3mo ago

Are Street Racers "bad people"?

Do you think people who illegal street race are 'bad people'?

83 comments

Yes. Its risky for everyone nearby, there is literally no upside. If you want to race, take it to a track. Every track I have been to has some kind of open track night for like $20 entry and you get santioned racing with proper facilities and a safety crew on standby. Its moronic to do it anywhere else.
- Once I actually stated meeting people in life who go out to the track, I saw street racers in a new light. I never admired them in the first place, but I started seeing them as absolutely pathetic, once I became aware of how easy and popular it is to take your car out to a track and actually push its limits and/or compete with others.
  A lot of people like to go to the firing range, too. But you don’t see them doing target practice walking down the sidewalk. That’s essentially what street racing is.
- That would be a great option if tracks stopped getting bought out, torn down, and replaced with suburbs.
  Also, even if you do have access to one, they have gotten very expensive and have strict vehicle regulations. Idk where you live that you can get on a track for $20 but where I live, one would be lucky to get on a (non-drag strip) track for $500.
  Not defending street racing, but it isn’t that simple.
  
  What I have seen is that if you get in with local car clubs, you can get autox runs for not much money. If you don't mind dirt, rallyx or dirtx days are also a good way to get track time on a budget.
  Yes, proper track days on a real circuit are expensive but when you look at the consumables like tires, brakes, oil, etc, the entry fee is minimal compared to the actual cost. Even when I had my mini, it was like that. It also really depends on the track. In Houston we have MSR and Grandsport, msr is pricey. Grandsport used to be rented for the day for like $2k and split between 10 or 15 people, that was cheaper than a speeding ticket.
  Realistically, the street racing that occurs around me is all drag style highway blasts or streetlight races. None of these douches are doing circuit drives. So the $20 number wasn't far off (at least it was before Royal Purple was shut down)
  The problem of tracks getting closed is a major one. Nimby ruins it for everyone. The "racers" are also still to blame here. Its impulse control, and personal responsibility/accountability. Realistically too, a speeding ticket here is $150 minimum, plus court fees of $150ish, plus defensive driving course of $100ish so you are basically to the $500 figure anyways.

Motorcyclist here. Pretty much everything I say except stunting is also applicable to car drivers as well.
Speed is so damned much fun, especially on two wheels. Hit the straight and twist that throttle, and you are GONE!!!
That said, we have a name for people who do that on the streets - squids. They are the bane of our community, and give us a bad reputation in the general population.
Want to go fast? Hit up a track day and get some instruction to go with it. Or book some track time just to unwind. Or maybe - just maybe (depending on your local circumstances), find a paved secondary highway with no traffic.
But street racing? Stunting? Showing off? GET THE FUCKING FUCK OFF THE FUCKING ROAD YOU FUCKING FUCK!!!
- ‘Squids’ is a good daily-driver descriptor. I prefer to go straight to ‘organ donors’ usually.
- Squids have always been gearless riders to me and my circle, not the name for reckless riders
  
  Riding without gear is pretty reckless tbf
  
  What are the first two letters in "squids"?

Yes. Its incredibly risky behaviour for everyone around.
Putting people at risk like this when they had no say in it is what makes someone a bad person.

They’re selfish cunts.
- It looks like the kid is going to keep trying
  Maybe he has a humiliation kink or something?

100% yes!

Road laws exist to make driving predictable. Breaking those laws makes you unpredictable, and thus a danger. If you want to race, find a track.
- They will never go to a track. There are track days but that's not racing. You can't actually take your slammed 2002 Honda civic with the TEMU spoilers to race. Races are within controlled series with safety and technical requirements, as well as minimal driver training.
  
  Uh...
  You and I have visited very different speedways.
  Where I come from, if the engine turns over, it is race eligible.
  And if the engine doesn't turn over, there's a cool giant fire breathing robot we can still feed the car to.
- This is an aspect of driving that people don't get. It doesn't necessarily matter WHAT the laws are--there are so many ways to drive all around the world. What matters is that everyone follows the same ones so that they know what to expect from others. If people routinely ignore one law in a region and that's part of the expectation, then everyone is just fine. It's that one person who doesn't follow the norms that is dangerous.

Yes
Your idiotic attempt to justify it a couple of days ago hasn't been forgotten
I hope you only harm yourself with your stupidity and selfishness
- Holy shit, you weren't joking.
  Very weird that he's somehow seeking validation in this fashion.
  
  Maybe he's learning, and while resistant, is still exploring the topic. First he says he thinks it's fine, then he goes, hey wait do people really think this is so bad?
  I don't have a lot of faith in people left, and I realize it's a reach, but we might be seeing a realization in process, and it may result in a future behavioral change.

Y’all are assholes who do asshole things.
That maim people.
And kill people.
All the time.
Seriously why do y’all do this? You can rent time on tracks for cheap!
- There is nothing cheap about track days unless you mean drag racing. And even still, you know most people's cars won't pass tech inspection.
  
  The one held in my city is pretty reasonable. And if they’re not passing inspections to race on a track then they shouldn’t be racing on the street either.

I don't like framing things in terms of doing a bad thing = being a bad person.
But they are undoubtedly doing a bad thing, street racing endangers bystanders and can get people seriously hurt or even killed.
- I don’t like framing things in terms of doing a bad thing = being a bad person.
  premeditatedly doing bad thing = bad person
- Yeah. I don't know how they are on balance, but I know 100℅ it's a bad action.
  Unless we're talking about doing doughnuts at traffic lights in ATL, that seems kinda cool. But it is not racing so the initial premise holds.
  
  There's so little actual street racing that I'm not convinced OP is actually asking about racing. Speeding, weaving, running lights, playing in traffic, stunting motorcycles, sliding cars, donuts, burnouts, takeovers, launches, pulls, hits, runs, and digs can all be variably reckless events that the gen pop will call "racing". Donuts/burnouts have plenty of crash videos where they damage property. Mustangs eat crowds, chargers smack stopped cars, infinitis hit other takeover kids.
- Eh.
  There’s levels of “bad thing”. Stealing a cookie might be a bad thing, but it’s mostly harmless. Stealing, I dunno, someone’s life saving medication…? Probably makes the thief a bad person.
  (If some one were to steal, I dunno, putin’s meds, I don’t think anyone here would be particularly inclined to accuse them, but, details.)

If they were just endangering themselves? I don't care.
But in the real world, yeah, they're horrible people that put lives at risk, along with property.

In a word, mostly, yes.
They are endangering themselves and everyone around them.
Go to a race track on a track day. Or organize one.

Yes. There are race tracks. You’re pretending there are no secondary effects or bad consequences.
“Police say two of the victims were innocent bystanders who were killed when the alleged street racer struck their vehicle and it burst into flames …He said the couple leaves behind four kids — ages 10 to 16… “They are deceased because of street racing. We also have one of the drivers who was street racing, he also lost his life,” said Fort Worth Officer Buddy Calzada. “We just can’t understand why somebody would continue to street race at a high rate of speed at the risk of losing their life or taking the life of someone else.””
- That's street crashing, which I am very much against.

Are people with no moral compass, no imagination, a demonstrated lack of intelligence and a demonstrated lack of care for anyone but themselves bad people?
Do we even need to consider labeling them as such? The other descriptions of their behavior should be damning enough on their own, surely?

Are Murderers “bad people”? Do you think people who illegal murder are 'bad people'?

Yes. It puts other people - uninvolved, innocent people - in mortal danger. Also it puts other people’s property in danger. It’s selfish and ignorant.

Bad AND selfish. In generous quantities.

Even needing to ask... I mean, there are no stupid questions and I know nothing about you, so, fair.
But imagine this. Streets are public transport paths with agreed upon rules. These rules are there for (likely more than but also) survival and safety.
So willfully ignoring that and racing there is risking the safety of others on purpose.
Now the answer should be clear.
For context: am motorcycle rider, drove several cars >200 km/H (>120 mp/H) legally, when it was safely possible, in Germany. Nowadays ist mostly isn't at all.

They are not bad if they never forget it is about family.
Naw, jk, they are terrible. Those douchebags hucked bottles at us when we walked up to just watch. Buncha wankers.
- If that's why you think they're wankers, I have news for you.

it turned out that there are, in fact, stupid questions...

They are about the worst you can get in a car. For me, they are right next to those terrorist who drive into groups of people in order to kill them: they have no respect for other peoples lives.

Yeah

There are no "bad people" but plenty of people who do shitty things. Here are some of those that street racers do:
They endanger themselves and others
They make a lot of noise
They pollute, scar, and mark the streets
So probably "yes" if you want to define it that way.

If they are doing their thing on a closed course, I have no problem. But if it is on public roads, then they are endangering others and that makes you a bad person.

Of course. At the very least. I can think of a few other words as well.

I don’t think there’s a lot of bad people in the world as in people with bad intentions. I’d say they are ignorant and selfish.

Yes the are bad people. Why? Because they only care about their thrill over everything else. They cost everyone money when they inevitably have accidents. Even if they had to pay the cost of repairs for their car, they don't pay all the other costs - police, emergency, road closure, road damage, etc. They willingly put others, innocent others, at life threatening risk. They never, ever drive as well and as in control as they think they do. Racing is fine but do it on a track that is meant for it. Then if you crash and maim or kill yourself, anyone else involved willingly agreed to be part of it.

100% yes.

Yes.

Nah but it is really stupid and wreckless behavior.

Our local Street Racing in the 1970s also included an entrant provided by the Local Police. They also provided road closures and crowd control and usually won, reinforcing the idea that if you took part in illegal street racing, you were likely to get caught.
There has been a huge crackdown on Street Racing in the last 50 years and we no longer locally manufacture Muscle Cars.
The former Street Racers have turned to 4WDing and have been tearing up 4WD tracks and Firebreaks since.
This makes it difficult for Hikers, Horseriders, Mountain Bikers, campers and recreational touring 4WDers, as well as park rangers and firefighters.

Sorry what? I couldn't hear you because of the fucking
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
outside

Not bad people but bad choices. But you can street race right if you close off the routes still illegal tho.

Well nobody likes them

I wish we had a week long national holiday where the Cannonball run was legal and you could raise hell all the way across America on I80.
- The Purge, but for street racing?
  
  Yes

In my community, street racing seems to be the entertainment du jour for people with nothing better to do. I live about a half mile (800m) from a major roadway, and very often am jarred by the noise of people racing full tilt. There are a few people who even have modified their cars to be louder, and you can distinctly pick out the sound of their cars.
I’m a light sleeper, and these people will wake me up in the middle of the night with their ‘shotgun exhausts,’ racing down the street. They kill about 5 people a year. Earlier this year, a street race injured over a dozen people, and killed a kid.
As a result, the city has re-timed the lights so that when traveling at normal speeds, traffic is stopped at every stoplight, which means that most drivers now just wontonly disregard speed limits to beat the light timing and not get trapped in a frustrating cycle where a 2-mile drive down the road takes upwards of 15 minutes instead of 5. This just causes the street racers to race later, when they can run the lights and wake everyone up. Plus the increase in speeding by normal drivers decreases safety on the road.
Both the direct and network effects of their stupidity are pretty significant.
So - yes. Street racers are bad people. They are callous, immature, and both actively and passively endanger other motorists. Also, I’m fucking tired, and my dogs are traumatized.

Street racing i have no opinion about but street crashing i am against

A lot of them are assholes, yeah. You can safely assume some of those people are also lawbreakers if they're already breaking a few dozen laws by doing stupid street racing. Probably drug dealers too. Doing something like illegal street racing, is like a criminal's side-hobby. You won't know what else they've done until they've gotten arrested.
- Weirdly puritanical view. Drug dealers aren't running like moonshiners.
  
  Well, they do run like moonshiners, but that's different from street racing for the fun of it.

They are 3 raccoons in a trench coat.
What even is this question?!

Will you stfu already?

Sure

No
If we didn't want people to abuse their giant metal death machines then we shouldn't let people have them in the first place

I’ve had Windows machines since Windows 3.1, when it was time to start looking at buying a new machine to run Windows 11 I noped once I saw the Ads etc. etc.
This year I bought a Mac for the first time.
- Wrong thread, duder.

Nope.

Ok but you guys are we really so sure that subjecting others to the coercion of a prison-industrial complex is justified when all they're doing is following their instincts? How do we know that we're not the ones who are actually bad people?
- A quick scan reveals I've never committed a vehicular homicide, and do not engage in activities that are statistically likely to improve the odds that I will commit a vehicular homicide. I'm fine with with jailing someone who'd risk everyone around them with death and dismemberment for their entertainment.
  There is no such thing as an "instinct to drive dangerously", it's called "a choice".
  Annnnnd fuck that choice.
- but you guys are we really so sure that subjecting others to the coercion of a prison-industrial complex is justified when all they're doing is following their instincts?
  Assume we're not talking desert highway street racing - or places that no one cares:
  Their instincts could kill my kid. The prison industrial complex is the nicer response.
  People who routinely behave in ways that endanger children are unaware of how many of the rest of us own a good shovel and know a spot to get rid of their body.
  How do we know that we're not the ones who are actually bad people?
  Oh. The ethical implications are truly complex, but they don't matter because we won't agree to live with them. Child endangerment doesn't routinely lead to deep ethical introspection. People tend to just go with the instincts that allowed children to survive over so many generations.
  And yes, this is also why so many bad laws get passed "for the children".
  My advice for street racers: do it out of sight of any parents, and well away from anywhere that children play.
  Like at a track.

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