My thanks to all the posters here. I daily drive a '96 Miata and thought it was my imagination that cars were crossing over the line and trying to hit me... or that it was somehow my fault for being smaller than a monster truck with badly aligned side mirrors (if going the same direction). My thought is that you "coned" if you simply touched the line. Crossing over it is unforgivable.
I see this in turns mostly. Early apexers, all of them!
It's terrifying, especially when I'm on my motorcycle. My bike sits up high enough that I can look down into most windshields. The amount of brain-dead zombies staring at their phones as they drive is astonishing. I'd bet it's 6 out of every 10 cars I pass. Few things are more unnerving than being on a bike, headed directly into oncoming traffic, and seeing the driver's face buried in their phone.
It's gotta stop---- for the first time in years, the traffic highway fatalities have gone UP. This despite mandates for a bazillion airbags per car, safety cameras and all the ridiculous equipment we now saddled with. Having the safest vehicle on the road doesn't mean you can't kill someone with it. I'd like that person not to be me. 
Maybe we could add rumble strips to more center lines?
pres589 wrote: In reply to ebonyandivory: I was trying to keep this thread from getting locked up under the patio. Not sure why, now that I think about it...
I'm not sure why myself.
In reply to spin_out:
I had been talking with others and I've been pointing it out to my wife (she sometimes beeps if she catches it now too) but I hesitated posting here about it because I've been caught up in rants - traffic or otherwise - and didn't want to start one and have it go out of control. Especially if I was alone in my thoughts about it.
Good to see my faith in "us" was rewarded with 3 pages so far of like-minded posts!
Crxpilot wrote: Maybe we could add rumble strips to more center lines?
They are breaking their backs here in central Texas doing that to all the roads they can. Of course until the very beginning of this year it was perfectly legal to text and drive so...
In reply to Crxpilot:
Did you say spike strips or rumble strips?
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To put this into context the garage was full with valet parking blocking in cars by about a count of 20 with also a dozen charging spots unfilled and unblocked. And each of those four spots you see are for compacts.
I think the rumble strips on the side may contribute to this as well, people trying to sty of the rumbly rumbly and overcompensating. I commute 100+miles per day and can't believe how many people are just driving along on autopilot...
Try driving in central Italy someday. 20+ years ago when I was living there, centerlines for roads were entirely optional, regardless of the direction you're going. 2-lane road and you want to pass but there's traffic comign the other way? Just pull out and straddle the middle line....oncoming traffic will move over without even a honk, and the guy you're passing will move over and straddle te shoulder to let you by (all this provided you flashed your high-beams to indicate passing is happening, which is considered courteous there - whereas in the US flashing high beams at someone is considered an insult).
And there were no smartphones or fancy car electronics then - it was just a bunch of people who didn't give a berkeley.
Also optional there: stopsigns, signals (unless you want to camp in the left lane of a highway, then left signal is left flashing), stoplights, yielding to oncoming traffic, speed limits, one-way roads, and the guy filling your gas at the full-service pump is 100% of the time always smoking a cigarette.
Damn, those were some fun driving days in an old Lancia Delta......
Also, did red lights and stop signs recently become optional?
Road signs are merely suggestions/something to think about, while driving aimlessly down the deserted highway you are on. My observation is that when most people slide behind the steering wheel the rest of the world disappears. Too much scary out there.
In reply to David S. Wallens:
Stop signs with white rings around them are optional, aren't they?
RevRico wrote: In reply to David S. Wallens: Stop signs with white rings around them are optional, aren't they?
That must be it. A week or two ago I followed a truck that just sailed right through a stop sign. Fortunately he stopped at the red light up the street.
Everything you've all described has been standard fare for we motorcyclists for years. We see E36 M3 you wouldn't believe.
Crxpilot wrote: Maybe we could add rumble strips to more center lines?
Lots of them around here. Seems all new pavement gets them.
Cell phones could zap the user with a 50k volt shock when they detect that the user is driving. Seems like a modest proposal that could change driving habits and save lives.
Cars need a like / dislike feature so that other drivers can give you a rating on the fly and it is displayed on your trunk in realtime.
Here in CT, I see this issue a lot on backroads. Thankfully, I don't see cell phones being the majority of the issue on these roads. Most roads in town are narrow and poorly maintained, so people avoid the right-most 3' of a lane if they can due to the potholes. We have some roads that don't have a center line, and I agree that most drivers aren't aware of the size of their vehicle and their placement on the road. I always slow down to a crawl on roads without a center line when a car is coming in the opposite direction, but most barrel on without so much as inching over to their side of the road.
A big improvement would be widening the road by at least 18" on either side when it's due for a repaving.
Tyler H wrote: Cars need a like / dislike feature so that other drivers can give you a rating on the fly and it is displayed on your trunk in realtime.
That's similar to an episode of Black Mirror (S03E01). Pretty twisted in the social sense, but like the idea for the road.
fasted58 wrote: I'd attribute that to phone use also. Phone in ear = driver loses peripheral vision on that side. I'm staunchly against any hand held usage at all. If you can afford a few hundred dollar or more phone you can afford Bluetooth, factory or aftermarket. There oughta be a law.
In CA it is against the law to hold your phone while driving - though the fine isn't very stiff.
In reply to David S. Wallens:
No red lights just became stop signs and stop signs became some sort of slow down roll through and be prepared to maybe yield signs. 
I have a 4-way stop on my way to work as well. As I'm cruising up to it, I see 7/10 vehicles merely slow down and I've seen many drive the speed limit right on through.
iceracer wrote:Crxpilot wrote: Maybe we could add rumble strips to more center lines?Lots of them around here. Seems all new pavement gets them.
I haven't been on a motorcycle in quite some time, but, with those rumble strips in the center, it seems like the penalty for crossing the center line in a turn would be death.
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