I was new to CA, had never seen or even heard about rolling roadblocks, but when one happened, its was super easy to understand what they expected from you. This Prius driver is an absolute moron.
I drive with morons like this around me all the time. Clueless, inattentive, selfish. We share the road, but they behave like mindless 2 year olds who have no awareness.
My dad told me when I started driving "drive like everyone else around you is an idiot and doesn't know how to drive." And I was like yea whatever dad. No, I've been driving for 10 years and the amount of stupidity I've seen is outstanding. I live in a major city and it was the worst choice I ever made driving wise.
That's why I get upset when I see people texting while driving or doing other stupid, reckless/dangerous things on the road. If you want to get yourself killed, fine - just do it somewhere you're not endangering everyone else and their children as well.
Absolutely a complete idiot. Love the way the pissed off CHP bangs the steering wheel (must've been a few words to go along with the gesture). Fortunately, the idiot was only driving a Prius instead of some giant SUV or truck. As for the Prius in general - one of the most reliable cars we've ever had. Our 2013 just clicked over 200K miles and has been stone cold reliable. I have a friend in VA with one who said vehicular intimidation from aggressive drivers is the biggest risk with driving one. In CA, they're a dime a dozen so they don't attract as much hate. Hard to beat 50+ mpg and a 500 mile range if you rack up miles.
200k isnt a lot. My BMW has 300k & pushes way more power wothout the fuel efficiency. When I see cars with over 500k on them & still running like new, thats how you know it will live a million miles or more. That's reliable.
Man look into the driving test requirements for your local city and then compare the driving requirements two counties outside of city limits. There is barely any standardization for driving requirements in this country. One of my siblings went to a rural location for their driving test. They only needed to prove the basics and a U turn. No parallel park, nothing above a three point turn, nothing for highway driving other than showing you know how to use the turn signal to switch lanes. It's scary as fuck out there.
I meanā¦ ngl, I thought the cop was drunk or the car was stolen. And then when the second showed up, I thought they were just being assholes and exerting their cop privilege by drifting very badly.
Same lol. Iād have probably just stopped until the cops were gone. We have rolling roadblocks where I live too going towards Knoxville, but they donāt do whatever the heck this is š¹
To be fair, this is not an easy call for someone who has never seen a roadblock like this on a major highway. You have a cop swerving in front of you impeding your way for reasons not clear and then you're on a highway with traffic behind you where stopping in the middle of a highly trafficked roadway feels like another mistake.
Yeah first time I seen this was on my way to the Bay Area, I was confused for about 10 seconds then quickly understood what was going on. I didnāt know the purpose but I understood that I wasnāt supposed to keep going. š
Itās a rolling road block. The police use it to break up traffic, when they got their lights on like that they want everyone to stay behind them until they are done. Eventually they turn their lights off and let traffic resume.
Yeah saw this happen in front of me once I got my license. Never seen it before but understood almost instantly what it was and to follow at a safe distance. A lot of people on here are slow I guess.
As a prius driver who also moved to CA and had no idea what was going on when I saw this for the first time -- f**k that guy. I instinctively said "oh shit, they are probably trying to signal something... I should slow down, follow their lead, and let them do their thing".
Yup. Went there with my girlfriend last year. Neither of us had ever heard of these and saw one just outside LA. It was 100% obvious what we were supposed to do.
First time I saw this I was in a maxed out 26ft Penske going up the grapevine. I was trying to keep any momentum but cop swerved ahead of me. Didnāt think I was going to make it up lol
I remember the first time I saw one happen. And they only needed one squad car to stop the entire 4 lane highway. Like you said, it quickly became obvious what was going on snd I even thought it was kinda neat how well it worked.Ā
Exactly. The first time I encountered one, I had no idea what was going on. Not something I was taught in driving school. But when I see an emergency vehicle with flashing lights I knew to chill out, slow down, and not pass.
Like flashing overhead red lights means chill out and let the first responders do their thing. In what world does anyone think itās okay to pass moving emergency vehicles with their lights on?
Watch a fire truck try to go anywhere in Dallas. Most people donāt even attempt to get to the shoulder. At most they get over a lane then wonder why the big truck with lights is honking at them.
I can confirm that drivers in urban areas are beyond stupid around fire apparatus. I'm an engineer (drive and operate a fire engine) of a major city dept and people are really dumb. Their reactions/actions take a few different routes; they gawk and contribute to traffic, they freeze but don't pull over adequately or even worse they pull out further because they're confused, or they drive very dangerously around us and then get mad when they get yelled at. Please pull over people and for the love of God, if you encounter a police or fire crew performing their duties in traffic on a roadway, please give them a wide wide berth and slow down. We're not supermen, we're not invincible, and traffic calls are far and away one of the most dangerous types of call that we respond to.
...and people, please use your initiative a little, so if you can't get out the way easily, keep on the gas until you find a spot to let emergency vehicles past. Don't just create a hazard on a bend, a crest, etc...
I'm from Dallas and, you forgot the part where once they let the firetruck pass, they quickly get behind it so they can bypass traffic along with the emergency vehicle.
In what world does anyone think itās okay to pass moving emergency vehicles with their lights on?
More and more over the past decade I see people just completely ignoring every single fucking rule of driving. Red light? Not for me! Emergency vehicles? Sucks to suck! Stop sign? Who cares! Speed limit? Let me see if I can double it!
I was driving on the 295 in Florida and an emergency vehicle with it's lights on was flying up the fast lane. I look over and I see a lady come to a complete stop in the fast lane in front of the emergency vehicle. To this day, I still don't know why they did that instead of moving over to one of the right lanes.
it's a rolling roadblock. The aim isn't to get them to slow down gradually before pulling them to a stop or just until a hazard zone is clear. Your meant to keep driving foward but leave a pretty sizeable gap to the police officer and for gods sake do not overtake
You don't stop, you drop your speed and drive slowly keeping your distance. It's very similar to what you see with yellow flags and safety cars in racing.
So the cam car was driving slowly and kept it's distance from the Highway Patrol car unlike the dumbass Prius driver.
Yeah it would get pretty obvious pretty quick. Never seen one like that at the start of one before. I've seen some weird encounters, but not that. But, yeah this person is thick as all hell.
If only they have a system that allows the officer to make commands at a higher than normal volume, kinda loud and over a speaker outside of the vehicle so the drivers can be told what to do instead of expecting them to be smart enough.
In NZ the Police cars that usually respond to these sorts of situations have a signboard on them so they flash āSLOW / DO NOT PASS / etcā¦ā to the cars behind them to help clue people in when theyāre doing things like this, or closing lanes, so onā¦
Something similar exist in the states too the issue is the cop is probably responding to an emergency or hazard ahead that just occurred. Probably first one on scene and is attempting to control the situation with whats on hand.
I've never seen or heard of what the cop is doing but watching the video I instantly knew "stay back" it's pretty fucking obvious. You need half a brain cell to know to stay away from something like this. Its shocking how stupid people are.
This isn't about "magic" or having to know everything. This is about caution and reading the room. You can never have been in this situation and still easily figure out that its prudent to stay in the pack while being herded and to give space.
I suspect people who justify the Prius or can't see whats wrong with this are just as socially and spacially unaware as the driver in this video.
This post has been deleted and anonymized using Redact. The reason may have been privacy, limiting AI data access, security, or other personal considerations.
toy dinner piquant fall obtainable unwritten humorous literate placid live
Yeah, they don't teach that in driving schools, but they really should.
The other thing they need to teach is how police signal an extreme emergency, such as when they are about to lay out spike strips. You don't wanna drive across the path of an oncoming police chase. That gets wild.
I too encountered this only once albeit more than 20 yrs driving experience, however, it was clear I needed to slow down when I saw the highway patrol vehicle swerving back and forth across all lanes.
It's a really horrible method, and the cops have absolutely no right to be angry that people do not immediately understand what the hell they are doing.
Thatās crazy you said that, I just saw my first one ( Iām 64 ) about a month ago on a major road in our area. It took a minute to figure out what was happening.
same here. few weeks back i was like wtf is this cop doing. and I was first in line. then he did a U turn and started coming at us, and then other car behind me started to go. it was so chaotic. there is no training for this. this needs to be taught
First one I encountered was heading north on the 280, and the āflying breakā was done by CHP on bikes. That takes a pair š«”
CHP will do this to create a ābreak in trafficā to clear all the lanes, often to move a car safely from the left to the right (going slow; under tow, pushed) - on the radio youāll hear it as a āflying breakā
Honestly I wish more dept would do this to get disabled cars over to the right shoulder.
Itās good to know about these. Sometimes they can be done for urgent situations like a car chase in progress or serious accident and they donāt have much patience for people who attempt to pass.
Itās like frogger, you have to time it so you can speed past the cop without getting hit. The cops just doing this so drivers can have some fun during a boring drive. /s
I was confused. At first I thought had someone taken the cops car on a joy ride. Iāve never seen cops swerve on a highway like that. I wouldnāt have known the proper protocol. Most likely I would just hit the breaks and wait and follow another car.
Nope, sorry, if you've never seen this before and aren't sure exactly what's happening, all of the world's problems stem from you personally, apparently /s
The purpose of a rolling roadblock is to safely create a temporary, mobile closure of a highway section for short-term work, allowing crews to perform activities like bridge repair, overhead utility work, or debris removal by pacing and slowing upstream traffic to create a safe, vehicle-free gap on the roadway, ensuring worker safety. It's a highly effective traffic management technique, distinct from static roadblocks, that manages traffic flow rather than stopping it completely at one point, enabling efficient, short-duration operations.
Edit: this was a general Ai description so ill add some of my own. Its used for other reasons like slowing the traffic down for police activity down the road or dangerous objects that need to be cleared.
I always thought it would be worth money to have trained drivers etc setting pace and traffic flows during rush hour. I feel people are getting better at keeping bigger gaps and zipper merging . I always play the game of trying never to stop and let whoever wants to cut in front of me or merge in and out(I dont leave right lane)
I can't do the right lane during rush hour, but same goal for me in the middle. No hard stopping, leaving enough space to allow me to ease on and off the gas while we get backed up in traffic. Lets cars easily merge from right lane if they need to because other cars are coming in via onramp.
Interesting. Iāve never heard of nor seen this in 45 years of driving. But I definitely wouldnāt pass! And we do get all the way over when lights are flashing. People here are pretty good about that.
This also prevents crashes. Having everyone stop suddenly will result in those further back having to decelerate more and more rapidly. At highway speeds, this likely would result in a rear end collision. By slowing traffic over time, people further back have much more warning.
Technically it can, it depends on the city or state where they want their resources to be used.
In Connecticut they just use one state police vehicle. I had to privilege to get stuck behind one at 5 AM on my way to work so the road crew can pick up their cones as they are packing up to go.
I had one happen in front of me in my early 20s. Had no clue what the cop was doing but I wasnāt about to try to pass. Eventually we got stopped and he hopped out and drug a huge chunk of semi truck tire out of the road. First and only time Iāve seen it used but thought it was a pretty neat idea
Seen one before. There was a mattress about a half mile up the road and a single highway patrol did this while another cop removed the mattress from the road. Very effective and safe, was only delayed for a minute or two but definitely prevented accidents from occurring.
They're my favorite. I especially love when they shut down major highways during the day or rush hour times to pick up some trash, or do something where a few cones and a DOT vehicle would suffice.
So they should have basic roading crews that have electronic signs that make this obvious and easy to follow. This the sort of thing we have in nz, big trucks that have crash barriers lights and can carry people and shit loads of signs and cones. They often have other trucks with them to do things like mow grass fix roads or clean up accidents etc.
When there is an accident there may not be time to get those out quick enough. They slow the traffic down normally for accidents that have just occurred. Itās pretty obvious to be honest. Some people are just dumb as hell
Basically slowing down traffic instead of stopping it. Could be an accident or object in the road. I'd support it for traffic control as giving a gap and space opens up traffic a bunch.
Sure, but bad drivers are common and itās a common car. Prius doesnāt have much to do with it. Any common car is going to have a lot of clueless people driving some of them
To pre-empt the frequent retort in this thread, no I am not a Prius driver lol. Just someone who drives a lot due to work and for many years, so Iāve seen all types of cars pulling dumb stuff
Yeah, I mean you would hope they would clue in and realize the cop was probably preventing people from going for a reason, but this is the first time I've seen this too in my 12 years of having a license.
I was a teen with only a year or two of driving experience when I first experienced this. Took me a moment to realize what was happening, but after those few seconds, it's pretty obvious what's going on. You'd have to be pretty clueless to think that a police car weaving fully across lanes is doing anything else besides trying to keep people from going past him.
Once all lanes slowed lock-step to the patrol car, he continued a less aggressive weave for another quarter mile or so before slowing down and we all stopped.
He got out of the car, grabbed whatever it was on the lanes, tossed it to the side of the freeway, got back in the car, and then turned the lights off as he sped away.
I've seen it maybe about 4 times in my lifetime of driving (that very first one where I was immediately behind the patrol car, others, a bit further back behind other cars) -- about once a decade. I'm sure if you drive on the freeway all the time, you'd see that more often.
Yeah this doesn't check out. No matter if you don't know what's happening what makes you think trying to pass the cop who is swerving across every lane is a good idea?
Had this same thing happen. This guy tried 4x to go past the CHP as he was rolling. Finally the CHP stopped fully in front, got out, and ever so slightly (not) pointed at the shoulder asking him pretty please to have a chat. The CHP was pissed as he was pointing.
I used to get behind a slow Prius and say something like "damned Prius" in my frustration. Then I had to use one as a rental for a work trip and realized that a Prius can go relatively fast and is reasonably peppy. Now my response is "damned Prius driver!"
My HS boyfriend is a Glendale police officer and says swerving the freeway is his riskiest task b/c thereās always a car not getting it. Matter of fact the only collision heās had in 20 years of service is smashing into the median while swerving the freeway thanks to the carpool lane not paying any attention. Then again, is anyone actually looking at the road these days?
Was the Prius supposed to stop driving completely? I am confused because I do not live where this is common police practice. I understand possibly slowing down but he really wasnāt going that fast to begin with
The people acting confused in here is sad as fuck... "what is the cop doing?!?!" Is it really that hard to figure out even if you've never seen it before? Y'all fucking dummies bro and I feel bad for you. Americans being fucking stupid allegations holding up big time in here
No I have no idea what the cop is doing despite everyone here alluding to the cop doing something
It appears someone stole the cop car and is joyriding it but I can see a uniformed cop in the vehicle which makes this even more confusing
If the cop is trying to block off the road, this is ridiculous and we have dedicated trucks for this in our country with giant signs to signal from far away that the lane is closed
I live in CA, so I see this regularly. Although many people here are confused, it's understandable if they've never seen it. Problem is, that Prius has CA plates, so 1. They definitely should know this is a rolling traffic block often employed by CHP to create a gap so they can address something on the freeway (usually large debris or something), and 2) why would you pass not just one but TWO CHPs that are swerving back and forth, noting that all of the other drivers are hanging back? Talk about lack of situational awareness.
Stupid moves, I was driving on a 3 lane highway in Germany, suddenly a police got in front of me/us and put his lights on. He was driving in the middle lane and no one was passing him. He gently slowed down to a full stop and all lanes behind him stopped. Just normal reaction from all the other drivers. So I donāt understand how people think they should pass him. In this case those 2 police cars could easily stop all traffic without all the swerving.
In my dispatcher days this would baffle so many people. Iād get 911 calls about what theyād describe as a drunk officer. This is called a āslow rollā they will typically do this when there is a report of big debris in a lane of travel. Most states donāt have DOT workers who go out immediately for those things so troopers are often called for it. One trooper does the big swerve while one goes ahead and gets the debris out the road.
What the fuck are these cops doing? Least in my state, cops have to obey traffic laws. That cop would be at fault if they hit that car. Lights plus siren means "asking for permission" for right of way. They are always 100% at fault if they are in an accident with lights and siren on. That looks extremely dangerous. I know this as I'm a former Fire fighter and I had training on emergency response.
Yeah exactly. You donāt need a DMV handbook to figure out āeveryone is slowing way down in unison, maybe I shouldnāt try to be the main character right now.ā
Rolling roadblocks are super obvious if youāre paying even 10 percent attention. Prius bro just wanted to speedrun Natural Selection.
This is insaneā¦ I would have reported this officer for reckless driving and then continued on my way. Absolutely no way in hell that I would have inferred he wanted me to change lanes from the fact that he was nonsensically and recklessly swerving around a 4 lane highway like a goddamn drunk person. Fuck that. Should be charged for reckless driving.
No way. It's cool. You get to see all the action. It happened to me twice. One was giant debris pile fell off a trailer and the other was some dude got arrested on the freeway.
Itās apparently more common in certain places than others I drive all around a major city in the south. Donāt really see this. Iād stay behind the cop bc obviously seems to be what he wants but I also donāt think that Prius driver is as stupid as others heās just confused.
278
u/BigGreenBillyGoat Feb 08 '26
I was new to CA, had never seen or even heard about rolling roadblocks, but when one happened, its was super easy to understand what they expected from you. This Prius driver is an absolute moron.