Agreed. It sucks that people do stupid crap in subdivisions, but it's not our job to police that and doing so is almost as wrong.

Back to the flat spots. You can tell if this is the problem by lifting the car and letting it sit for awhile. A nice warm day will help. After the tires have relaxed, spin them and watch the tread with something for a referrence, like a ruler across a pair of jack stands just off the face of the tire tread. Tires shops sometimes have a large version of a dial indicator for this very purpose. It has to have a fairly large follower wheel to span all the agressive tread patterns of the day.

That's why the ruler might work just as well. Now, if your tires are flatted, finding someone with a shaver will be the next problem. And, if you do, he may not want to shave a used tire because of embeded debris that will ruin his shaver disc.

You, know a couple of new tires just aren't that expensive to go thru all that. But it can be done. Sell the old ones on your local list to someone that drives a beater and could use some fresh tires on the cheap.

As nice as that sounds, you must not have thought about it much. That's a very, VERY bad idea. Especially in the states. Unless a lot of stuff changed in the states that would be a nightmare. Our death toll would go up exponentially.

For speed limits in the US on freeways, even if only certain freeways, we would need to retrain everyone in the US to drive, retest everyone with extremely strict requirements , and junk probably 1/3 (or more) of the cars on the road and require stringent testing and probably redesign of cars.

And as for the retraining and retesting, I bet that the amount of people who would be able to afford and be able to pass the new training and testing would be somewhere between 25% and 50% of the people on the road right now. If you took the license of half of the people in the US right now it would be anarchy at best.

Just not feasible.

The worst thing is people blah blah blahing on their cell phone creeping up while you are waiting on a traffic light pointed uphill. They put the front of their car like two inches from your rear bumper, you have absolutely no room for any error in your launch or they will either rear end you or you will roll back into them. The car is cold, the CIS is spitting back and not wanting to idle exactly right and you just KNOW its gonna stumble and they are gonna shove their shiney Yugo right under your rear bumper. And they keep inching closer and closer and closer. This came very near to happening twice this past week.

On the subject of the tire shaver. If there are any local dirt tracks, ask there, I seem to recall some of the local boys here shave used tires to camber them in odd ways and stuff.

Eli

IF I ever catch you speeding in MY neighborhood your car will be toast and so will your ass. I'm serious -- if I thought you endangered my children I would kill you.

He has every right to do the same. We are talking about a residential neighborhood and he made that clear. Do your negligent driving some where else.

What gives you the right to assume that risk in a residential area?

You better pray I never catch you doing so in my neighborhood.

As annoying as people who "jam" on the highway are, I agree that it's even worse when someone rips through a neighborhood without regard to human life. When that happens I "kill" them with my best glower in their direction. As you can imagine, that tactic has significantly reduced such infractions.:rolleyes:

Before we insert limbs anywhere, logic would assume that Brandon is simply driving along in his subdivision at the speed limit on a two lane, residential road. What is he supposed to do? Speed up to accomodate some jack-ass?

Speaking of neighborhood driving...
In our little 70 home gate community, I am - of course - the only gear head rebuilding a car. AFter 12 months I finally get the SC running and it's time to tune the EFI upgrade: requiring some runs, data logging to the laptop and adjustment.

The longest stretch in the neighborhood is about 100 yards following a hairpin coming off of about a 65 yard straight: so mph speed is not really going to happen. But, with Trident 2 in 2 out mufflers and a not yet tuned engine, the thing is somewhere between very and damn loud.

Didn't take long to get the stay-at-home mom and grannies to come out, cross arms and glower. Then, it didn't take much longer for one to come running out into the road in front of me waiving arms for me to stop so I could hear that I shouldn't, couldn't, must not run thru the neighborhood fast at 'that kind of speed'. I told her it just 'sounded fast' and I wasn't really going 'that fast'. As to her concern about the neighborhood children - this was during school hours and pre-schoolers: should they be even on the residential streets. by themselves? To say nothing of being able to hear this thing coming...

But, ok - peace to them all - I've now been making laps outside the neighborhood - including Saturday. And while doing so, my wife hears two teenage boys stop playing basketball, listen to my car 'over there' and ask each other 'what the heck is that?'

a solution to those of you who have ricky racers play zoom zoom thru your neighborhood..........speed bumps! simple effective and can be made just like the ones in mexico that WILL make you wish you had slowed down!

for those of us who live on dirt roads w/ricky baja racers screaming WFO.............took buddies john deere and scooped out nice wide/long depression. when they haul a$$, they launch into a nice eroded area since all sheet flow of water goes thru. and the value added bonus..........it fills with a hell of alot of water when it does rain. we call it the "slow down people puddle".

now this does work for the majority in our section of land. but there is always one clown in the bunch. this clown age 16, drives his mommys ford f 150 like its a trophy truck. had a chat with mom in front of kid. that didnt work. soooooooooo roommate and i were working outside on house one sunday afternoon. he came flying by, went around corner in full power on slide. well the both of us waited, until he came back. went over to house, and rang bell. asked if his mommy was home, he replied no. with that we both proceeded to climb down his throat at mach volume, threatening to call the cops, press charges for reckless driving(8pts-mandatory suspension) and go to every hearing and twist his nuts so tight, that he wouldnt be able to see straight! let alone beat his worthless a$$ senseless! i guess 2 old farts, 6'3 tall, very mad, foaming at the mouth, finally did the trick.


NEXT TIME HE DOES IT.................his property will be surrounded with a box of ROOFING NAILS! LOL!

I've got to agree about people flying through residential streets, there is no place for that. There are plenty of deserted or less traveled roads with few houses that are better suited for fast driving. I don't have too many problems with cars in my neighborhood, but for a while there were some idiots on ATV's that thought my street was a drag strip. One day my wife and I were out in the garage when I heard one of them accelerating at the end of the street (about 100 yards from my house). I yelled at him so loudly that not only did my wife who was standing next to me just about jump out of her skin, but the guy on the ATV heard me over the loud exhuast and just about drove off the road and immediately slowed waaaay down and actually said "sorry!". It doesn't hurt that I'm 6'4" and go about 230lbs. Oh, and I had a shovel leaning up against the garage nearby. I haven't had a problem with any ATV's since then! :)

Ian you need to learn that there are other people in this world besides yourself! If you hit a child in my neighborhood driving like an idiot you would be praying for the cops to get there in a hurry and save your ass.

Randy and tldry got it right.

As much as i can't stand slow drivers clogging up the fast lane i will say that noone has any right to gripe about somebody doing the speed limit in the fast lane. Sure, you might be an expert drive with a well prepped race bred automobile but what about the uninsured illegal in the panel van with bald tires and ladder racks? I believe most accidents are caused by speed differential and if we can all get on the same page (i believe that is the purpose of the speed limit) there would likely be many less accidents.

Actually, in most states it's against the law to hold up traffic even if you are doing the speed limit. You probably have seen the signs-"Slower Traffic Keep Right" or "Keep Right Except For Passing". Those are laws designed to keep the highways safe and un-clogged. If you violate those laws, you may be surprised to get a ticket for obstructing traffic even though you are going the speed limit. They even teach in drivers ed that it is wise to stay with traffic, even if traffic is over the speed limit.

Left lane hogs are a danger-period. People who swerve into the left lane to slow the progress of a passing vehicle are worse and subject to the reality that their actions could cause a serious accident. Should that accident result in a fatality they would then be subject for some serious jail time.

I'll quote Michael Douglas from the movie The In-Laws- "I see traffic laws as more of a suggestion-Am I wrong?" The laws are made for the lowest common denominator-the idiot with no skill, awareness, or tread. I speed-always, but within reason. I slow for cars that are travelling slower than me when passing, and I tailor speed for conditions. I'm often the slowest one on the road in inclement weather. I have no tickets or accidents in 2 decades. I am very cautious and prefer to focus on cars I am gaining on rather than pay attention to cars hovering all around me. It simplifies the equation, allows me to focus better, and be a safer driver.

I in no way condon exceeding the speed limit in residential areas or even areas where there are lots of entrances to the road from side roads or parking lots or anything like that, but it's still not our job to police the roads.

I personally would like to see speed bumps put in my neighborhood because I know people speed all the time, and this is the sort of neighborhood where kids play in the street and dogs occasionally wander around. I've heard the arguments against speed bumps, but I don't care. People need to slow down.

I often see people speeding and fantasize about throwing a big stuff doll/animal out in front of them or a basket ball or a spike strip, but that's all it is, fantasy. (But it sure would make me feel good for a second anyway).

swerving into any lane when a car is closing fast is stupid; that's a no-brainer.

BUT calling people who do the speed limit in the fast lane a 'danger' is ignoring the fact that they are a 'danger' to people who choose to ignore the speed limit. in what scenario does a driver in the fast lane doing the speed limit and not swerving back and forth cause 'danger'? Perhaps i am misunderstanding your point here?

like them or not laws are laws. as a society we are too damn ignorant to police ourselves particularly when public safety is involved. just because everybody does it don't make it right.

Jeez, a lot of emotion on this subject. I think the main thing is for people to live together with a mind for each other's comfort. Comfort for all might not be always driving at a sane speed in urban areas, especially residential. But, as a society, if we ever hope to maintain what's left our civility, we have to work at it a bit. I'm sure those that enjoy their 911 sound, brakes and cornering, don't particularly enjoy a fart can or 10" woofers that you can hear at every intersection in many neighborhoods.

I just finished readin an editorial from a guy who has lived in 3 neighborhoods here in Long Beach, CA. We are the poorest city in CA, and 6th in the nation for % liviing below the poverty leval for cities 100K>. So, those neighborhoods that I refer to are more the norm.

Low and behold, after fighting for noise abatement for nearly 10 years, this cat bought a house in an expensive neightborhood not too far from the beach. Now, he says all he hears at night is a fog horn way off shore. He likes older, classic houses, which we have a ton of. I live in one, too, but not near the beach. It would sell (today, who knows about tomorrow) for almost 700K. I hear gunshots at night several times a month, not to mention the usual BS from some of the lower class neightbors.

I can't really tell you what the moral is here, but a lot of the US is rude, and uncaring about general politeness. I guess if you fall in that catagorie, nothing said here is going to change anything. The editorial dude's conclusion was that the more gentile take a little care when it comes to being noisy and he doesn't have to fight any more. Lucky for him that he could buy his way into sublime, eh? So, if you have it, I'd protect it and not be part of the problem.

Way to go Randy. I don't know about the rest of the 'I'll kill you' bunch, but frankly I thought you, for one, were a little smarter than that. I guess it doesn't take much for the instinctive caveman lurking under the surface to come bursting out, does it?

You don't own your neighborhood, your streets, or anything except your own little pea patch. If I decide to drive through your yard, you can tell me how fast to go.

Or maybe I'll just kill you. :rolleyes:

ianc

Ian, I was with you on your first story, but you're flat out wrong about neighborhoods. They're really dangerous places to speed; there's unexpected stuff happening all the time, and it can cause people -- especially kids -- to get seriously hurt or killed. Once you're going above a certain speed, things can happen too fast for anyone to react, so there needs to be the slack that lower speed limits provide.

If Randy were walking down the street in his neighborhood and saw a man mugging a handicapped woman, would you tell him he shouldn't intervene just because he doesn't "own the neighborhood?" Or because it's "not his job" to police things?

This is no different.

Tailgating mini-vans and SUVs. Piloted by attention-deficit poster models. I love it when they give their children's DVD viewing more consideration then other vehicles on the roadway. While the sunroof might be an excellent chaff-dispenser to grab their attention, better judgement and judicious acceleration puts them in their place - far, far behind me.
The best defense is a good offense.

Regards,

I love to read these stories.

I like hearing other people's views on these situations.

We all have this crap hapens to us, regardless of what car we're driving in, but I do find it particularly agravating when I'm driving my 911.

As a kid (in high school), my friends and I used to jam roads for the fun of seeing how pissed we could make the other drivers. Now, I'm getting a taste of my own medicine since I'm now the one who has to be somewhere in a short time frame.

Just a different light to look at these things,
Matt

When I'm driving fast in the left lane, here's my strategy for dealing with the blockers- I just leave the brights on all the time. My A/M bulbs will fry bats out of the sky when the brights are on, most people move the hell over pretty quick when they feel the heat on their face coming from their mirrors.