Americans - why is 100mph the trigger of drama?

[darin]

Watching news reports of speeders or chases, media goes nuts as they proclaim "...and reaching speeds in excess of ONE HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR!!!"

And even if it wasn't that fast it becomes "....and reaching speeds approaching ONE HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR!!"

why do we give a shit? Why do we - as a culture/society - believe speed kills or is dangerous once it hits 100? Why do we let our states pass laws that make speed like that automatically reckless? How do we fix it? We MUST fix it. We must get our legislatures to repeal our archaic speed limits because we should decide what we think is the limit - not bureaucrats. For instance, in Michigan, the speed limit on roads is set to the 80th percentile of what cars typically drive; and must be set via traffic studies. Yet, on Michigan freeways people typically drive 80-90 outside immediate metro areas. Speed limit? 70. Yup. Dumb. There are stretches of road outside of towns where no speed limit should exist beyond the self-diagnosed skill of the driver.

100mph is almost nothing in terms of exceptional - not in today's cars. Speed limits do nothing but generate a source of revenue; an arm of taxation. Yet we salivate on the knobs of politicians promoting ever-increasing fines and travel restrictions upon the population. Instead of demanding we drive slower, maybe demand people actually earn their license through rigorous testing.

Then? let darwinism run its course.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

On my trip out to Montana this year the speed limit on I-90 was 80mph in N.D, WY and MT. The only place it was 70mph was in the commie state of MN. But even the secondary highways in Montana have a 70mph speed limit, whereas they're still 55mph here in WI, which I agree is just ASININE. Those speeds limits were set WAY BACK when cars still had CARBURETORS, and it was supposed to SAVE GAS. Well COME OOOOOONN FOLKS, we've had FUEL INJECTION for DECADES now, and it really doesn't make any difference HOW fast you drive, it's going to use the same amount of fuel, and cars suspension and brakes and tires and handling and whatnot now are FAR, FAR, superior to anything we could have IMAGINED back when they made this 55mph speed limit.

Time to change it.

[STTAB]

Watching news reports of speeders or chases, media goes nuts as they proclaim "...and reaching speeds in excess of ONE HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR!!!"

And even if it wasn't that fast it becomes "....and reaching speeds approaching ONE HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR!!"

why do we give a shit? Why do we - as a culture/society - believe speed kills or is dangerous once it hits 100? Why do we let our states pass laws that make speed like that automatically reckless? How do we fix it? We MUST fix it. We must get our legislatures to repeal our archaic speed limits because we should decide what we think is the limit - not bureaucrats. For instance, in Michigan, the speed limit on roads is set to the 80th percentile of what cars typically drive; and must be set via traffic studies. Yet, on Michigan freeways people typically drive 80-90 outside immediate metro areas. Speed limit? 70. Yup. Dumb. There are stretches of road outside of towns where no speed limit should exist beyond the self-diagnosed skill of the driver.

100mph is almost nothing in terms of exceptional - not in today's cars. Speed limits do nothing but generate a source of revenue; an arm of taxation. Yet we salivate on the knobs of politicians promoting ever-increasing fines and travel restrictions upon the population. Instead of demanding we drive slower, maybe demand people actually earn their license through rigorous testing.

Then? let darwinism run its course.

The problem with letting darwinism runt it's course in this area is that more often than naught it's not the darwin who ends up dead. It's some poor innocent person who was caught up in someone elses stupidity. Otherwise, I'm with you, let dumb people kill themselves doing dumb things.

As for why 100 MPH is such a big deal, because it's triple digits, it just sounds impressive, even though realistically we know that any Ford Focus or Honda Civic out there will do far more than 100 MPH.

[darin]

The problem with letting darwinism runt it's course in this area is that more often than naught it's not the darwin who ends up dead. It's some poor innocent person who was caught up in someone elses stupidity. Otherwise, I'm with you, let dumb people kill themselves doing dumb things.

As for why 100 MPH is such a big deal, because it's triple digits, it just sounds impressive, even though realistically we know that any Ford Focus or Honda Civic out there will do far more than 100 MPH.

but that's already happening. Americans kills more of themselves on highways with the slowest speed limits in the industrial world perhaps. It's not working as-is. Why penalize good drivers?

Logistics would be brutal but essentially re-testing all license holders - using a track-licensed driver as the tester - maybe even phased licensing. So poor drivers (75% of current drivers?) would have limits applied. I dunno - as-is we kill too many of ourselves.

[Elessar]

Location, Location, Location!

Drive most of these mountain roads at 100 mph, and you are dead meat with the possibility
of killing someone else.

Darwin will win in the end as mentioned above.

[darin]

Location, Location, Location!

Drive most of these mountain roads at 100 mph, and you are dead meat with the possibility
of killing someone else.

Darwin will win in the end as mentioned above.

that's fine. Let people decide. Context dictates. Even here we have limits where appropriate - and too many where it's not. And a solid car with solid tires and solid brakes - and at least average skilled driver - can do amazing things while traversing twisty roads :)

[STTAB]

but that's already happening. Americans kills more of themselves on highways with the slowest speed limits in the industrial world perhaps. It's not working as-is. Why penalize good drivers?

Logistics would be brutal but essentially re-testing all license holders - using a track-licensed driver as the tester - maybe even phased licensing. So poor drivers (75% of current drivers?) would have limits applied. I dunno - as-is we kill too many of ourselves.

Different speed limits for different people would likely be even more disastrous. Primarily because the worst drivers who need the lower speed limits are too stupid to even be able to get out of the way of faster moving traffic.

A better solution would , obviously, be stop treating driving like it's a right, enforce vigorous testing both on drivers and on their vehicles, and get bad drivers and junky vehicles off the road, then you can increase the speed limits appropriately.

But, that isn't likely to happen

[darin]

Different speed limits for different people would likely be even more disastrous. Primarily because the worst drivers who need the lower speed limits are too stupid to even be able to get out of the way of faster moving traffic.

A better solution would , obviously, be stop treating driving like it's a right, enforce vigorous testing both on drivers and on their vehicles, and get bad drivers and junky vehicles off the road, then you can increase the speed limits appropriately.

But, that isn't likely to happen

Revoke revoke revoke :) clean slate maybe? I dunno. Just know it's insanity. No testing on vehicles - that's a money-grab scam by the government. Makes things no safer.

[STTAB]

Revoke revoke revoke :) clean slate maybe? I dunno. Just know it's insanity. No testing on vehicles - that's a money-grab scam by the government. Makes things no safer.

Nonsense, lot of junk that needs to be off the road.

[Gunny]

Revoke revoke revoke :) clean slate maybe? I dunno. Just know it's insanity. No testing on vehicles - that's a money-grab scam by the government. Makes things no safer.Not to nit pick, but did you point out above somewhere and I just missed it the fact you live in Germany where someone drew the Autoban with a straight-edge ruler on flat ground?:laugh:

[darin]

Nonsense, lot of junk that needs to be off the road.

i read about car accidents frequently. In michigan piles of complete shit can drive around. Never in nearly 10 years living there was a fatality on the highways due to 'car fell apart'. Inspections are a scam. You pay for a guy to look at your car and decide how it looks on ONE day. Not an hour before it gets to him nor an hour after. Car inspection scams are another way for the government to without-consent tax its population under the name of 'safety' without so much as a shred of evidence of return-on-investment to the citizens.

[GravyBoat]

I learned years ago from Ralph Nader that cars are unsafe at any speed.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTnWMnLJqT8

[High_Plains_Drifter]

When I ride my Harley, I'm usually riding like I stole it. I pass everything on the road, and the only time I ever crashed was because someone else TURNED IN FRONT OF ME CUTTING ACROSS TRAFFIC... a DUMBASS... and he paid, big time.

[Taco Junkie]

When I was young and dumb (I'm old and dumb now) we were playing on the WI River (actually we were diving from the railroad bridge that parallels the ferry crossing lane) and it was my turn to make a beer run. I was riding Suzukis in those days, a GS750E with Yoshimura header, over-bored Mikuni carbs, Dunlop Isle of Mann rubber and was zipping along with a young sweetie on the back (her name was Maureen (Mo) and she was hot!!). She was in a bikini and flip flops, I was wearing sunglasses, gym shorts and tennis shoes. I blew by the cop at 113 coming out of a curve. I got a big lecture on how dangerous it was given our speed and lack of safety apparel and "what if a dog walked out in front of you at that speed?". Smartass 20yo me retorts "do you think we'd be any less dead if we hit the dog at 55?". But the cop was sort of mesmerized by Mo's curves and looks (I was too:banana:) so he wrote me for going 74 (19 mph over) so I wouldn't go to jail and the bike get impounded. I thought that was cool and told him so. Damn those were good days.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

When I was young and dumb (I'm old and dumb now) we were playing on the WI River (actually we were diving from the railroad bridge that parallels the ferry crossing lane) and it was my turn to make a beer run. I was riding Suzukis in those days, a GS750E with Yoshimura header, over-bored Mikuni carbs, Dunlop Isle of Mann rubber and was zipping along with a young sweetie on the back (her name was Maureen (Mo) and she was hot!!). She was in a bikini and flip flops, I was wearing sunglasses, gym shorts and tennis shoes. I blew by the cop at 113 coming out of a curve. I got a big lecture on how dangerous it was given our speed and lack of safety apparel and "what if a dog walked out in front of you at that speed?". Smartass 20yo me retorts "do you think we'd be any less dead if we hit the dog at 55?". But the cop was sort of mesmerized by Mo's curves and looks (I was too:banana:) so he wrote me for going 74 (19 mph over) so I wouldn't go to jail and the bike get impounded. I thought that was cool and told him so. Damn those were good days.

Here's my old "rice rocket." A 1979 Kawasaki KZ100, Kerker header, 34mm Mikunis, LTD bars, Bostrum seat, Dunlop tires with liquid balance on aluminum mags... thing was stupid fast... had that when I was stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa...

https://image.ibb.co/eVrEEw/1979_KZ1000_Kawasaki.jpg

[darin]

When I was young and dumb (I'm old and dumb now) we were playing on the WI River (actually we were diving from the railroad bridge that parallels the ferry crossing lane) and it was my turn to make a beer run. I was riding Suzukis in those days, a GS750E with Yoshimura header, over-bored Mikuni carbs, Dunlop Isle of Mann rubber and was zipping along with a young sweetie on the back (her name was Maureen (Mo) and she was hot!!). She was in a bikini and flip flops, I was wearing sunglasses, gym shorts and tennis shoes. I blew by the cop at 113 coming out of a curve. I got a big lecture on how dangerous it was given our speed and lack of safety apparel and "what if a dog walked out in front of you at that speed?". Smartass 20yo me retorts "do you think we'd be any less dead if we hit the dog at 55?". But the cop was sort of mesmerized by Mo's curves and looks (I was too:banana:) so he wrote me for going 74 (19 mph over) so I wouldn't go to jail and the bike get impounded. I thought that was cool and told him so. Damn those were good days.

exactly my point. He should have gave you a thumbs-up and a prayer :)


i used to ride a 2004 ZX6R 636cc :)

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Here's my other old Kawi... a 1984 LTD1100, shaft drive, fun bike, really fast too... I like the Kawis...

https://image.ibb.co/nDTa4w/1984_Kaw_1100_LTD.jpg

[Black Diamond]

Here's my other old Kawi... a 1984 LTD1100, shaft drive, fun bike, really fast too... I like the Kawis...

https://image.ibb.co/nDTa4w/1984_Kaw_1100_LTD.jpg
How hard is it to learn to ride?

[darin]

first bike i rode regularly was a kawi vulcan 750. Plenty powerful - I think it was a late 1980s or early 90s model year. Looking back it had half the horsepower as my zx6 (66 in the vuclan vs 113 in the ninja) but it was super comfortable.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

How hard is it to learn to ride?
It's definitely harder for some than others. If you have good coordination it's easier because of all the things you have to do with your hands and feet as far as controls while simultaneously keeping your mind on where you're going and keeping the bike upright, and there is controls for both hands and both feet, and multiple things to do with your hands. All the things you have to do as far as controls on your bike should be second nature. If you have to stop and think about what is what, that's dangerous, especially if you're ever in an emergency situation. You should be able to react without really even thinking about it.

I got my first motorcycle when I was 12. It was little Honda Sport-90. That's the BEST way to learn to ride, when you're young and on something small, and a place to ride where you don't have to deal with traffic, like a field or large yard or something. For others that are older that want to learn, I'd say enroll in a riders class. Harley Davidson dealers have a class called "Riders Edge," it's for beginners or anyone who wants a refresher. But I've seen these middle aged guys that thought they were going to impress the ladies or something, they want to be a bad ass Harley biker so they buy a big twin expensive Harley, take the riders class and learn on a little bike, get their motorcycle endorsement, pike up their big fancy new Harley and ride it three blocks away and CRASH IT. Way too much bike. EVERYONE should start out small.

[Drummond]

Perhaps 100 mph is also the standard speed at which the average Leftie runs from inconvenient truth ?

Having all these pesky Lefties interfering with traffic at such speed surely poses a health hazard ? :laugh::laugh: