he spends trying to get to the road (since he's the kind of lazy asshole who would rather thrash his tires and transmission for 30 minutes every time he goes in and out than shovel out a spot once).
Just because this vehicle has a MA plate doesn't necessarily make him a Masshole. Many buffoons from out of state actually register there vehicles here.
Comments
Great Photo
... Hope the fine was in three digits.
Is this driver blind with one
Is this driver blind with one eye!
As a person who is blind in one eye, I take offense at that.
Excuse me, but I happen to be blind in one eye and have driven for over a decade without incident despite that. Think before you say things like this, please.
I'd settle for the State Police towing the vehicle
And here's a question - Does snow on the windshield prevent an E-ZPass transponder from working? That would be an additional penalty for this mook.
Not if the plate is clear
I had one transponder for two cars. I didn't have it in one car when I crossed the Tobin. I was charged the discounted fee because it picked off the plate.
Seriously?
How lazy can people get? I wish people like this driver could be publicly shamed for their awfulness.
...they ARE being publically
...they ARE being publically shamed.
And well they should be publicly shamed!
How lazy and irresponsible can people get? They could be responsible for the deaths of others, as well as their own deaths by being so lazy.
And well they should be publicly shamed!
How lazy and irresponsible can people get? They could be responsible for the deaths of others, as well as their own deaths by being so lazy.
They are?
I didn't see the offender's name in the Twitter feed or anywhere else.
Indeed
It's almost like you wish the State Police would, I dunno, take a picture of their inconsiderate behavior and post it on social media or something like that.
Yeah, but the plate shouldn't
Yeah, but the plate shouldn't be blurred out...
I suspect that wasn't the State Police's doing
But the social media site the photo was posted to. You can thank the idiot "but what about OUR privacy" tinfoil hat brigade who can't come to grips with the concept that photos like these are taken on PUBLIC roads.
So you are calling the state police tin foil hat wearers?
It was obviously blurred by the police, if it was the social media site, both cars license plates would have been blurred. Instead the cop's plate is clear but the license of the person being pulled over is blurred.
And WHY does the State Police find it necessary to blur
the license number from a photo taken of a vehicle stopped on a PUBLIC road? Just like with the GSV people, it's because of pressure from the tinfoil hat brigade.
The license plate is blurred
The license plate is blurred out. There's no identifying information.
Where's the shaming?
How many people drive an AMC Pacer
Should be easy to figure out.
Honda
Civic
Not that hard
I mean, how often do you see a Geo Metro in the wild these days
I see the offending car
But I don't see the offending person's face, or name, or plate number. When I publicly shame, I go all out.
Modern management theory....
Modern management theory says that to influence group behaviors, you want to provide just the right amount of shame; too little is ineffective; too much just turns people against you.
The classic example, for something you're trying to measure and manage, is to post a performance rating chart with an anonymous dot for each employee, and separately to provide each employee with his or her own number. That way, you know you got a '347', you can look at the chart and see how '347' stacks up to how everyone else is doing, but nobody else knows what anybody else's rating is.
This picture seems to be aimed at that.
The Driver's Friends And Neighbors Will Recognize The Car
( and probably also recognize that person's typical behavior )
I will admit I drove to work
I will admit I drove to work today with an ice pack on my roof. It took me a half hour to get the windshield pack off and I can not reach the roof of my car. I drove very carefully with my heat on high pointed at the ceiling hoping to get things moving up there. When I got to work I pulled up next to a wall where there were mounds of snow and got my brush and other objects up under the pack and began prying. It had melted enough to peel it off in giant pieces and I tossed it into a pile. I never drive with snow on the car but I just couldn't do it any other way today.
This guy though, not even getting the windshield fully cleaned off and hitting the highway???
Lame excuses
Last night, after the kids were in bed I went out and cleared the snow off of the roof of three cars. It was after it stopped raining but before the temperature dropped freezing everything (which every forecast predicted). It was heavy then but not frozen solid so it was pretty manageable.
If you can't reach the roof of your car you need to keep a small step-stool in the back of it along with your ice-scraper and snow brush during the winter months for those occasions. You want to own that car then you need to be responsible for being able to drive it safely.
You say that you "couldn't do it any other way" but you also could've gotten up twenty or thirty minutes earlier or called in to work to say you're going to be late and idled the car with the heat going until it softened up enough to get it off before driving it.
Ah a three car household.
Ah a three car household. Maybe that is why I had to park two blocks from my apartment. I can see your point but you do come off as awfully high and mighty. Where exactly would I put this stool, on the uneasy ice that it will not penetrate? So now I am sitting here in a car for 45 minutes waiting for it to defrost. The alternative was to trek back and forth from my apartment where I was shoveling, while trying to get work done from home , back over to the car two blocks over with a step stool on icy patches I guess.
We also all don't have jobs where it is always ok if you call in late.
You are looking at the world through a particular prism assuming everyone lives the same way you do and everything operates the same way for everyone. Some call that privileged. I won't but some would.
Who made assumptions?
Did I say all three cars were mine? People do clear cars for older relatives and neighbors you know. Did I say that any of them were parked on the street? There are lots of neighborhoods in the city where houses have driveways that will hold multiple cars.
I don't assume that everyone lives the way I do but everyone makes choices. When I lived in a dense part of the city I chose to go car free and rented or borrowed the times when I really needed one. You chose to live in the city with a car without a dedicated spot to keep it in, that means that you need to figure out a way to operate that vehicle safely in all seasons.
Since every forecast predicted that the temperature was going to plummet at night it doesn't take much experience in a colder climate to realize what was going to happen when all of that slush froze. Had you gone out last night to clear the car you wouldn't have faced your problems.
You still take no responsibility in your response and instead prattle off more lame excuses. How do you feel about drunk driving? There are a host of excuses that people use to justify themselves driving home after drinking. Let's translate what you said to that realm. "I was out drinking but it's okay because I was being really careful and driving slowly with the radio off so I could concentrate."
Cheers!
/s
Yup
I did the same thing. 10 o'clock out on the street, shoveling out the space (because it would have been impossibly frozen the next morning) and clearing off the car. Much easier when you can push it off rather than chipping it off.
Could be a very dangerous plan
That could easily result in warming the roof, unsticking the whole inch-thick plate of ice, and causing it to blow off in one 50 lb piece, right into the driver behind you.
I learned my lesson ~40 years ago
I was a clueless kid who blasted off in his car after a night of wet snow, rain, then freezing temps. Getting on the highway the next morning, after the engine had a chance to warm up, a huge piece of ice blew off the hood, over the roof - and very luckily, onto the road. That ice chunk could have really hurt or killed someone. As clueless as I was, I realized how lucky I was and haven't done that since.
Or justice could happen
I have more than once seen someone driving with a glacier on their roof pull up to a stop sign and have the whole mess slide onto their windshield. Then they have no choice but to clean it off.
I long ago lived in Fitchminster and commuted to work on rte 2 east, which for large stretches points directly at the rising winter sun. I saw several geniuses like the one in this post race onto the highway without clearing their windshield, then slam on their brakes when the glare of the sun lit up the ice on their glass and blinded them. You've got to leave room for those bozos to have their teachable moment.
A friend posted this morning
A friend posted this morning that the guy in front of her on her way to work this morning failed to clean off his roof, just like you did, resulting in the ice from his roof flying off onto hers, denting her roof and causing damage to the light on the *inside* of her car. If that ice had dropped a couple of feet sooner, she'd have been in the hospital instead of safely at work. There's a reason it's illegal to drive with snow on your roof. You don't want to be the person who killed the driver behind you because you didn't want to wait a few minutes for the snow to melt or go get a step stool.
Long handled ice scraper
What you need to get is an extendable snow brush/ice scraper. I'm short & can't see over the top of my car, but I can clear it off with one of those babies.
Best eight bucks I ever spent at Ocean State Job Lot.
I got one at my local farm supply
It's a telescoping one, and I expected it to break or become unusable because usually these things are so cheezy, but it's done a great job all winter. As long as I'm using this, I can clear my roof - with a normal car brush, it would take a ladder.
They sell them at auto stores, places like Target
They last a long time! I got a scraper/brush with a telescoping handle when I first got a minivan. It lasted from 2004-2013 (the minivan era). I bought it end of season for small money when I realized that I was way too short to even get to the windshield easily.
My neighbor bought a commercial van the same week that I changed over to a smaller vehicle. I gave him the extension brush. He still uses it, although a piece broke off yesterday. 13 years ain't bad!
I'm very glad that we pulled off the crossbars from our roof rack before the storm. Made it easier to slide off the snow before it froze down solid. Little things!
You can also pick them up at supermarkets
such as Market Basket, although they're usually available only in late fall or early winter (under the retailer's rules of forcing the next season on shoppers prematurely). My experience has been they typically last me eight to ten years before they break (normally when the telescoping piece fails).
Shovel
Plastic shovels cost about $10. One lives in my car from November to April. Good for shoveling the car out, shoveling it off, pushing snow off the roof, scraping the windows, shoveling it out of ditches, shoveling snow out from under the car …
A brush is nice but for 10" of slush a shovel is nicer.
Although...
...if you waited until Monday to buy a shovel, you might very well have been SOL. The space formerly reserved for shovels is probably all taken up with grills and lawn furniture now.
GRILLS AND LAWN FURNITURE! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
You and your roof cake are a
You and your roof cake are a sibling of this guy. All it takes is that sheet of ice and snow to finally get dislodged, but only slide off when you're braking in traffic to completely block your windshield. Never mind the fact that if it flies off your roof and onto a nearby car, it spells trouble either way.
Remember Jerry, if you
Remember Jerry, if you believe it, it's not a lie.
What's the problem Officer?
I can see fine! I made a driver side hole right there!
"Officer? Where are you? Can
"Officer? Where are you? Can you move towards the front of the vehicle?"
Wipers Up!
For good luck?
Wipers Up!
Because they're EXTRA lazy.
It was like concrete for us
Even if the windshield was clear the areas where the weather turned rainy meant that the snow on the roof was like a layer of cement. That flying off at highway speed is a huge safety risk and those folks should be stopped too.
It IS illegal to not clear
It IS illegal to not clear the snow off your roof for that very reason.
Also, recently the Mass Legislature passed a (very good) law requiring use of headlights whenever wipers are on -just like New York state. From what I've seen, an awful lot of people don't know about this.
Perhaps more of the narcissism that is so rampant today: "I can see fine - so what's the problem?"
Many cars have an automatic
Many cars have an automatic setting for headlights that have the headlights come on when it gets dim outside. Mine will shift on as soon as I enter a tunnel and turn off as soon as I leave. I've also seen them click on with strong clouds overhead... I can see how people can easily forget about turning their headlights on when they turn on the wipers because the car automatically does it otherwise.
I would like to see the technology get to the point where it turns the lights on when it senses a strong solar glare as that can make other cars almost impossible to see and having headlights on in those cases actually helps highlight the other car in those seconds when your windshield turns into a giant glowing sheet of reflection.
My car has that feature
However, it's not truly automatic - you have to set the headlight control to the automatic position for it to work. Once in the automatic position, the headlights will come on not only when it gets dark, but also when you activate the wipers.
FWIW, I suspect the reason many people don't turn their headlights on in the rain or other times when it's not dark out is that, on nearly all late model cars, the dash lights come on regardless of whether or not the headlights are on. In years past, the dash lights were tied into the headlight circuit so at least the running lights(aka parking lights) had to be on for them to illuminate.
Those folks are stopped, too
Or, at least one of them was:
I waited until the last
I waited until the last minute to clear the snow off the car - it was REALLY easy to do since it was so wet - it just slid off. Unfortunately, more snow and cold temps came late in the evening and iced over the car once it cooled down. But just required a little scraping in the morning and running the car.
If you were lazy and waited to clear your car until the morning... good luck. Way more work for you to clear the layer of ice. Obviously, this person was too lazy and in a rush... and thanks, State Police!
How about...
...a little preparation aka do it before its blocks of ice on your car. I really despise those lazy ppl. Soccer moms with SUV's suck in general and they are the biggest culprits. Lazy narcissistic asshats.
I was this person years ago.
I got from Fields corner to prudential center parking with a porthole in a blizzard. When I came back an 2 hours later the 8 inch snow blocks had slid off.
Once I was was in a red civic with a inch layer of ice on my hood. the windshields were all clear. But every time we got above 30 on rte 9 the ice rose up to block the windshield. finally it flew up and broke on the windshield in a million pieces.
Is there a moral to your
Is there a moral to your story?
nope. is it required?
nope. is it required?
That driver should not be on the road
period. Obviously, something is not OK upstairs.
driving in snow
Chapter 3 of the MA drivers manual, pg 74 section on WINTER DRIVING........states.....REMOVE ICE AND SNOW FROM YOUR VEHICLE BEFORE DRIVING. CLEAR ALL WINDOWS, WINDSHIELD WIPERS, HEADLIGHTS, AND BRAKE LIGHTS. CLEAR THE ROOF SO ICE AND SNOW DOES NOT BLOW INTO VEHICLES BEHIND YOU.
Looks like his back windshield is not cleared all the way,either
n/t
Is there a way to report these assholes?
My neighbor does this every snowstorm. I have plenty of time to snap a pic and send it to whomever would be interested in the 30 minutes he spends trying to get to the road (since he's the kind of lazy asshole who would rather thrash his tires and transmission for 30 minutes every time he goes in and out than shovel out a spot once).
Is that shitbox
Too big to clean off the snow ?
Enjoy your surcharge you asshole
License plate
Just because this vehicle has a MA plate doesn't necessarily make him a Masshole. Many buffoons from out of state actually register there vehicles here.
Why?
Why? If you don't live in MA, what's the advantage of registering your car here?