So in the movies, especially DOTM, the car/truck based Decepticons cover large distances before they start chaos. In DOTM, they are in Washington DC and go to Chicago to start taking it over. This includes Sentinel Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, Barricade & others. If they were just driving like maniacs and causing crashes and stuff, the authorities would have been alerted and we know that the humans can destroy Transformers. So since the humans lost track of them until they took over Chicago, it seems the Decepticons had to keep a low profile on their trip, meaning they were following traffic laws to not have any cops pay attention to them. Staying at the speed limit, turn signals to change lanes, not bumping other cars.

I imagine Megatron just fuming at getting stuck in a traffic jam but knowing he can't do crap about it so he slowly goes with traffic.

 

Well the thing about Megatron being in alt mode in Africa was that he was just rusting around and biding his time for the Sentinel plan to come into Phase 1 (allow Autobots to re-awaken Sentinel Prime).

Moving around would have alerted the Autobots to his activity.

 

Well, Barricade missed the final battle in TF1 due to being forced to take a wrong turn/exit...so maybe?

 

They probably follow traffic laws when they must keep a low profile, but that's all.

 

I don't think they'd give a shit. They want to take over the Earth anyways so cares about our human laws?

 

The only character that obeyed traffic laws was Demolishor.

 

Yeah because he pulled over after causing so much shit.

....then proceeded to fall off a bridge. He should get his license revoked.

 

Now that you mention it...the idea makes me laugh out loud. I mean, they are robots in disguise!

I wonder how Shockwave avoided detection when he came to Chicago. Maybe he drilled under it? I don't remember much about DOTM actually.

 

All this talk about TF:DotM and no one's even mentioned the Pillars or space bridges yet, lol.

 

Barricade at the beginning most likely. Why draw unwanted attention to yourself?

 

I'm picturing a bell curve of traffic safety. For a period they were fairly lax, they got pulled over a few times and barely talked their way out of it or otherwise evaded police and had to re-scan (Maybe Barricade was a Red Mustang before becoming a police one). They then integrated proper driving protocol as a tool to hide better. Deceit is in their names after all.

That said, As things got more hectic, I imagine the Decepticons dropped the formality and simply killed anyone who tried to pull them over.

 

A tank on the freeway was legal.