ajs@hpfcla.UUCP (01/04/84)
#R:dsd:-22600:hpfcla:14900002:000:1238 hpfcla!ajs Jan 2 18:20:00 1984 == Turn on heavy imitative sarcasm... Thanks (Mr. Decker) for your story about you fighting all of your traffic tickets, and your statements like "The cops... would have to give tickets only when a serious crime is being committed." Over the years I've tried to drive in such a manner as to avoid getting tickets. I find that I never get any. I just naturally drive as safely as I can, and don't have to be "just as careful" as anyone else. I think that who ever writes articles like yours should be given a bright orange warning license plate. == Turn on common sense... Honestly, do you really think driving a sporty car makes you safer? That the right way to avoid traffic ticket blues is to learn how to fight them in court? That your attitude fosters better driving habits and that, uniformly applied, it would lead to fewer deaths on the highway? Sorry if you are offended by this. I'm offended by people who deliberately drive poorly (like tailgators, may their headlights implode), and have to fight it any way I can. Alan Silverstein, Hewlett-Packard Fort Collins Systems Division, Colorado {ihnp4 | hplabs}!hpfcla!ajs, 303-226-3800 x3053, N 40 31'31" W 105 00'43"
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (01/06/84)
Fast driving isn't necessarily bad driving. A fast bad driver won't last long. Tailgating IS bad driving, but I doubt that fast drivers in expensive cars will very often risk it. If you want to see GOOD driving, get off the North American highways, and drive the German Autobahns for a while. The speed may be twice as fast (literally) as on our highways, but it feels MUCH safer. Not many oafs clog the left or middle lane of an autobahn; it is usually such people who complain about tailgaters, because they are the ones who generate the frustration that leads to tailgating. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt
perelgut@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut) (01/06/84)
+- Martin Taylor thinks that fast driving is GOOD and the German autobahn is an example. The only time I have seen the autobahn is on TV and in newspapers when there has been a 130 car pileup. Even the worst stretches of the US. highways don't get more than 30% of that! The 130 car pileups seem to occur every couple of years too! -- Stephen Perelgut Computer Systems Research Group University of Toronto Usenet: {linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd}!utcsrgv!perelgut
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (01/07/84)
Martin Taylor thinks that fast driving is GOOD and the German autobahn is an example. The only time I have seen the autobahn is on TV and in newspapers when there has been a 130 car pileup. Even the worst stretches of the US. highways don't get more than 30% of that! The 130 car pileups seem to occur every couple of years too! ================= If I said fast driving was GOOD, I misspoke. I intended to say that it was not in itself BAD. There's a world of difference. My point is that good lane discipline makes fast driving safer. As for 130-car pileups, they occur on highways wherever there are erratic fogs, regardless of speed limits. Didn't I hear about a 250-car pileup in England only a few weeks ago? The problem is that you don't see the fog bank coming (I know. I've had it happen more than once) and when you suddenly get into it you have to choose whether to slow or not. If you do, the fool behind you hits you, but if you don't, you hit the fool in front of you. Either way, you are all fools, and have to await the wrecking trucks (no, that hasn't happened to me). I seem to have heard of 50-car pileups of the same kind in whiteouts on the 400. For my own safety, I drive about the same speed on the autobahn as here, but I feel MUCH safer there. The reference to double speed was intended to deal with cars whose speed I measured as they passed me. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,uw-beaver,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt