Hard to tell. It kind of looks like the end of a merge lane after the markings have run out, which is where I often see people pulling stuff like this. (It would mean that whoever filmed that was also driving on the shoulder since they're right behind the black car.)
I don't know, but I see way more "civilian dashcam videos" from east-ish Europe and Russia than I do from everywhere else combined. And the only three locals I know who have them are originally from Poland, Yugoslavia, and Russia.
There's just either a larger adoption there, or a larger "share what I see from my car" culture there.
And this? This is another example, because that's definitely in mainland Europe somewhere. Could be Russia, but if it is that truck on the left is a REALLY long way from home.
I'd noticed the same thing from old Eastern Bloc countries and hadn't really thought about it, but your phrasing made me think there was a reason for it.
I recently read somewhere that Russia and neighbouring countries were particularly prone to the "Oh noez you has run me over you must pay (http://i.imgur.com/Nst9s.gif)" style insurance frauds, and as a result, there's a massively disproportionate adoption of dashcams there.
True. Though I'd say it is not that much of an insurance fraud, but rather an extortion scheme when a "victim" threatens to report the case to the authoties if not paid in cash. The main reason for the dashcams popularity is not this one. The main reason is the level of corruption in Russia, which is specifically the case among the road police. So in case of collisions with other cars people have a somewhat reliable evidence that it was not their fault. This reduces the chances of a case being set up against them if the other driver has "connetions". Unfortunately, it does not remove the risk entirely, as some cases show. Sometimes the road police officers themselves extort money, and here a dashcam may work as a good repellent.
Oh, sorry, the way he phrased it I thought he was saying there were specific reasons that dashcams were more popular in Europe, I wasn't doubting the location.
This is an all-too common thing in Houston. Anywhere there's a traffic jam, someone is going to try to cut in on you and then get angry if you don't let them in...
The last time this happened on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, a truck wide enough to cover the shoulder _and_ some part of the right-most lane had a driver that finally had enough of the speshul snowflakes sneaking past and started to drive to block the shoulder... at the speed of the crawling traffic.
The line that formed behind him got the idea and melted back into traffic soon enough, and it was a thing of beauty. He was given enough space by those in the road that he could have let an actual emergency vehicle go by, too.
We had a transit strike here a few years back, which resulted in total commuter gridlock meltdown, and for the first few days, many raging assholes "inventing" new lanes for themselves.
And then I noticed the regular commuters started driving "sloppily" half onto the favorite new-lane spots. As you approached that slightly-wider spot in the road, traffic would start to just neatly and orderly drift over to that part of the shoulder... just enough to make it impossible to shoulder-surf without an all-terrain vehicle anyways.
It was like a big, silent, hive minded "fuck you" to people who couldn't sit in line with the rest of us. It was GLORIOUS.
It looks like a commercial for front wheel drive, gone horribly wrong! A rear wheel drive car could've just backed out :-)
Notice how the hung-up driver's opening his door as the camera passes, ready to play in traffic too?
Sadly, after enjoying weeks of collision free driving, last week had 3 major collisions along my drive (none with me). One featured a delivery van hung up on a concrete divider where it's similarly angled down for the intersection, but the van was angled enough to CLOSE ROUTE ONE for the wrecker to pull it off. It instantly caused a major backup with no way to drive around it.
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Date: 2012-09-11 04:49 pm (UTC)-- Steve gets so annoyed by folks breaking the rules of the road, as it puts so many others at risk.
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Date: 2012-09-11 05:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-11 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-11 09:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-11 10:22 pm (UTC)There's just either a larger adoption there, or a larger "share what I see from my car" culture there.
And this? This is another example, because that's definitely in mainland Europe somewhere. Could be Russia, but if it is that truck on the left is a REALLY long way from home.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-11 11:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-11 11:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-09-11 10:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-12 05:36 pm (UTC)The line that formed behind him got the idea and melted back into traffic soon enough, and it was a thing of beauty. He was given enough space by those in the road that he could have let an actual emergency vehicle go by, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-12 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-12 11:27 pm (UTC)And then I noticed the regular commuters started driving "sloppily" half onto the favorite new-lane spots. As you approached that slightly-wider spot in the road, traffic would start to just neatly and orderly drift over to that part of the shoulder... just enough to make it impossible to shoulder-surf without an all-terrain vehicle anyways.
It was like a big, silent, hive minded "fuck you" to people who couldn't sit in line with the rest of us. It was GLORIOUS.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-11 08:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-12 02:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-12 09:15 am (UTC)Notice how the hung-up driver's opening his door as the camera passes, ready to play in traffic too?
Sadly, after enjoying weeks of collision free driving, last week had 3 major collisions along my drive (none with me). One featured a delivery van hung up on a concrete divider where it's similarly angled down for the intersection, but the van was angled enough to CLOSE ROUTE ONE for the wrecker to pull it off. It instantly caused a major backup with no way to drive around it.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-12 12:57 pm (UTC)Perfect caption is perfect.
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Date: 2012-09-13 11:50 am (UTC)