I got yelled at for doing 52 in a 55 about a month ago when I was in Michigan. The old lady was walking on the shoulder (I moved WAY over to give her tons of space) but she started freaking out and yelling "SLOW DOWN!" while waving her arms. I was in 4th gear holding a steady speed, but 52 in 4th with exhaust (Comptech catback with Megan testpipe)i s loud enough so all my girlfriend and I could figure was sports car + loud = speeding. Oh well, in a childish moment I flicked her off, downshifted, and took off into VTECland!

 

On my way back from picking up lunch last w/e I had a neighbor about 6 doors down from me motioning with his hands. As I passed I thought he was doing something like this... but with a serious look. It took a few seconds, but then I realized he was telling me to slow down.

Now, the road I live on has a speed limit of 20 mph. However, it never ceases to amaze me that people will tear down my street and around the blind sweeping curve (that I live on) at ~40-50 mph. You can hear them floor the throttle as they come out of the turn (right in front of my house). I find myself going about ~25 most days in my DD, and certainly slower when there are kids/people out and around cars parked on the side of the road.

So last w/e I went out in the S to pick up some lunch I was going slower than usual down the street as 1) there were cars parked on both sides of the street around the somewhat-blind sweeping curve, 2) there were people out walking, and 3) I had a drink in the center console. By the time I realized that he was telling me to slow down I had sped up a couple of mph and I looked down to see 23. I had to have been doing the speed limit, or slower.
________________________________________________

But here's another good one... I live near a shopping center that has a Kohl's. The Kohl's has two entrances, each with a crosswalk, each crosswalk with a stopsign.

So one day my g/f and I were crossing in front of the Kohl's on our way to the grocery store. There was a pedestrian about to cross the street between me and the crosswalk. Being the courteous person I am (or at least one that tries to follow the rules ), I stopped to let the pedestrian cross. I happened to stop about 15 feet from the crosswalk. Given that I came to a complete stop and I could plainly see there were no other pedestrians, I figured that that counted as my stop. I mean, 15 feet! So as I slowly start off I hear a guy behind me yelling from the sidewalk (not preparing to cross the street), "There's a STOP SIGN THERE."


Now I consider myself to be a safe and courteous driver, and I'm truly embarrassed when I do something stupid and get called out on it, but I don't get this stuff when I drive the white Civic. I only get it when I drive the S. I don't know if it's the fact that it's a bright car, a sports car, or a bright sports car, but it gets it's good and bad attention.

 

I had this problem the other day, and I got a 493 dollar disorderly conduct with a vehicle ticket because of it. Only because they called the cops and told them i was speeding, now I get to go to jury trial. I live 4 houses away from my stop sign, I have 4.57 gears and I can barely make it to 25 in first gear anymore. Same thing happened as the OG poster, it sounds and looks a lot faster than i was actually going since i never made it out of first.

The thing that really pisses me off is the guy says "slow down my kids play in this road"

My response was, the road is for driving, not for your kids to play in. go to the playground or tell them to play in the back yard.

Needless to say, I am very pissed off, the only time i hammer on my car is on ramps on the highway.

 

It's pretty much always a bad idea to piss off your neighbors. They know where you live. As with most relationships, right and wrong matter a whole lot less than perception. You can be right as much as you want, but they can still make your life miserable.

I'm sure most of you are exaggerating your behavior, but you shouldn't be surprised to come out one morning and find your car with four flat tires.

 

I always shift to second around 10-15 mph in the mornings when I leave.... I just smiled and stared... Then I told him I did not know the kids behind me, and he has pretty much left me alone for now...

John

 

hahaha. yea i get that. people tell me to slow down, some times i am driving too fast, but sometimes im not. my exhaust is really loud so it grabs their attention

 

LMAO

 

Having a loud exhaust is honestly just egging these people on to say something to you. It makes their heads turn because it's obnoxious as sin. For all you guys with the fart pipes on....sorry but I think a 4 banger with loud exhausts sounds horrible as does your average person. If someone drove a little fast one day...no big deal...if someone ran their nails down a chalk board over and over and then drove fast by you...it'd be a different story.

Having covered the sound aspect...there's also a cultural norm in cornering speeds. Since most people in the US seem to drive big SUV's, trucks, and minivans...they're taking the turn at 10-15 mph maybe. We're taking the turn at 25-30 mph and it looks insane to the average driver because they don't see cars turn like that. Although it feels like nothing to me, if I see another car doing the same speed around the corner it looks insane.

 

Don't sh!t where you eat. -----> be good in your own neighborhood.

There's a time and a place for everything. And heel toeing in a residential area at 3:00 PM on a weekend just doesn't work for me. But honesty, most of the asshats in my area aren't in sportscars, but in big SUVs that barrel down the block at full throttle, blasting the stereo and not paying any attention to the task at hand. And this is on the weekend, near the beach with pedestrians and kids EVERYWHERE!

It has been said that "Everyone who drives faster than me is an a$$hole, and everyone that drives slower than me is an idiot." This line tells you nothing about how to measure excessive speed; but rather about the perspective of just about everyone on the road. That said, I have been told to slow down before. I understand the case of mistaken identity. I have a loud exhaust. An old lady told me to slow down once when I was driving to work right around the street from me. I was doing the speed limit and I stopped and discussed speeders and reckless driving with her. She waves to me now. Now, when I drive on the highway and empty roads I admittedly drive fast. But I think that driving fast on an empty highway or country road is a calculated risk wherein you are risking (for the most part) your own skin and not the skin of others..

My problem lies in the blatant disregard for other people's lives that it takes to fly through a neighborhood. Innocent people are put at risk when you drive excessively through a residential area. I consider driveways to be unpredictable cross streets and I try to be aware of them, and all the potential dangers associated with them. People are unpredictable and the more people you have the more of a chance that there is something that will go wrong, whether it be your fault or not.

I enjoy empty stretches of roads that do not have cross streets, such as roads in and around the dragon. Nobody will pull out in front of you and no child will be chasing a ball in your path either. Now a deer might, and you might "discover" a fallen tree coming around a blind corner, but nobody said spirited driving came without personal risks. I am willing to risk my life for such thrills, but not the lives of the innocent.

 

I can't do more than 10 MPH on my road We live on a small private road that is not in the best condition I have a state trooper up the road from me and his kid burns out with there PU truck all the time This same trooper gave me a speeding ticket on my wedding day. I was driving a little over the speed limit (75 in a 40 ) on the main road that our road comes out on.
My best man and I were in our tux