More : age and knowledge of misery to innocent bystanders by reckless people don't giving a sh#t about others..

Example :
Drunk Polish seasonalworker drives into two elderly people cycling with their grandchildren , four people killed.
Imagine you to be a parent of these children, and child of the grandparents.
These people were on a cyclepath with a 6m verge of grass between it and te road, in daylight.

The guy got 6 month probation, I would have preferred to hang him.

 

All those videos of Mustang drivers crashing leaving car shows? All the people in the stories linked in this article? I'm sure they all felt confident and in control, until they weren't.

While I agree that speed limits in the US are outdated and lower than they ought to be, that doesn't mean we should all just drive at whatever speed we want. Go with the flow of traffic if it's moving faster than the posted limit? Sure. Go more than double the speed limit on the Long Island Expressway like in the video posted? Can't say I agree with that.

 

 

Why not punish the people who cause a crash instead of punishing everyone? Too slow drivers cause just as many accidents. "Safety first" means no cars.

Its only logical that very few cars on the road facilitates much higher overall speeds, but goverments long ago abandoned serving its citizens in favor of milking them. So with open roads and ticket revenue down, the government's instinct is to lower speed limits and increase fines in its own interest instead of increasing obtainable freedom in its citizens' interest.

 

@Noshame
Although a nice hillbilly singalong.. .. what is the relevance ???

 

I Guess my attempt at humor was lost. My Take is it is lonely being holed up at home as a Pub with no beer.

 

Here's an idea: mandate all traffic ticket revenue go 100% to fight COVID-19 instead of functioning as a municiple revenue profit center. Then will see how virtuous the traffic safety aparatus really is.

 

What's important is to use good judgement, and know your limit. I drove miles away from city and only decided to open it up on the straightest road with little cars in sight. There will still be risks involved wether going 50, 100, or 150, it's ultimately on you, the driver, to decide if it's safe for you and the people around you.


It's also revealing to know how bad US roads are, what seemingly are smooth tarmac turn into wash board at speed above 120. I'd had considered it perfect if I never went above 90.

 

You mis the point. Driving fast is no problem. As long as you do it somewhere where you can not do harm to others. For example : if we do top speed tests in Germany [ no speed limit highway],
we aim for a very quiet time of a quiet day. Even then we can suddenly approach a situation where we have to abort a trial, although there drivers are used to insane speeds.

So if we driving on the fast lane, approach a car from behind which appear to be gaining on the car in front, we slow down. Since : that driver might look in the rearview mirror and not see us,
while we are 500m away, and this driver decides to change lanes seconds later, we are too near to be able to avoid them.

Believe me, I drive for 40 years with no major crashes, always much faster then the legal limit if conditions allow it ONLY..

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...ttempt-222279/

 

They do get punished, and more severely than they would have been if they were just caught speeding.
But being on the road is not just about yourself, but about those around you and what the generally expected behaviors are. If an inexperienced driver changes lanes in front of you because he didn't realize you were approaching so quickly, it doesn't really matter how confident you are in your abilities, it creates an unsafe situation for everyone. On a de-restricted segment of the Autobahn, it's less of an issue because people are more likely to expect a rapidly approaching car.

I'm not saying I agree with how speed enforcement takes place in the US. A friend of mine got pulled over on an empty road in the middle of the desert in New Mexico for going 15-20mph over the limit. There was no one else being endangered and there was really no reason to have a speed trap there other than to grab some cash from an unwitting passer-by. But in the video here the driver is going significantly faster than those around on a quiet but not empty highway, passing people on the left AND the right. One wrong move by anyone in view and you have yet another incident to fuel the "speed kills" myth, leading to more draconian enforcement.

 

I thought it was great.

 

I'm waiting for some idiot in the LA area to get on a high speed chase on one of the now fairly open freeways. Chances are it will be a stolen vehicle (which most are) maybe something like an SVR (or equal) and get to speeds of 120 or above. Idiot will try to exit the freeway at speed and chase will end in a very violent and spectacular crash.

 

Google it and I guess you get a hit on an old movie on youtube...

 

I guess I am lucky(?)to be a full time bum(retired). I get to stay at home, work on my F-Type and wait for the local Jag dealer to finish work on my XK8.
As a retired airline pilot, I was flying over N.Y. on 9/11. When I landed in Orlando, they immediately shut down the airport. Everyone suddenly decided that flying was 'Nevermore safe', and all those AAARAABs needed to be deported to wherever they had come from. Hysteria ruled supreme. 6 weeks later, life was back to some sort of normalcy.
This too shall pass, it is just a matter of finding a vaccine/treatment for the Covid-19 virus. Give Kudos to any you know in the medical industry, Fire Dept, Law enforcement. They are on the front lines, and cannot pull back. Thank them for their ongoing service.

Here in S.W. Fla(the Best Coast), we have the oldest average age of anyone in Fla.(67 yrs). All are trying to stay safe, and make the best of a bad situation. I am applying internal viral medication on a regular basis. Bourbon, Rum, Tequila. If it survives 80 proof,, I am not applying enough.

 

It will take a lot longer then 6 weeks, and if there are 40 varieties, it can take years to setlle..
https://nypost.com/2020/03/24/icelan...s-report-says/

 

Back to the topic of how we're doing, and no politics.

Since I'm able to work full time from home, I've found that I'm working longer hours. I'm trying to combat that, but we're at the end of a quarterly release cycle and it's pretty busy.

Stores are limiting purchases, but I'm still OK. I'm making a list for the hardware store for projects to keep me occupied. Normally I'd pop down for miscellany as needed, but I'm being responsible about this (I can't tell you how much it pains me to be responsible). I need better light in the workshop, so there's that. Figuring out a way to store the hand planes I've been gathering and restoring for use. The CP/M computer is there too. I had to dig up some old PCs from storage because Windows 10 doesn't seem to like parallel ports, but my EPROM programmer requires one.

All in all, no *real* problems, just inconveniences.

 

Once a treatment/vaccine for the basic virus is found, life will come back with a vengeance. Everyone will be looking for something to spend money on that they had not used. The real losers in this are those in the service industry who rely on tips/wages from daily job, and cannot work from home. We have to try to help them if possible, now.

 

Hosted my first bonfire of the season and enjoyed the company of some friends as well as sampling some adult beverages. As much as the current situation is on everyone's mind, we did talk about other things that made the overall mood fun and enlightening.

At midnight last night, our state has some kind of "order" to shelter in place, but we've been doing that for a while now. Not sure what it really does except limit certain venues from being open and suggesting that we don't congregate or go out unless necessary.

 

I'm not sure what it means about stepping out of bed or not, but I do know that it means the great pension fund failure of Sep 2019 is now attributable to an Act of God. 70% went insolvent, which is why the first trillion of QE infinity began on Sep 23. Who knows the state at this point, other than it is "no ones fault." I don't know what twists and turns the virus takes, but I do know the economic "impacts" are just getting rolling.

 

So far: