I was driving on the I-10 in Phoenix yesterday, a Saturday afternoon. A City of Phoenix Tahoe started swerving left to right and back again across 6 lanes of traffic with their lights on. Weather was clear, traffic relatively light and no one I saw speeding. This almost caused a multiple car rear end collision as we went from 60 to under 30 relatively quickly. Luckily my exit was in 1/2 a mile after this started (would have exited anyway just to avoid whatever situation this was).
Can someone explain this police maneuver?
- Thread starter dishdude
- Start date
What's with the stopped patrol car on the right hand side.
Only thing I can think of is they're trying to slow/stop the whole road and only have one car avail.
Only thing I can think of is they're trying to slow/stop the whole road and only have one car avail.
+1. Took the words out of my mouth.
GON
$175 Site Donor 2026
Bingo- was taking action to prevent vehicles from forward movement. Years ago it was common for drivers to pull to the right and stop when emergency vehicles are presence. Today, not so much. Supplementally, many drivers' today are on the smartphone and don't have situational awareness outside pf what is directly in front of them, and the smart phone discussion.
Propflux01
$100 Site Donor 2026
That is exactly what they are doing. Trying to stop or slow traffic due to an emergency ahead. They swerve the lane so nobody thinks their lane is "clear to pass".
I've seen this multiple times. Seems to be an effective way to slow traffic way down...
I see that when there is debris on the highway further ahead from some careless idiots unsecured load, and another officer is further ahead removing said debris.
CHP calls it a traffic break. Many reasons to do it including backing up traffic to allow a vehicle or debris to be removed from lanes.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2026
Name a reason to slow down traffic: Accident, procession, VIP, protests, oversize load, filming, etc.
Here is the opening scene of the Grand Tour. At 1.52min you can see back in the distance CHP doing a "traffic break:"
Here is the opening scene of the Grand Tour. At 1.52min you can see back in the distance CHP doing a "traffic break:"
Life is just not fair....... I was never able to find a job like that.....
Traffic break. MN State Patrol uses this to slow or stop traffic. Often is used to allow another unit ahead to remove an obstruction from the roadway.
Here is a traffic brake on CHiPS:
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Yes, correct. It was part of my SP training back in the late 90's. Slows down multiple lanes of traffic. Very useful to slow down a 3-4 lane highway while another Troop removed debris ahead.
I’ve seen it many times in California, much less in Texas or other states. It’s likely for legit reasons, but with governments the way they are, it could be for something stupid as well.
For some reason I picture the LEO in the vehicles as being this way:
Traffic break. The CHP will do this in certain sections of the interstate to slow traffic down. It works until the patrol exits the roadway.
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