Speeding on public roads

Oh, and the first speeding ticket I got? Volunteer race car duty, busted going 2mph over traffic which was doing 84 in a 65 and I was going 86. Thanks. From now on, PO's get NO respect until they earn it.

Sunny

 

Wolfarossa:

Way to go!

I own a 456GT and a Mondial coupe with the 308 Quattrovalvole engine.

Although the 12 cylinder is much faster, you can "feel" more speed in the 8 cylinder. As you, I usually drve the Mondial flat-out, while I have not dared to do so yet in the 456.

The roads in my country are not, by any measure, even close to what your Autobahnen are, so it takes lots of planning to do top-speed runs in Puerto Rico.

Felicitaciones (Congratulations). Happy Motoring!

Angel

 

My advice - fight every ticket like you're going on trial for MURDER. Hire an attorney if you have to.

I've received a nickel-and-dime speeding ticket about once a year since moving to South Carolina. Almost all of it lowball stuff - 41 in a 35 Zone, etc. My most recent was in 2003, but I didn't pay much attention because my insurance company hasn't adjusted my rates at all since I obtained insurance in SC over seven years ago.

Here, we're allowed 12 points on our license before its suspended - I've maintained 3-5 points on my license year after year, but never paid it much attention. Since I'm looking to purchase a Ferrari, I've had my points reduced to ZERO through driver re-education courses. Guess what - insurance companies don't give a DAMN about your points level. When you get a ticket, you can erase the points, but the ticket remains on your driving record forever - you can't 'erase' it. Most insurance companies look back 3, sometimes 5 years to see if you've had any activity on your driving record. If you have, they are not required by law to insure your car. Insurance Companies can freely interpret your driving record however they want to, and there's no State/Federal law that requires them to take into consideration your current 'point' value. Try shopping for insurance on a Ferrari when you have a history of speeding on your driving record - NO ONE WILL TALK TO YOU!!!!!!!

Hagerty, Grundig, Classic Car, they're the WORST. Forget them.

Did I mention that if you plan on financing a car, most if not ALL finance companies will REQUIRE a full-coverage insurance policy on the vehicle as a condition of obtaining financing?

 

Well you can drive everywhere in high speeds, you only have to know how busy it is and if there is any police on that road.
Because i did 210km/h with just a normal car in Holland!!!!
And if you can do that in a small Holland how fast can you go in a very big USA with many highways and emptynis.
USA has to make an autobahn to so the junkys can drive fast to without hitting someone because i see this a lot on television.
P.S in vacation time its very busy on autobahn so on some places you can't drive fast!!!
And you see a lot of cool cars on autobahn and make great pics!!!

 

Well, in many countries now soon you could be going into an atempted murder trial if you get caught speeding. So this is not just hypothetical.

Just a recent reminder, a week old only, form somebody who thought she could speed because she had a Ferrari in her hands and she knew how to handle it:

 

There is also a difference I think in the average speed people drive at. If the average speed is higher in general ie 55mph on US freeway (as it used to be everwhere), 70mph UK, 81 in France etc. then driving at 50mph over the limit gives 105 in the US but 131 in France and so on. It could simply be a matter of ordinary driving as opposed to 'fast' driving and what perception there is of fast.

 

I disagree somehow. The dangers os speeding does not rise proportionaly to the speed, they rise exponentialy. So a 50 mph increase when average is 55 is not as far as dangerous to a 50 mph increase when the average is already 80 mph.

Maybe the perception is, but not the risks and the results of an accident.

- Julio.

 

If you take the statistic per 100 million vehicle kilometers, it's about 27% higher in the US vs. Germany 1.62 vs 1.27 deaths per 100MM K. as opposed 66% higher just by population. May just be .

Might need to factor motorcycles in ,too, as almost 10% of total fatalities are motorcycles.

Just thought I'd add my statistical .02.

 

I will give you quadradically (x**2) I might even give you cubically (x**3) but I cannot give you exponentially (e**x).

To be exponential, the risk at x+1 must be 2.7 times the risk at x. I don't think anyone here will argue that driving at 51 mph is 2.7 times as dangerous as driving at 50 mph. Therefore, it can't be exponential.

The amount of energy in the car rises with the quadradic (x**2) and when augmented with the driving time reation delay can easily lead to a cubic relationship between danger and speed. But exponential--nope.

I suggest another pass through trigonometry.

 

Hey, Mitch... Maybe he was using "exponentially" as an adjective: characterized by or being an extremely rapid increase (as in size or extent) <an exponential growth rate>

 

I said it before and Ill say it again. Go watch someone die in a car wreck. It will change the way you look at everything!


Go to a fire station tell them you want to ride along. As long as they are some what busy you will see something intresting.

 

I am sorry if I did create some confusion with my 'exponential' expresion. As you might have guessed English is not my native language and sometimes I might use wrong terms in English.

But as NNO has noted I was using it as an adjetive to say that the danger does increase at a higher rate the higher the speed in non linear way.

If all the traffic is going at 80mph average speed, a car that wants to pass this traffic will need a higher speed and in consecuence the dinstance to pass will be also bigger. In the event of a mistake, as the speed of the sorrounding traffic is also higher, the space where you could potencitilay go to avoid a collision becomes smaller, and the breaking space smaller and the fact that the driver should react in lest time makes all this worst.

Using Germany Autobahn as an example is not the best. Yes they have a lowest overall death ratio, and sure the Autobah is partially responsible for it. But driving education is IMHO the big difference.

Take France as an example, they have Motorways almost as good as Germany, or Spain, the Motorways are not that far from the German build quality. However the death ratios of these 2 countries are pretty close to the US ones.

Appart from the speed limits, what it is clearly different is the actitud of the drivers on them, and a ton of other factors, among them the cars they drive. ( and I don't want to open here a discussion about SUVs on the road in US )

Among the other factors the most common, alcohol. As an example in 39% of the deadly traffic accidents in Spain the alcohol ratio on blood on the drivers involved was above the maximun allowed, and that is deffenitly differtent from Germany. I do not know about the US though.

- Julio.

 

Julio, don't sweat it, Mitch is just perfect, that's all...

 

Thanks NNO

Another interesting fact about road fatality seat bealt use in Germany 95% vs US 70%

Stats are tricky and more difficult to read than people think, you can not say Germany is the safest country in driving just for the fatality ratio, it could happen that they just don't drive. I would like to know what is the driving fatality ratio in Ethiopia and comapre it to Germany.

A bit old but interesting to read, if you look at Page 3 in this OECD report you will see some interesting data. As for example if you compare fatalities to the length of the road network Germany is not among the best. It will be interesting to have the same data against average millage per habitant. I am sure that the average american makes far more millage every year than the average European.

Another interesting link http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/road/figures/profiles/index_en.htm

- Julio

 

We loose kids around here once every week or two who think they're good drivers at speed, because they're concentrating 120%. Sometimes they take innocents along with them - which is the real tragedy.

I've spent just enough time on the race track to realize it's a whole different place for real speed. There are speed limits on the track too, but imposed by the physics.

Being out in the boonies with perfect visibility, road conditions, and no one around to do anything stupid - who cares how fast you go, go nuts. but imo, when people get closer to the cities, the stupid factor incresaes (yes) - exponentionally. tailgating, cutting lanes, shaving, reading books, I'm sure you've seen it all too.

Now I'm turning into an old fart with kids, I don't care to speed except on the track and the perfect open road (typically in my dreams, but they do exist). too much to risk, too many stupid factors outside of our control.

Sure - cops love revenue, just don't stand out in traffic. For me in a bright red car, it's not the left lane. As a friend once said, traffic cops are big game hunters at heart. Way more fun to go after the corvette than the minivan - but I'd bet the minivan's way closer to the limits of adhesion & control. Not to mention revenue generation in some states.

if you need to do 210km/h around here, don't do it around anyone I care about, or that they care about...

 

Here's my 2 cents worth regarding skilled European drivers: driving on winding narrow roads along Amalfi Coast, one driver crossed into my lane and we hit mirrors, cracking the glass, then a couple of days later on same road, I had to stop so a bus could pass through a narrow underpass, and a scooter-ist rear ended me. Seeing his face plant againt my rear glass was actually comical since he didn't get hurt, just smashed a bunch of plastic from his bike...he later informed me that he was a driving instructor. Then 2 yrs ago a German public bus (professional driver right, in Germany) entered a round-a-bout at a high rate of speed, that I was already in, forcing me to evade him by driving left into the plastic barrier sticks and slam on the brakes. He did stop at least, given that he ran me off the road (I give him credit for that), which allowed me time to drive up to where he stopped. He did not appear to speak English so I taught him the words that I learned from my military father and delinquent knucklehead friends when I was 13...I always take the insurance option on the rentals in Europe...if you've ever driven in Naples, you know why!

 

Because not everyone is doing 120, 130, 140+

 

Where do you guys find these old threads? I haven't seen some of these names in a while.

 

Perhaps they open the section and click last page instead of next page. A 20 year old thread revival makes me .

 

Yes.

I was in a contest with 4 guys testing reaction time. A token dropped from a slot and the fastest to react stopped the token at a specific height. The higher the spot, the quicker the person's reaction. I beat them all. I don't know their ages, but maybe 18 or 19, maybe 21, I was 69. So maybe we should lower that REACTION test age to 17.

It's funny because a while ago Nikki Haley wanted a competency test at age 75, and I was thinking 18 would be more appropriate!

 

You have one. Its called Highway 5. When it was built we were told it was designed for speeds in excess of 100 MPH and when cars of the future can safely drive at those speeds the speed limit would be increased.

Then they lowered it to 55.

 

The roads in Germany are also designed for high speeds. US roads not so much in general.

 

I would say drivers are worse now than they were when this thread started. I don’t understand WHY THE F people can’t just pick a speed and drive it on an open highway. It has nothing to do with speed it is consistency. I travel very late at night a couple of nights a week a 14 mile commute and I can make most of the entire trip driving at one steady speed. Whenever I travel the same route and there is traffic people are constantly on and off their brakes changing speed. And in the snow people stay on their brakes they see a patch of ice and slam on the brakes. Until people smarten up we will never be able to travel like they do on the Autobahn.

 

Our driver training and driver tests are far too easy. Fact of the matter is though it is political suicide to change it. Like many things we are forced into politically mandated mediocrity. At this point in time I see far too many other more pressing problems not being addressed. It is what it is.