Autoblog

Have you ever hit the throttle when a traffic light turns yellow, and then it turns red faster than you thought? We know it's happened to us, and for the most part we thought the problem was our bad timing. In six cities across these United States, missing a yellow light has less to do with bad timing, and more to do with shorter amber signals.

Six cities have been busted recently for having an amber light that lasted less than the minimum timing at an intersection, and millions of dollars in fines have been collected when drivers went through the premature red and got caught on camera. Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; Springfield, Missouri; Lubbock, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Union City, California all cut the timing on their lights, and while some have paid back the fines, others have not. In Dallas, over $700,000 was collected in a matter of eight months, and in Tennessee the light timing was changed at only a few intersections, which just so happen to be the areas where local law enforcement set up traps.

While the millions of dollars in fines collected in these six cities is horrible, what's worse is that shorter amber lights mean more accidents and more injuries on the road. Hit the link below to read more information regarding the cities that were caught cheating, and if you get pulled over for blowing a red, make sure to time the light. The problem may not be you after all. Thanks for the tip, Thunder!

[Source: National Motorists Association]

The question of the day is, "If you're tasked with teaching a three-time Formula One champ to drive, what's the curriculum?" Some instructor in Brazil will be forced to answer that very query when he gets Nelson Piquet behind the wheel for a refresher on the rules of the road.

Piquet, who's racked up quite a collection of speeding offenses and parking tickets, is being forced by a Brazilian judge to go back to school for 30 hours over the course of eight days, after which he'll be required to re-take the driving test.

The 54-year old F1 wiz seemed rather jovial when asked to comment on the matter, simply saying that, "I think we have to pay for our mistakes." We're more than interested to see how it turns out, and we'd expect his instructor to come away with a host of intriguing stories and maybe a few new skills of his own.

[Source: Yahoo! News]

You take every precaution to protect your precious vehicle from the people that just don't understand. Still, despite your best efforts, some deranged idiot parks so close that you can't even see daylight between your door and his. The sense of rage builds until you feel that damage and desecration may not only be necessary, but justified. Next time, just reach in to your glove box (if you can get to it!) and extract some revenge without the pesky, time consuming insurance claims and jail time often associated with the destruction of personal property.

Just head over to www.revengeisyellow.com and place an order for a pad of their hilarious parking "notes".

The messages range from...

"This is just a note to say thank you for parking so close to my car. Next time, please leave a tin can opener so I can get my car out. Do society a favor and take the bus next time!"

Or... "Well done! It must of taken years of practice to be that bad. Maybe if you let your guide dog park next time, you might only take up one space, or at least get it straight."

Don't let the parking illiterate cause you undue stress. Just leave them a "note" to let them know just how much you appreciate their efforts.

[Source: PR Newswire]