well I don't even know where to start...This is a true debate right here - this is what separates the men from the boys. And so far, I'd have to say the majority chiming in on this are the boys.
First off, what is a definition of street racing? No one really knows, but we'll go ahead and define street racing as excess speeds that needlessly endanger innocent people's lives and/or is not sanctioned high speed racing. Which is basically anytime you floor the accelerator, but lets address this a little less ignorant than everyone has been doing.
Next, lining up to a Mustang at a red light in our R/Ts and slamming it off the line...is this racing? I have to vouch no, to a point. I do this often, just by myself, not even when I'm racing someone, but I get up to 70 as fast as possible and bring it back down (assuming the speed limit is 50 or above), just so I can get a sense of speed, you know, a rush. I don't want to endanger anyone or myself. I feel as if I'm in complete control and can react fast enough to anything unexpected (lets not be stupid and bring up the old lady crawling out into the road - yes its a chance, but a virtually nonexistent one). You people are bringing up all these stupid scenarios that make no sense. Falling down stairs? falling asleep at the wheel? Come on now, its not like those are done purposefully. When accidents happen on the road, its normally not because the other person was "out of control". It's USUALLY because of a stupid mistake another driver made out of human error, not that they purposefully did it. MOST people don't PURPOSEFULLY run a red light at 50mph and T-Bone a minivan killing an entire family. Its a mistake they'll have to live with the rest of their life.
Now lets do this again, a scenario again, because I would never be stupid enough to do this. I tear off from the stop light racing the mustang, but its a good race, so we're both like, fuck it, and keep going, slamming through the gears. eventually we're blowing by cars at 120-130mph. Now this is where it just become plain stupidity and you street racers deserve whatever happens to you. So you're flying at 120mph, determined to beat this mustang, however there's a car coming up (lets imagine a 3 lane highway) the mustang is in lane #1, you're in lane #2, and lane #3 is open. So you're coming up on a car in lane #2, the car is just cruising at 65mph. The car decides that its exit is coming up in one mile and it wants to get into lane #3. But you're coming up on this car twice as fast as he's going. So you're gonna fly into lane #3 to get around, unfortunately timing just isn't right and you say, oh shit, you can't react fast enough because your reaction window has closed and you're fucked. so you skid out, taking out the Van with you, you luckily saw it coming and by the grace of God you're alive. However the Van, not so fortunate, didn't see it coming, took it by surprise, everyone in the van dead.
Now that I've said that, this is my next and most legit point. There's two kinds of danger in the world. Necessary, and Unnecessary. Whoever made the comment earlier about we don't NEED cars and that we could do w/o them, you don't know what you're talking about. I'd like to think this world has evolved since the 1870s. Thats like saying we don't need planes. I've got a business trip in Japan next week, and you're telling me I don't NEED a plane, or a car for that fact? I could get there somehow differently, but just as fast? Sorry bud, this is the 2000s, not the 1870s. We need cars, or our world as we know it would not be this advanced. So that brings me to my point about NECESSARY DANGERS. It is necessary to drive a car. If you're in that car and the 18 wheeler switches lanes w/o seeing you and takes you out, the 18 wheeler was not purposefully doing anything wrong. He made a human error. Unfortunately that costs everyone.
Now, lets go to UNNECESSARY DANGER. It is unnecessary for your dumbass to be going 120mph on the highway. You are purposefully aware of your actions and purposefully putting people in UNNECESSARY DANGER. Yes I am well aware we take our lives into our own hands everytime we get behind the wheel, so don't play that bullshit card on me because I make a VERY VALID point here.
You wanna go race from a stop light and cruise it up to 60-70mph and bring it back down, more power to you. You're most likely not gonna hurt anyone at all. Everyone does it and THAT IS HOW THE MUSCLE ERA WAS FOUNDED. Not people UNNECESSARILY putting people's lives at risk by doing obscene excess speeds on roads. And I don't mean just the highway, I mean doing 70-80mph in a 30-40 mph zone. That's unncessary and stupid.
And so it brings me to my last and final point. All of my points so far have been objective, so I will throw in my 2 cent subjective point. For all you kids out there that say "street racing isn't a crime, its a way of life" I laugh really hard when I hear that. Basically...I think I read where someone said "we do it for respect." Are you joking me? you must me. Because that's the biggest crock I've ever heard and you have played one too many Need For Speed games. I have a pretty nice truck and I don't need to race it to know that or get respect. All I gotta do it pull it into a parking lot or gas station and compliments start flooding it. It sounds insane, looks beautiful, that's what respect is. And anyone who can't admire the work that has gone into a vehicle and needs you to race it to respect it shouldn't be commenting on anything in the first place because they're obviously too immature to acknowledge the time and effort that went into the vehicle in the first place. I may be partial to Dodge, but I know a nice Ford or Chevy, or import for that fact when I see it. I may not agree with whats been done with it. But I respect it, I can see they've put a lot of time and effort into it and they like their vehicle very much and I can respect that and their car. That's how you get respect. I really hope this may have enlightened some people as to why the law frowns upon street racing so much. I'm not trying to play mommy and daddy here. Street racing is gonna happen and always will. Its like kids having sex at the age of 15. It shouldn't happen, but it does. Nothing we can do about it but try to keep a better eye on our kids. But my main point is that there's necessary and unnecessary dangers and I don't think that has been addressed and maybe that'll help put things in perspective why the law frowns upon it. They're not just being hardasses, they're trying to protect INNOCENT lives anyway they can. I adopt Florida's no street racing policy and I think the rest of the United States should to. Mandatory Jail, no questions asked. Save it for the track, that's why they were built.
