WHB Porsche

I completely agree with this observation. I was on a 55mph road this week with a posted 40mph minimum speed. Because 95% of the cars on that road were doing 75+, I would've been dangerous had I driven at 55. I was wondering how well an officer of the law would accept this logic.

Coleman

Whatever; get a ticket in canada, drive back to the states and never pay it.. no biggie- (as long as you live outside canada-)

C/

Land Jet

This is all because of lawyers. Shakespeare had it right!

briefescape

+ 1 vice versa get a ticket in US and drive back to Canada

So US porsche guys plan your "spirited" drives in Canada and we`ll meet you guys crossing the border going to the US for our " spirited " drives .

Cheers Guy

Coleman

LOL- Okay , maybe we can just switch cars and identities!!

C/

Wilder

Yeah, except when you get a ticket in WA. I guess there's so much traffic there from BC that they have a collections agency in Vancouver working for them to make sure we pay their fines. Ask me how I know...

gr8nine93

80KM = 52mph. It seems to me that anyone driving 110-120mph on public roads has to be ready to accept the consequences. WHen I drive from Bend to Oregon there is a road that runs thru Nevada where there is one patrol car for 300 miles. I cruise at 140. If I see any car coming at me I slow to 75-80 because I do not feel I have the right to take someone elses life if a tire or other catastrphic failure occurs. OTOH, I am totalliy prepared to pay the $1000 Oregon fine. Boy do I miss the days when you could drive at unlimited speeds in Nevada! Did you know that a 63 E-type could cruise at 130 and only use a quart of oil an hour : - )
As to ROKN, you got shafted cause of your plates. They knew you would not come back to challenge the fine. Did you try writing the judge. I have had it work and other times not.

wayne993

You guys all need to spend a week in Germany. Then you will all realize:
Speed does not kill.
Going 200 kmh on a public highway is NOT a problem.

THe problem is that in NA we accept that the dumbest prat who has $10 in his
pocket has the "right" to use the public highway system. Until this changes, in NA it'll be dangerous
to drive 70 MPH but in europe it will continue to be perfectly safe to drive 120 MPH all day long.

Every one of these government entities knows that "speed killls" is an absolute falsehood.
THe largest correlatable cause of the occurrence of collisions in road traffic is INATTENTION.
The correlation is about 80%. The correlation for SPEEDING to colisions is much much much lower.
The reason governments concentrate on speed is that it is easy to detect. Nothing more.

Americans are pathetic on the road compared to in europe. Guess where the accident and
death rates per driven mile are? THe place where people routinely drive well over 100 MPH, or
the "land of the dummies" where the highest speed limit is maybe 70 MPH. Think of it this way -
who do you know in your experience in the US that didn't get a license because they couldn't
pass the driving test?

Notice in the quoted article how "dangerous" street racing sounds -ooooooh 3 people got killed.
That's BAD. Wow we better stop street racing. Its dangerous. Speed kills. Wow. Well think of this.
In 2005 about 43,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in the US. THat means about 34,000
people were killed because we don't friggin pay attention while driving. Do we see amy huge
government campaign to stop that? No. But we better get the 15 people who are going
to be going 120 MPH on an empty highway locked up right away. We better deal with those
bad bad Ferrari drivers in their fast cars right quick !!!!! Because we all know speed kills !!!!!

I say take EVERYONE's license away in the US and reissue them all upon passing a REAL driving
test. Not one to see how slow you can go - one that tests driving skill. You know, like a maximum
time around and autocross course, evasive action tests, maximum time around a high speed
road course, parallel parking, high performance braking maneuvers, wet condition skidpad,
you get the picture. And new rules to keep traffic moving with INCLUDES unlimited sections on
the interstates where people bloody well keep to the right unless passing. You know, like it is
in Germany. And we might invent something called the traffic circle while we're at it where it
makes sense.

Speed kills. What hogwash.

993Maineiac

I have to agree with Wayne993. In Germany driving is a privilage and not a "right." Training and testing are much more rigorous.

Due to a lying autotransport I had to do 2 trips from Bangor, ME to Laredo in the last week and a half. (Driving the 993 was planned-driving the Sube was not.) Speed was not the issue, it was drivers making rediculous lane changes-including weaving in heavy traffic, ultraclose tailgating at speed by drivers who think drivers education was what they had in high school, and going below the posted limit in the left lane.

Al

PS-Isn't $10,000 Canadian the equivalent of $9.35 US?

Wilder

I'll bite...

$10k CND was about $6k USD...about 10 years ago. Now it's just about par and the way it's going, the CND could soon be worth more than the USD. I guess you're oblivious to the fact that the USD has been tanking against almost every other currency in the world over the past few years?!?!?!

I'm no news junkie but reading up on international news from time to time might make you seem a little smarter.

Sorry, back to regular programming....

993Maineiac

Louis,

I have lived most of the last 18 years near the New Brunswick/Quebec border were we routinely use both currencies-I was just kidding.

Al

jdistefa

This is what I wrote to an acquaintance of mine who owns a big high-end aftermarket car perfomance shop in Toronto (in response to his "If I were the Minister of Transportation..." email):

Billy,

I like your list of suggestions re. your minister of transportation fantasy. Driving skill remains something that the ministry seems uninterested in encouraging or enforcing. Most near misses that I have experienced involved other drivers who are a danger independent of their speed. Working in the ER, I would say the majority of collision related injuries are clearly a result of - in no particular order - 1) Alcohol, 2) Old age, 3) Youth - poor judgement/inexperience. Sure, speeding is a 'multiplier' in that it complicates other mistakes by giving less time to react, but in most cases the cause is something else. It's a shame that speed is so easy to measure - and it's simple to write a ticket. It's far more difficult to 'measure' the other behaviours & skills and more expensive for the gov't to rethink its driver training strategy. I see the current crackdown on speeders and overusing the label of 'streetracers' as being nothing more than political pandering. Oh - and to add to your fantasy list - I think that every driver should do a one day winter skidpad course and winter tires should be mandatory on all four corners.

HK G36C

In Oregon you will get a 1yr suspension for going over 100mph and possibly face a criminal reckless driving charge.

gr8nine93

Yeah, HK. I am sure you are right and I am still willing to take that chance. But I do it very rarely. I got nailed in Calif doing 120 however there is discretion. The cop wrote me up for 80 and I paid a fine and signed up for traffic school. But I agree with Wayne993. I lived in Europe a couple of times and I felt safer in the middle lane doing 100mph with super cars blowing by me at 170 mph than I do on the Bend Parkway wiht soccer moms blasting by me at 65 (limit is 45) while drinking a latte, yelling at their kids in the back seat and doing their nails. The only trouble with the Autostrada and the Autobahn is that when there is an accident they can be real duzies. I have seen them just bring cranes in after the bodies are removed and drag the wreckage to the side. But getting a license in Germany is a big deal and not everyone passes the tests. Too bad they do not do that here. The thing that scares me most are kids. WTF is with 16 yr olds being able to drive 300hp rice rockets? The 16 drivers license was based upon the needs of farm families back in the 20s and who would send kids to town to pick up supplies on weekends. They drove for miles on empty roads when cars were capable of 40mph maybe. Germany it is 18. THat is a little better. Buth this sure is a fun topic.

CN

Glad I live only 50 miles from NY state. I will just cruise on down there when I get the urge to exercise my "god given right" to drive 150mph.