Lots of polls recently and the local S2000 owner who died this week got me thinking.

Choose the "most dangerous" category you are regularly guilty of. You could argue excessive speed in traffic is less safe than street racing, so choose whichever you thing you do that you feel is more dangerous.

This is an anonymous poll (AFAIK), but I'll be honest. Almost all of us are/were stupid teenagers or 20-somethings at one point. Before I got into autox/hpde, I would test out mods by highway racing my friends in the middle of the night (never raced a stranger). Now, I still occasionally use excessive speed when safe, but don't race. Most of the time, autocross or track days are enough to satisfy my needs. But if it's been a while between events and I'm on a highway in the middle of nowhere with noone around (except maybe my friends), I'll punch it, hit vtec, and get into low triple digits. This happens maybe 2 or 3 times a year for me - a lot less than what I did before I got involved in motorsports. Other than that, I drive pretty conservatively on the street. I speed within the range of the flow of traffic, but nothing that I (or most cops) would consider as excessive.

 

Define excessive, because people mean many different things when they say speed.

 

reckless
Main Entry: reck·less
Pronunciation: \ˈre-kləs\
Function: adjective
Date: before 12th century
1 : marked by lack of proper caution : careless of consequences
2 : irresponsible <reckless charges>


If more reckless drivers were "wreckless" we'd be in better shape.

I'll edit your post title.

 

Saki - I'd say excessive is if you pass a cop and you get that really nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach. Example - the speed limit on our local highways is 55. If you go 55 you will probably die. The flow of traffic is around 65 to 75. I'll go 70 to 80 depending on conditions. I'd say excessive is in the 90ish area - you stick out to cops and they will be going after you. Gunning it at random street lights is also excessive imo. I hate defining it off the actual speed limit because it is an arbitrary number. You know when you're doing something wrong and when you're just driving.

Ckit - thanks!

 

You beat me to the punch...

 

Depending on the definition of 'safe', jsut about everyone has fallen into this category at some point in their driving career:

I occasionally use excessive speed, sometimes even when it's not safe to do so.

 

Yeah, but not regularly. I wouldn't count occasional lapses in judgement. But if you're constantly seeing how fast you get somewhere...

 

i went with option 3. I think I qualify for 'not safe' sometimes. I don't race, and if I speed (excessively or not) I do it in the far left lane and generally am a fairly patient non-aggressive driver. There are, however, exceptions....

 

i got caught once going 94 in a 50 zone and pleaded my cause to the officer that i was being reckless in a safe manner, apparently he bought my story. He let me off with a ticket for failure to disobey a traffic control device 150 fine, no points.

this video below shows about how much reckless i'll ever be.

please don't flame
i know it's lame
It's how i drive
it's how i maim
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmAnMIPT-nk [/media]

 

dude. i want my 2 minutes back.