Moonbat takes a pot at Top gear

[Unixman]

You might find this link entertaining:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists...210070,00.html

The guy is off his trolley !

[efoolution]

Originally Posted by Unixman

You might find this link entertaining:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists...210070,00.html

The guy is off his trolley !

... taking Top Gear/Clarkson seriously and literally ...


FAIL

[Ottobon]

i find it funny that all he does is batter pro-speeders and doesn't include a single fact for his own article. And that he offers no explanation as to why the death rate throughout the EU has risen in all the countries that have started toughening up enforcement as of last year

[BerserkerCatSplat]

I love the part when he starts masturbating to his own radio "achievement".

[iongerm]

I got bored reading his rubbish on line 3...
I mean- Seriously- the speed cameras in the UK are hypocritical anyway. What use is it to anyone when there are loads of signs warning you that there will be a speed camera 30 yards ahead? Everyone slows down for 10 yards and then speeds up again. If the government wants to do it properly and effective, I'm afraid there is only one way... Look at the Germans: They only ever have hidden temporary speed camera posts. Therefore, if you don't want to be caught, you have to be on guard all the time- and that means sticking to the speed limit. I am a petrolhead, but if you want to speed, then go to a racetrack if you can afford it. If you cannot, then stick to the rules.

[MattD1zzl3]

Originally Posted by iongerm

I am a petrolhead, but if you want to speed, then go to a racetrack if you can afford it. If you cannot, then stick to the rules.

I know i'm from the US and might not understand, but the nearest racetrack to me is the Moroso motorsports park, about 2 hours to the north (at crazy speeds referenced below.) Not only is it crazy far away, but to use it you need to rent out the entire track, totaling several thousand dollars. Or my other option is to go 20 over on the motorway (Interstate 95, which the police dont bother to enforce speed limits on). I dont weave in and out of traffic and drive like a maniac, and if weather or traffic are a threat, i slow down to a safe speed, so why should i be treated as a mindless criminal on par with a thief or burgler? I'm not threatening anybody but myself.

[Plissken]

The tone was set in 2002 when the team demonstrated that you could beat the cameras by driving past them at 170mph.

Top Gear does indeed promote bad behaviour George. Ever since seeing that, I've been driving my Skoda Fabia 1.2 12v everyone at 170mph, and haven't been caught on a single camera.

I also raced my girlfriend to the shops, me in the car, her in a boat. I won, obviously, as she couldn't get the thing off the drive. Maybe we should try again, just not in August.

[DTMracer]

Reading some of the comments after that article, I wonder what sort of idiots are we producing these days in the world?

When will people start taking responsibility for their own actions? The truth of the matter is that your average joe these days is a shit driver who has no interest in improving their skills behind the wheel. Why doesn't the government provide incentives for those idiots to become better drivers? It'd certainly cost less than replacing and buying speed cameras all the time, and if they truly do have the motorist's safety at heart then why don't they tighten the licensing system much more? Knowing what to do when a car spins is surely more important than how to parallel park?

I reckon that journalists like george are probably just writing a stupid article like this to gain attention, as seen by the flood of responses. Therefore, I propose that all motorists should ignore this article and keep enjoying cars for what they are. The less attention we give wits like this, the more it pisses them off.

Finally, George, you don't drive, so what's a wit like you doing talking about driving when you have no experience of it and don't know just how much people like us get picked on for our love of cars? I don't see boat or aeroplane enthusiasts getting picked on so often.

EDIT: I can also list an example where speeding is safe. In Australia, many rural roads are often only two lanes wide with barely any overtaking lanes. I do quiet a bit of country driving, so I am very qualified to talk about this. If I want to pass, say, a large truck, then I have to cross onto the opposite direction lane in order to do so (This is legal and stated in the rulebook for those of you not in oz). Thus, I'll speed up and travel over the speed limit in order to overtake and spend as little time as possible on the wrong lane. But, if idiots like george had their way, then I'd have to spend maybe 10 or 15 seconds more going in the wrong lane, and isn't this much more dangerous than just speeding up? And don't give me that crap about speeding being dangerous, since I'd already have judged for myself that it was safe to overtake in the first place.

[nannocrob]

Why get so worked up? People shouldn't be speeding in public areas anyway. Honestly, do you really think a nineteen year old is considering that a single mother coming home from working late at night, who has eleven starving children with CP at home, might be coming down the other end of the street when he does 97mph around a bend with his comically suped-up Evo. I doubt it. And you know when they wreck, he'll end up being fine - because he was drunk; past-out and landed limp - and she will end up looking worse than "Lady Di" three weeks after "her" accident.

[alfaholic]

Originally Posted by nannocrob

Why get so worked up? People shouldn't be speeding in public areas anyway.

I hate to break it to you but most accidents are not caused by excessive speed, not in the UK anyway. Speed cameras on dual carriageways and motorways are primarily a money-making exercise and the government makes very nice revenue from them, if you have any experience driving in Britain many of the cameras are placed with exactly that objective in mind (e.g on the border of a reduction in speed limit). Personally I've been hit 3 times in the last 6 years causing at least £1000 damage each time. Not one of those accidents was due to speed, just the other driver being a dickhead. The last one steamed through a red light into the side of my previous car and was convicted of driving without due care and attention. Bad drivers are the majority cause but it's much cheaper (and makes more money) to install a speed camera rather than tackle the actual problem.

[DTMracer]

Alfaholic has hit the nail on the head

[KaJuN]

DTMracer and alfaholic are absolutely right. People going 10mph over the interstate speed limit aren't what cause accidents. It's the drivers who swerve from lane to lane, squeeze thru red lights, cut people off, ect. who are the dangerous ones. But it's just easier to go after speeders and it makes politicians look better because they're "protecting their citizens".

Driver training desperately needs to be improved. I spent more time learning how to park than I spent actually driving. And forget car control or emergency maneuvers. Too many people either don't know or they've forgotten how to drive safely.

[alfaholic]

Thanks for the support I think the driving test should be made tougher, in Britain there is no requirement for you to drive on the motorway to pass the test which requires more skills than driving on ordinary roads. I say this as someone who took 3 attempts to pass, although in my defence the first two examiners were ex-policemen

I'd probably driven well over 1000 miles on an L plate when I passed, most of that was supervised practice in my Dad's car.

[DTMracer]

I actually started off learning how to drive on a race track. Its amazing how differently a car behaved when I was on the race track, and it taught me heaps about car control. However, people these days think that how good you are at parking determines how good a driver you'll be....

I've also done some driving courses over the years, which are very fun, informative and prices are dropping heaps these days, thus giving people very few excuses not to do a basic defensive driving program. I gotta say, the Porsche and BMW ones were absolutely awesome.

[Ottobon]

Originally Posted by iongerm

I got bored reading his rubbish on line 3...
I mean- Seriously- the speed cameras in the UK are hypocritical anyway. What use is it to anyone when there are loads of signs warning you that there will be a speed camera 30 yards ahead? Everyone slows down for 10 yards and then speeds up again. If the government wants to do it properly and effective, I'm afraid there is only one way... Look at the Germans: They only ever have hidden temporary speed camera posts. Therefore, if you don't want to be caught, you have to be on guard all the time- and that means sticking to the speed limit. I am a petrolhead, but if you want to speed, then go to a racetrack if you can afford it. If you cannot, then stick to the rules.

Although i completely disagree with you about obeying crooked laws, i do wish more people took driving as seriously as you (especially here in the states)

I think what needs to be enforced more then anything is "lack of due care." I know many many many many many people who drive at speeds that would probably get you imprisoned in Britain, some of them Journalists and some of them just people who love driving. The point is none of them have crashed, ever, and the one common feature is that they all take driving very seriously. My one friend has actually seen a motorcyclists head sort of (not to be graphic, but) disintegrate, and instead of hiding in a corner and crying, he learned the importance of all around safety. He actually drives better at 120mph then he does at 70mph, i suppose because he takes the whole situation much more seriously at that speed.

Anyways i think the best place to point to is actually Japan, where they don't really enforce speed limits, so much as just have very tough and manditory drivers education classes, the last time i checked they had the one of the lowest fatality rates in the world, dispite the complete lack of enforcement for high speed, and the extremely heavy congestion.

Originally Posted by nannocrob

Why get so worked up? People shouldn't be speeding in public areas anyway. Honestly, do you really think a nineteen year old is considering that a single mother coming home from working late at night, who has eleven starving children with CP at home, might be coming down the other end of the street when he does 97mph around a bend with his comically suped-up Evo. I doubt it. And you know when they wreck, he'll end up being fine - because he was drunk; past-out and landed limp - and she will end up looking worse than "Lady Di" three weeks after "her" accident.

And your the type of person who shouldn't be taken seriously because you obviously don't live in reality. I'm suprised you didn't attach the aforementioned mother for being careless and self-indulgent for having 11 babies.

[speedyvespa]

It's a difficult one for me this... I hate doing 30mph on what appears to be a totally deserted road and I love the irreverent attitude of the TG presenters and can't help but agree that some of the laws (and in particular the application of said law) are misplaced in their emphasis.

BUT as someone whose immediately family has been affected by people dicking about in cars on public roads (one fatality and one near fatality) I have to remind myself that the law can't be administered on a case by case basis. Sure, some people can be trusted to go faster than the speed limit, but a lot cannot. So it really has to apply according to the lowest common denominator.

The kid in question, when up in the dock, claimed that he has a great safety record in the past and had a reputation of being able to normally handle cars at high speeds. Which is probably true, except that once. Which stank for us. So he got 3 years, but was out in 17 months...

So while you might not agree with that article, there is a strong argument in favour of what it says, of that there is no doubt.