RE: A4 yuppie scum in Boston

["Dan Sinclair" <sinclair@prospro.com>]

Aleksander Mierzwa wrote:

>>>From what I've read on this list, in USA there's lot of people who either
think that everybody out there always obeys speed limits or simply don't
give a d*mn about others on the road. If this is really the case, I would
be hesitant to drive really fast on the American motorways, since while
driving at 100mph I'd never know when I will be cut off by someone doing
45mph and not watching his/her mirrors.<<<

We have a winner!  I've dodged this thread all together and probably missed
some replies, but this is a great objective response from Aleksander.
Americans in general hold a special place in their hearts for law breakers.
Most Americans have a deeply rooted sense of justice and equality.  I think
that many American motorists are simply absent minded, and inattentive
behind the wheel.  I think we've all been guilty of this at one time or
another.  But some of the road rage issues I feel can be attributed to
people's disdain toward law breakers.

When you get passed by a Ferrari doing 95 mph, you hope that you see him
sitting in front of a cop car later down the road, and if you do, you laugh,
because "he got what he deserved".  Justice.  I think the same holds true
for other instances.  When drivers pull into the passing lane on a big hill
and quite obviously cut off a fellow motorist who was climbing the hill in
the left lane at 85 mph, I think most drivers rationalize this by believing
that "he's speeding, he's braking the law, so he can just sit behind my
bumper and suffer".  People in the US resent people who break the law.  As a
culture, we love to see people get what's coming to them.  Hence the
popularity of "Cops", "America's Scariest Police Chases", "The People's
Court", you name it....  Most American motorist don't have any hesitation
about pulling into the passing lane without checking their mirrors because,
in part, they feel it's the law breakers own fault if he rear-ends slower
traffic because he's doing 100 mph in the left lane.  He shouldn't have been
speeding damn it!  He got what he deserved!   Surely this isn't true in all
cases, but I think it's a substantial factor.  Social-Psychology rant for
the day.

-Dan

Dan Sinclair
1988 Audi 90, 69K mi.
Photo and details online at:
http://131.107.68.28/a4.org/registry/details.asp?car=761

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net
[mailto:owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net]On Behalf Of Aleksander Mierzwa
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 1999 9:08 AM
To: Ssgacc@aol.com; quattro@coimbra.ans.net
Subject: Re: A4 yuppie scum in Boston


At 08:42 99-04-15 EDT, Ssgacc@aol.com wrote:

> It's the SPEED DIFFERENTIAL that kills, not necessarily the outright speed
>itself. when you're traveling at 2x the posted limit on any major highway
>with other traffic, you're asking for trouble.
[...]
>I am not trying to endorse high speed driving, but it works for me and a
few
>others I meet on the road.  If an unskilled or unsafe driver wants to
"race",
>or someone just wants to go faster (rare) I willingly and readily let them
>go.  I have driven some of the most scared, anti-speed auto passengers and
>even they grudgingly admitted that except that they KNEW what the speed was
>they felt safe.

IMHO the key factor here is not the speed differential itself, but whether
other motorists actually EXPECT others to drive at much higher speeds.
For example in Poland we have are from 90kph on ordinary roads to 130kph on
the very few motorways, however, most drivers do not obey the limits in
general which is a very well known fact. When driving on a multi-lane road
with 110kph limit most people EXPECT to be regularly passed by cars doing
in excess of 160kph (not to be hypocrite here, yes, sometimes a certain
black 5KT is one of those cars :-) ) and therefore tend to stay in the
right lane, watch the rear view mirrors etc. On German Autobahn sometimes
the speed difference is also huge (a truck doing 80kph and an S8 doing
_well_ over 200, for example), yet for the very same reason (people in
slower cars expect to be approached by faster traffic and vice versa) they
are generally safe.
>From what I've read on this list, in USA there's lot of people who either
think that everybody out there always obeys speed limits or simply don't
give a d*mn about others on the road. If this is really the case, I would
be hesitant to drive really fast on the American motorways, since while
driving at 100mph I'd never know when I will be cut off by someone doing
45mph and not watching his/her mirrors.

Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars break at the same time :-)