Driving Etiquette: How Not to Get Caught by the Police

Because I drive large vehicles for work more often than standard passenger cars, I observe and analyze traffic conditions from a high vantage point.

Looking down from a high cabin, you can see a square cutout in the center of the roof of unmarked police cars.

Once, while driving on the highway, I suppose they spotted the 10-ton truck I was driving from the passing lane 300 meters behind. They gradually closed the distance, and I was even able to identify the car model. It was an Alphard.

My truck was only doing 90 km/h, but I thought they passed me at 100 km/h, which is 10 km/h faster.

Then, a white Crown came trailing behind it. When I wondered if it might be one, there it was. The cutout. The Alphard then cut in front of me without signaling, and after that, it kicked down and accelerated in the driving lane.

It suddenly accelerated to about 150 km/h. Will it come out, the mole from Whac-A-Mole?

Then, as expected, the mole turned red, and with a blaring siren, they said, 'Yes, you there, pull over. Please follow behind the police car,' and they were led off to the interchange exit.

I felt absolutely no sympathy. Divine punishment befalls reckless driving.

When many drivers get caught by the police, the first thing they express is, 'I was just unlucky today.'

It is not that they are unlucky; they are caught because they were meant to be caught.

You, who keep driving in the passing lane on multi-lane roads. Isn't your competitive spirit running high?

That in itself is a violation of the traffic lane, and aren't you stepping on the accelerator while harboring a sharp sense of inferiority about being passed?

That is what you call being single-celled. In the first place, why are you driving a car? It is to reach your destination, not to compete with others.

I would like you to keep that in mind.
Also, the reason why there are people who occasionally drive recklessly or do whatever they want is because of anonymity.

No matter how much trouble that behavior causes others, if they are not identified as themselves, there is no reason for them to feel shame.

However, many of you have likely noticed that driving manners have become much better than before, now that road rage has become a conceptualized issue.

It is also related to the fact that we can now leave evidence with dashcams.

Even so, there are still outlaws. That is why the police will never run out of work.

However, I thought of writing this article for those who still cannot change their driving etiquette.

For those who never seem to get a gold license and are made to listen to the same talk for two hours every time they renew their license.

First, on multi-lane roads with a speed limit of 50–70 km/h, you want to speed. The police will overlook it if you are about 10 km/h over. But if you are 20 km/h over, you will get caught.

However, what do you think an unmarked police car would do if it witnessed not just you, but about 5 to 10 cars driving at 90 km/h on a 50 km/h limit road?

I have encountered that scene several times. I was not one of those 5 or 6 cars. I was watching from behind.

I thought a protrusion would appear from the roof of the unmarked police car and they would start a pursuit, but they just turned on the rotating light and did not enforce the law.

Why don't they make an arrest? It is not that they don't, it is that they cannot.

Suppose they only arrest the last of the 5 speeding cars. What would that person say to the police?

'Why are you only catching me? The four cars in front of me were going faster than me, weren't they? I don't mind being caught, so catch the other four as well,' they would say.

Naturally. This logic is sound. It is underhanded to only catch the cars that are easy to catch.

Perhaps such exchanges happened everywhere in the past. That is why the police were likely trained to sound the intimidating siren but not to make an arrest.

However, a lone speeder is easy prey for the police. Or rather, the police are hunters who only aim for that.

They are lying in wait, holding their breath, on the frontage roads of national highways.

So, if you don't want to get caught, stop speeding alone.

This means you must refrain from passing as much as possible. If you let the car accelerating rapidly from behind go first, you have hit the jackpot. The possibility of becoming police prey decreases all at once.

However, it is simple, but if you don't drive in a way that violates the law, you don't have to be conscious of the police.

Then why do people commit traffic violations? It is because they are rarely caught. It is because they have a track record of not getting caught.

It is about one arrest for every 100 to 1,000 violations. There are probably quite a few people who think it is ridiculous to drive quietly every time for such a probability.

However, for someone who drives every day, assuming a rate of 1 in 100, they will get caught three times a year.

If it is a series of minor violations, you won't have your license suspended, but if speeding is involved, you are out.

Also, what is interesting is that once you get a gold license, you almost never get caught.

Perhaps a sense of values sprouts within your consciousness.

What I always think every time I renew my license is that there are surprisingly few people with gold licenses.

And most of them are women and the elderly. There are overwhelmingly few people in their 20s to early 30s.

The reason is that they have not yet paid enough tuition.

In that respect, I have paid plenty of tuition and have been educated, so I will likely not be arrested.