[johnmaguire]

On the other hand, at age 20, with very high premiums, I got one of these devices which never beeped except on a few too-short exit ramps on highways in my city. The choice on these exits is to slow down traffic on the highway, or endure a "hard stop" by braking immediately when you are on the ramp, and coming to a full stop at the stop sign.

Just a few of these was enough that my "discount" was only a few dollars. I regret giving Progressive my driving data.

[ip26]

I had a somewhat similar experience - as I recall, most beeps happened as a result of a few stop lights with too-short yellows (e.g. the light changes yellow and you, even though you are below the speed limit, either panic stop or run the red light)

The only possible fix as a driver was to try to develop an intuition for spotting “stale” greens and start slowing down despite the green, anticipating the yellow.

I feel at least partially vindicated by the fact the lights in question eventually had their yellows extended.

[marcosdumay]

If there's no extra exit lane, the right choice is to slow down traffic on the highway.

What will happen if there's some oil spill or brake failure at the point you think you should break hard?

[johnmaguire]

The exit ramp is not sufficiently short as to be unable to stop safely, even with my old 2001 Toyota Corolla. It is however sufficiently short that you cannot stop without recording a 'hard brake' on the Progressive Snapshot device.

Obviously the calculus changes at rush hour when the exit ramp (and highway) begin to back up. And in those cases, yes, of course the correct answer is to slow down before the ramp, even if it means impeding traffic. (Or take the next exit.)

Just for fun, there's also a very short entrance ramp onto a 65mph highway in this city, which requires you to accelerate uphill from a stop sign with a very limited runway (~200 ft.) This entrance has been responsible for far more accidents and crashes than the exit I initially described.

[_carbyau_]

There is no upside to giving personal data to a for-profit company with a monolithic amount of money and a clear view of the statistics around any activity.

The incentives just don't line up.

[xnx]

What if you're a safer driver than most and tired of subsidizing maniacs?

[colechristensen]

I'm fine with having opted in to doing it for 30 days once.