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Re: YAO

>------------------------------
>
>From: bsanders@domain.elided (Barry Sanders)
>Date: Mon, 9 Sep 1996 14:22:33 -0600
>Subject: Speeding - YAO (Yet Another Opinion)
>
>Fellow Auto Enthusiasts,
>
>I'm becoming quite enraged by the belligerence that seems to ensue at the
>merest hint that someone among our ranks might dissent one iota from the
>"speeding is our God-given right" party line that BMW owners are assumed to
>follow.  This belligerence is happening not only in our mail group but in
>the Roundel as well.  I'm sick of it!  Some of us don't believe in high
>speed driving (for the masses).  Here are my simple reasons:
>
>1) It's not me and my well-maintained bred-to-the-Autobahn German driving
>machine that I'm worried about.  It's the '86 Escort with sagging springs,
>failing tie-rod ends, rusting brake lines, non-functioning struts and bald
>tires cruising past me at 80 that *I'm* worried about.  Getting stopped
>and/or swerving to avoid hitting out-of-control jalopies is easier at 55
>than it is at 85+.
>
>2) I know what my car is capable of doing, and what it can/will do in
>varying road conditions.  I don't believe that everyone else is in touch
>with these subtleties (and they prove it daily all winter here in
>Illinois).  Increasing the legal speed limit will almost certainly result
>in more morons in more ditches - or doing 360's across my path as they
>brake hard to with the left wheels on pavement and the right wheels on
>glare ice (and no ABS, of course :)
>
>3) Speed is fine.  If your car can handle it, you know what you're doing,
>there is no traffic ahead of you and none entering the road ahead, then put
>the pedal down.  If you misjudge a hairpin curve, causing your Yoke's to
>cut loose suddenly, and pile up your 540i, that's your problem.  If you
>don't, then you win, and you had fun.  Bully.
>
>4) I don't want to share the road with truckers going 70+ on 4 hours of
>sleep.  My heart goes out to those guys - many of them are being grossly
>overworked - but I don't want to tangle with them when they're going fast.
>Keep them at 55.
>
>'Nuff said.  Flame away throttleheads!
>
>Barry S.
>
Well now we're starting to get somewhere. So like the lawyer who admits to being
unsafe at 80, you want to make rules for everybody else. There's only one
small problem. In this country everybody's supposed to be equal, and have
equal rights.
   Many here probably claim that they are safe at some speed higher than posted
speeds, and as one who has exceeded the 55 mph limit by more than 100 mph(in a
chevy kingswood estate station wagon at that) I agree. That is why some states
have speed limits that are defined as reasonable and prudent. I maintain that
my chevy at 160 was safe, and as you point out there are some who aren't safe
at 35.(one of my rigs currently, and I drove today for the first time this year.
<35) Anytime you set some cast in stone rule, it won't work right. It's as 
simple as that. That's another good reason we have jury's.
  
  Just for grins, rumor has it that a dozen mbz test drivers were recently cited
at 100 or more in Montana. This is one of the reasonable speed states, and the 
story was that they didn't feel 100+ was reasonable. Personally, I can think of 
several places in Montana that it seems reasonable to me, but I wasn't there, 
and don't know the particulars of this case. Admittedly, I'm inclined to think
mbz test drivers know more about what's safe and what's not than the cop
involved.