51–60 of 111 posts
Not to be a wet blanket here, but what's the point? Bicycle across America... That's cool. Very impressive at any speed. Break the speed limit laws and potentially put others at risk... Not cool...
For us oldsters, there is a little cool-ness associated with the CannonBall Run from an old (but popular) movie. But it is a stupid thing, for sure.
Semi-relatedly, the California Highway Patrol reported an 87% increase in speeding tickets for > 100pmh as compared to 2019. https://twitter.com/CHP_HQ/status/1253087393567014912
Isn't that a felony? Years ago when I was in college I talked to a post-doc or visiting professor from Germany who got am aerial speeding ticket for going really fast on some desolate part of the I5 on his way from San Diego to San Francisco. He said it turned out to be much more serious than he expected (coming from the Land of Chocolate and the Autobahn) and it was a pain in the ass to sort out.
It still amazes me that the US, with all its red light cameras, doesn't adopt the European speed cameras that create a lot of tickets (at significant fines) for relatively minor speeding infractions. Top Gear did a test years ago to see just how fast you would need to go to defeat a speed camera, and it was well beyond what the Cannonballers would be running. You just can't fool a high speed camera easily. Of course,…
>> You just can't fool a high speed camera easily. There are some tricks. If you have staff, people prepping the road ahead of you, then you just slow down for the cameras. I suspect that these recent records are being supported by the same people, the same camera/cop location data. I'm interested in what tech might be used by this team. I've been waiting for SDR dongles to transform into radar detectors/jammers. Cop…
Most police traffic is on a trunked radio system shared with other users, and is typically encrypted. It’s easy find the transmission with a scanner, but trying to localize a transmission using only a power measurement is difficult due to multipath and fading.
It still amazes me that the US, with all its red light cameras, doesn't adopt the European speed cameras that create a lot of tickets (at significant fines) for relatively minor speeding infractions. Top Gear did a test years ago to see just how fast you would need to go to defeat a speed camera, and it was well beyond what the Cannonballers would be running. You just can't fool a high speed camera easily. Of course,…
I think it's interesting that the community which supports and follows the Cannonball Run appeared to be mostly against the first 26 hour run (the Audi pictured in the article). At least the most vocal part. My question is, do you actually PREFER that people reach reckless speeds in more crowded conditions?
How about not driving at reckless (your word) speeds on public roads? I'd be happy to see sanctioned events but I doubt that would happen.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that a felony? Years ago when I was in college I talked to a post-doc or visiting professor from Germany who got am aerial speeding ticket for going really fast on some desolate part of the I5 on his way from San Diego to San Francisco. He said it turned out to be much more serious than he expected (coming from the Land of Chocolate and the Autobahn) and it was a pain in the ass to sort out.
my understanding [IANAL] that speeding more than 30mph falls under "reckless driving" which is a misdemeanor. It is a serious PITA, especially for immigrants. Felony is much more than something "to sort out", it is more like a catastrophe.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that a felony? Years ago when I was in college I talked to a post-doc or visiting professor from Germany who got am aerial speeding ticket for going really fast on some desolate part of the I5 on his way from San Diego to San Francisco. He said it turned out to be much more serious than he expected (coming from the Land of Chocolate and the Autobahn) and it was a pain in the ass to sort out.
my understanding [IANAL] that speeding more than 30mph falls under "reckless driving" which is a misdemeanor. It is a serious PITA, especially for immigrants. Felony is much more than something "to sort out", it is more like a catastrophe.
Exact definitions vary state to state, but you can generally argue that reasonable circumstances precluded felony endangerment.
E.g. Doing 120 mph on a straight, flat, southwestern road with horizon visibility in all directions would be speeding, but a reasonable judge would probably weigh the unlikelihood of you posing a danger to anyone other than yourself.
Whether or not you get such a reasonable judge...
[1] https://definitions.uslegal.com/r/reckless-endangerment/
Not to be a wet blanket here, but what's the point? Bicycle across America... That's cool. Very impressive at any speed. Break the speed limit laws and potentially put others at risk... Not cool...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That speaks to the danger factor, but the OP wanted to know why they do take these risks. I'd say that those on the cannonball run have exactly the same motivation as Ellen MacArthur. She was knighted for setting an around-the-world yachting record, making her an official hero, but in terms of motivation she is no different than these people trying to break the across-the-us driving record. Different vehicles, differ…
I doubt it. They are getting a kick out of breaking rules. Otherwise they would do real racing.