birdie92k

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Clicky

GT.R

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Quote:

McGuinty Gov't To Crack Down On Street Racing

"The province says special courses could be set up for racers, where the racing would be safer and controlled."

Like a drag strip? Within the GTA?

Frozentide

Im fine with this, and more drag strips everywhere would be awesome!!!

HOWEVER, my problem with this is the end result will be police who go on power trips with EVERY modified ride they see to try and throow the book at them for anything!!!!!!!

LEESAM

I have to agree that I think that penalites for street racing is important but yes there may be a lot of power trips with police officers who are rookies and want to take over cause your vehicle is slammed therefore you are racing. A lot of people are doing up cars to look good and not necessarily to illegally race so how do we control this,

I think if we can get a track run by the government (so they can get some benefit out of this) maybe charge guys $25.00 for the day and run there kinda like pinks but maybe not so dramatic. Having a controlled environment in the GTA would definatley decrease street racing if there is a place acceptable to race.

drifter420

Its a double edge sword..

Cops would be sittin at these "Legal Racing Avenue" ready to hand you some tickets... old and new fines..

Much like most modified car shows in GTA

Supra_RZ

iTrader: (1)

a track at Downsview park would be soo sick...

LEESAM

I think its a lose lose situation. If they make a track and let you race on it you wont get hammered with a ticket untill you attempt to leave with the vehicle that is not "street legal". I mean I can not even count how many times I have driven to get a coffee at Tim Horton's to find cops and MTO checking cars and giving out tickets in the summer months. Guess when your quota is low you have to do something.

At the same time, I can understand why this stuff happens when you see guys parading around talking S*** about how great their cars are and picking a vusy residential street to race down i.e. dundas area its ridiculous. So if cops can get some guys who have no respect for their vehicle or other innocent people on the road then maybe we need some sort of happy mediu. I dont know

Like you said its a double edge sword.

drifter420

Oh I agree with your point also.. Those are the ones making it easy for the media to write bout cause they're DUMB ***'S ( Those that pretend they're in/from fast n furious )!!! Some of the Mods I"ve seen are just retarded and SHOULD get a ticket for.. but

Number:1
Money talks and Bullsh!tz (or politicians) walk.. I"ll believe it when they actually build one.

Number:2
See how much harassement would be given in the vicinity.

drift_n_shift

dragstrip would be awesome, but they're just gonna rape everyone at the dragstrip through mto inspections.

i bet you more people are gonna run if they're caught. no-one's gonna want they rides siezed and chopped up potentially.

gldwngr

Which isn't a problem if your car is legal and roadworthy. If it isn't, it shouldn't be on the street anyways.


No problem again - trade a simple ticket and "possible" seizure in exchange for a criminal record and guaranteed seizure. Either way, you're off the road.

The way I see it, the choice is pretty simple. Don't drive in a way that could get you caught up in that law. Or ignore the law and face the repercussions.
The rules of the game are known to all in advance. What could be more fair?

5PointOHNO

HAHA still kicking eh?

Shouldn't you have collected your pension and retired already?

Pro$p3ct

No disrespect but...are you a law enforcement officer? I'm just asking because you definitely sound like one. Society complains that youths (even though its more than youths) terrorize the roads at night (i am definitely against main street and residential road racing), yet they give them no medium. (in the gta)They have not tried to give youths an outlet to interact and enjoy their passion. Then you wanna complain that youths are lazy now a days and have nothing to do but shoot each other and rob banks. Maybe if you gave youths a friggen chance to do something they enjoy in a safe and controlled environment without being attacked by the law, things wouldnt have to be as bad as they are. Building a drag strip is the same as building a community center in an underprivileged area. It gives people a chance to safely enjoy their passion while remaining on the legal side of the law.
The problem with that, however, is that if the police start to abuse their power and start to hound the people using the track, there will definitely be a decrease in usage at the track, and people will go back to street racing. This is something the government needs to think about. The way I see it, it can either be a win-win situation, or a lose-lose situation. The good being we get a track without being hounded and the government generates revenue, while the bad would be we get a track and get hounded but the government loses revenue because nobody will use the track if they are going to be harassed. This would mean the money spent on building the facility would go to waste.

gldwngr

Nope, I'm not. I just look at the bigger picture, which goes far beyond the simple "what's in it for me" world view.


Well, don't a certain highly visible number of youths do just that? And wouldn't many of them continue to do so even if there was 24-hour track facilities available 2 minutes away? A lot of the stupidity on the roads is due to impulsive stupidity, and not due to lack of an outlet for the fools.

There are outlets for people to pursue their car passions. Try here for just an umbrella group of clubs http://www.casc.on.ca/ that covers abroad spectrum of speed and timed events. There are others too. All accept "youths" in their various membership bases. All conduct events with organization, rule books, insurance, and designated facilities that meet the full requirements of the law.

The outlet is there, but the onus is on you to take advantage of groups set up to conduct organized events legitimately and within the law. If you choose to "play" outside the law, what make you any different from a gun enthusiast who decides to play away from gun clubs and out on the street with their "passion"?


Well, a drag strip has a lot more impact on the lives of people who live near it than any community center. Do you want to live right beside a dragstrip and be subject 24/7 to the noise one generates? A drag strip requires much more land than a community center, yet has a very limited user base compared with all the uses that a community center can be used for.

In any case, drag strips are available for those who really want to indulge. That one isn't located 5 minutes away doesn't give you the right to just make use of the nearest street. I happen to like target shooting, but lack of a nearby range with operating hours to my convenience doesn't give me the excuse or justification to engage in my passion any where and any time I want.


PACER ran events at Mosport the other year. Nobody was harrassed on their way in or out.

However, should police turn a blind eye to unsafe or illegally modified cars? As I mentioned before, if the car is legal and properly insured, then there is nothing to fear. If it isn't, it shouldn't be on the road. What part of that do you disagree with?


The government will not be building a track in the GTA any time soon, if ever. That land use is incompatible with high population density that is characteristic of the GTA. Land costs too much, zoning approvals are too hard to come by for NIMBY applications like dragstrips, and there are already privately operated dragstrips available within a relatively short drive from the GTA.

The legal facilities and organizations are already in place, and have been for years. You just have to make the effort to use them.

Pro$p3ct

Sir, i am not saying i disagree with your statement about illegally modified cars. My point is simply that I do not think it's right for law enforcement officers to purposely and willfully hover near a location designed to reduce criminal activity, just for the sole purpose of harassing people. There is a thing called random checks. You tell me how hovering outside an area designed to reduce criminal activity, waiting so you can hand out tickets to meet your quota is random.
As well, I live in woodbridge. Woodbridge is a 15-20 minute drive from anywhere in the gta. The amount of open land up here is UNIMAGINABLE. 5 minutes from my house, in a place called kleinburg, there is open land for kilometers! And thats with NO subdivisions or communities around. If they found enough space up there to build a country club, tell me why a drag strip couldn't be built.
Furthermore, you made a good point about the fact that building a drag strip would turn out to be somewhat expensive. That is why i noted that over a 5 year period, an efficiently operated strip would generate revenue at least 3 times what it cost to build it.
Finally, your point about other privately-run drag strips is somewhat valid, yet you don't see the irony behind it. If the government is so set on us using privately-run dragstrips, why has there not been any mainstream advertising of the sort? Why has the government not informed people where to go? Even beyond that, do you legitimately expect 16-21 year old kids to drive 2 hours to race?

gldwngr

A drag strip is not "designed to reduce criminal activity". It exists to serve a business purpose. Cops also set up RIDE checks near popular entertainment districts. It's a matter of efficiencies, and where you get the best return and visibility for your policing dollars.

In fact, a higher police presence is usually in effect anywhere you have large gatherings of people, whether for cultural events or for sporting events, and especially where there is high traffic volume as a result.


You still have to work within local zoning and land use restrictions. A country club is an easier sell than a drag strip because it has far less impact on the lives of nearby residents.

Other restrictions of land use include Ontario's designated green belt, which also include huge tracts of land in the Oak Ridges Moraine. The area just north of Woodbridge just happens to be part of that designated green space - country clubs, golf gourses, farming, etc land uses are permitted, but industrial, housing, and "non-green" uses such as drag strips are not.

Even where land has no usage restrictions, why would the owner of that land, which in the GTA are usually developers, settle for meager profit when they can get much more for that land by developing it for housing or industry?

First you have to buy the land. Then you have to build the infrastructure. Then you have to staff it and train staff. And get insurance for the venue and each event. You need fire/rescue and medical staff and equipment on hand. It's not cheap, and the upfront costs even before opening are huge. Operating costs are also huge. I know the people who run Mosport and Shannonville, and you would be surprised at the expenses involved in holding an event. The revenue returns are acceptable though far from making anyone rich, but you have to remember that these facilites were built decades ago. I can tell you that if those race tracks had to be built from scratch today, it would never happen. The revenues simply would not justify the investment outlay required.


Since when is it the responsibility of government to intensively advertise privately-owned businesses? They don't do it for any other recreational businesses except for the briefest of mention in tourist brochures aimed at bringing tourism to Ontario.

And yes, why shouldn't we expect a 16-21 year-old to travel to where the recreational facilities are? After all, has the government built mountains in the GTA so people don't have to drive to Collingwood to get decent elevations for skiing? Have they built lakes and beaches in Woodbridge so you don't have to make the trek to Lake Ontario or Wasaga for big beaches or for water skiing? Are there concert halls in every neighbourhood?

No, of course not. For some things you have to travel a bit.