[stovt001]

Originally Posted by Good53X

This brings to attention two large concerns of mine.

First of all, I think that there needs to be a tiered license for performance vehicles, ie. to drive a V6 or V8, or perhaps just a vehicle over a certain HP or Torque value, you require a license that permits it. Too many assholes behind the wheel of vehicles they don't know how to drive.

Secondly, I believe that speed limits need to be removed. I think that speed limits make driving unsafe for the improperly trained. For example, I drove from Vancouver, BC to Everett Washington today. I saw about 20 vehicles in the ditch because of the snow and ice, mostly SUVs. People are taught that if you drive the speed limit, you are safe. As I drove on the snow and ice, I shook the wheel from left to right, to get a feel for what kind of traction I had on the road. When I started getting a sliding rear end on a FWD car, I knew it was time to slow down. And when I got traction back, I knew it was safe to speed up.

What did this lead to? Tons of people passing me at high speeds, and then colliding with eachother because of it, or pulling over to the side further down because they believed the roads were "undrivable". Also, it resulted in me flying past hordes of people who didn't know how to recognize when the roads were once again clear. Common sense isn't common, and driver training programs are insufficient - intelligence IS required... as such, I think ther licensing should be able to reflect your driving talent, as opposed to just whether or not you "pass" a test that is, imho, unfailable if you are half-capable.

Good points all around. I doubt we'll ever see speed limits disappear, and technically the speed limit is XX mph or the maximum safe speed below that limit depending on conditions. However, most people ignore the second part of that and will do the speed limit or more no matter what. And I don't know if a special license would have prevented this crash, as it sounds like the brother took the car, which wasn't his, and was doing all sorts of illegal things anyway. But I'm all for requiring advanced performance driving school for high-performance cars. The few short lessons I got at Rev-It-Up taught me far more about safe driving than I learned in the same amount of time at normal driving school.