Find out the driving conditions in a city you're visiting

Here are a couple of other user-generated Websites that could be of
interest to travelers. Check them out:

* Platewire.com

This site lets people tattle on potentially dangerous drivers by posting the offenders’ license plates along with a detailed description of his or her offensive behavior.

Somebody cut you off? Were you tailgated by a tractor trailer? Stuck behind a 100-year-old Buick driver going 25 mph on a 55 mph, one-lane road?

Don’t give in to road rage. Get even.

Since its founding last year, Platewire has posted more than 37,000 license plates attached to vehicles that somehow ticked off other drivers. The postings list the date, time and location of the various outrages, which occurred on roads, streets and highways across the country.

Mark Buckman, a software developer, launched the site last year after a 17-mile commute from his job in Arlington, Va. to his home in Fairfax, during which he was almost involved in five separate collisions caused by other drivers. The hazards included a guy who was driving with his knee while rummaging in the back seat of the car and an elderly man who made a right hand turn from the far left lane of the
highway.

"PlateWire intends to grow large enough to become a real deterrent to unsafe driving habits," Buckman writes on his site. "My goal is to bring awareness to bad drivers so they become aware of the dangers associated with the aggressive driving they have become accustomed to. So join in, vent your rage, and let us all do our part to make the roads safer."

* Caughtya.org

It's raining. The parking lot is nearly empty. You're only dashing in for a minute.

If you, an able-bodied driver, park in a handicapped space - just for a few minutes - who's going to know?

Maybe everyone.

Caughtya.org posts photos (Usually cell phone shots ), license plate numbers and other information about vehicles parking in spots legally reserved for people with
disabilities.

One of the featured entries this week was a police car parked in front of a handicapped parking sign in Coolidge, Arizona. Another shows a blue Pontiac Sunbird parked diagonally across a disabled parking space in front of a Borders bookstore in Crystal Lake, Ill.

The site also includes windshield notices that you can print out and stick under the wiper of cars illegally parked in handicapped spaces.

Car rental tips Part 3

Here is the last of a series on car rental tips:

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

* Consider waiting a day

If the only use you plan to make of a car on your first day
at a location is to drive to the hotel and sleep, why not
take a shuttle or a cab to the hotel, and rent a car the
next morning? It could save you the cost of a full-day's
rental.

Also, car rental prices tend to drop the further you get
from an airport and the agencies' captive customer base.

* Explore cyberspace

Shopping the Internet can be the quickest and best way to
compare many rental car rates.

Hit the websites of all the major agencies. You should also
check out a couple of the brand-name consolidators like
Orbitz (http://www.orbitz.com) or Expedia
(http://www.expedia.com). They may have special deals not
available to solitary keyboard punchers or clue you in to
companies that you hadn't thought of.

Remember, rental rates can vary between agencies serving
the same market. There can even be striking differences
between different locations of the same rental agency in
the same city, especially if one of its sites is at an
airport.

While you're at it, if you are planning to buy extra items
such as a damage waiver or insurance, you should also
comparison shop those rates.