Do you think people who illegal street race are ‘bad people’?
In my community, street racing seems to be the entertainment du jour for people with nothing better to do. I live about a half mile (800m) from a major roadway, and very often am jarred by the noise of people racing full tilt. There are a few people who even have modified their cars to be louder, and you can distinctly pick out the sound of their cars.
I’m a light sleeper, and these people will wake me up in the middle of the night with their ‘shotgun exhausts,’ racing down the street. They kill about 5 people a year. Earlier this year, a street race injured over a dozen people, and killed a kid.As a result, the city has re-timed the lights so that when traveling at normal speeds, traffic is stopped at every stoplight, which means that most drivers now just wontonly disregard speed limits to beat the light timing and not get trapped in a frustrating cycle where a 2-mile drive down the road takes upwards of 15 minutes instead of 5. This just causes the street racers to race later, when they can run the lights and wake everyone up. Plus the increase in speeding by normal drivers decreases safety on the road.
Both the direct and network effects of their stupidity are pretty significant.
So - yes. Street racers are bad people. They are callous, immature, and both actively and passively endanger other motorists. Also, I’m fucking tired, and my dogs are traumatized.Bad AND selfish. In generous quantities.
Of course. At the very least. I can think of a few other words as well.
Yes. There are race tracks. You’re pretending there are no secondary effects or bad consequences.
“Police say two of the victims were innocent bystanders who were killed when the alleged street racer struck their vehicle and it burst into flames …He said the couple leaves behind four kids — ages 10 to 16… “They are deceased because of street racing. We also have one of the drivers who was street racing, he also lost his life,” said Fort Worth Officer Buddy Calzada. “We just can’t understand why somebody would continue to street race at a high rate of speed at the risk of losing their life or taking the life of someone else.””
A lot of them are assholes, yeah. You can safely assume some of those people are also lawbreakers if they’re already breaking a few dozen laws by doing stupid street racing. Probably drug dealers too. Doing something like illegal street racing, is like a criminal’s side-hobby. You won’t know what else they’ve done until they’ve gotten arrested.
Road laws exist to make driving predictable. Breaking those laws makes you unpredictable, and thus a danger. If you want to race, find a track.
They will never go to a track. There are track days but that’s not racing. You can’t actually take your slammed 2002 Honda civic with the TEMU spoilers to race. Races are within controlled series with safety and technical requirements, as well as minimal driver training.
Uh…
You and I have visited very different speedways.
Where I come from, if the engine turns over, it is race eligible.
And if the engine doesn’t turn over, there’s a cool giant fire breathing robot we can still feed the car to.
Ok but you guys are we really so sure that subjecting others to the coercion of a prison-industrial complex is justified when all they’re doing is following their instincts? How do we know that we’re not the ones who are actually bad people?
A quick scan reveals I’ve never committed a vehicular homicide, and do not engage in activities that are statistically likely to improve the odds that I will commit a vehicular homicide. I’m fine with with jailing someone who’d risk everyone around them with death and dismemberment for their entertainment.
There is no such thing as an “instinct to drive dangerously”, it’s called “a choice”.
Annnnnd fuck that choice.
but you guys are we really so sure that subjecting others to the coercion of a prison-industrial complex is justified when all they’re doing is following their instincts?
Assume we’re not talking desert highway street racing - or places that no one cares:
Their instincts could kill my kid. The prison industrial complex is the nicer response.
People who routinely behave in ways that endanger children are unaware of how many of the rest of us own a good shovel and know a spot to get rid of their body.
How do we know that we’re not the ones who are actually bad people?
Oh. The ethical implications are truly complex, but they don’t matter because we won’t agree to live with them. Child endangerment doesn’t routinely lead to deep ethical introspection. People tend to just go with the instincts that allowed children to survive over so many generations.
And yes, this is also why so many bad laws get passed “for the children”.
My advice for street racers: do it out of sight of any parents, and well away from anywhere that children play.
Like at a track.
100% yes!
Even needing to ask… I mean, there are no stupid questions and I know nothing about you, so, fair.
But imagine this. Streets are public transport paths with agreed upon rules. These rules are there for (likely more than but also) survival and safety.
So willfully ignoring that and racing there is risking the safety of others on purpose.
Now the answer should be clear.
For context: am motorcycle rider, drove several cars >200 km/H (>120 mp/H) legally, when it was safely possible, in Germany. Nowadays ist mostly isn’t at all.
Are people with no moral compass, no imagination, a demonstrated lack of intelligence and a demonstrated lack of care for anyone but themselves bad people?
Do we even need to consider labeling them as such? The other descriptions of their behavior should be damning enough on their own, surely?
Will you stfu already?
Motorcyclist here. Pretty much everything I say except stunting is also applicable to car drivers as well.
Speed is so damned much fun, especially on two wheels. Hit the straight and twist that throttle, and you are GONE!!!
That said, we have a name for people who do that on the streets - squids. They are the bane of our community, and give us a bad reputation in the general population.
Want to go fast? Hit up a track day and get some instruction to go with it. Or book some track time just to unwind. Or maybe - just maybe (depending on your local circumstances), find a paved secondary highway with no traffic.
But street racing? Stunting? Showing off? GET THE FUCKING FUCK OFF THE FUCKING ROAD YOU FUCKING FUCK!!!
‘Squids’ is a good daily-driver descriptor. I prefer to go straight to ‘organ donors’ usually.
Yes. Its risky for everyone nearby, there is literally no upside. If you want to race, take it to a track. Every track I have been to has some kind of open track night for like $20 entry and you get santioned racing with proper facilities and a safety crew on standby. Its moronic to do it anywhere else.
Do you think murderers are “bad people?”
it turned out that there are, in fact, stupid questions…
