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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
NEW NEW NEW: San Francisco Urban Hikes Collection
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Michael Aside from getting your car's smog test done, in the U.S. it's not required to have your motor vehicle inspected by a certified testing center every two years, like in Germany. You can imagine that for this reason it's not uncommon to see clunker cars swooshing down the freeways that make you wonder how long they're still going to last before falling apart. It's quite common to see cars with only one headlight at night, or with two headlights that point in opposite directions, one straight up in the sky, or bouncing off the rearview mirror of the car in front of them, blinding the driver. And while there is regulation on how many decibels of noise a motor vehicle can produce, no official authority ever enforces or even measures that value. Unsurprisingly, many roaring cars and sputtering motocycles are roaming the streets.
Traffic cops don't even carry devices to measure the noise level. They blissfully ignore the hooligans who think it's a great idea to start their Harley bozo bikes at 2 a.m. in the morning when the bars are closing and can then be heard for miles sputtering through the residential neighborhoods to the sound of a battery of car alarms going off. After all, it could be one of their off duty colleagues having the time of their life!
Similarly, drivers of so-called muscle cars seem to enjoy to hear their engines blare, and I often feel sorry for them and the metallic clang their American-made high-octane engines emit. It almost sounds like their pistons aren't correctly adjusted and will soon get tangled up and quickly whipped into the shape of some form of modern metal sculpture.
On the other hand, if a traffic cop hears someone revving their engine at the traffic light and sees them letting their wheels squeal on takeoff, I've heard reports of drivers being pulled over and being ticketed or even arrested on the charge of an "exhibition of speed" violation, which is expensive!
California traffic law lays out in section 23103 of the Vehicle Code that drivers who endanger others, regardless if on the freeway or within the confines of a parking structure, will face a "reckless driving" charge. On top of that, it explicitly prohibits street racing on the freeways in section 23109. If law enforcement finds out about an illegal speed contest and the district attorney pushes for prosecution, then the drivers and even mere participating bystanders face charges that could have them end up in county jail for several days!
But if you look around, it's pretty evident that the law isn't strictly enforced, as this Youtube video of a Camero doing donuts on Golden Gate Bridge in broad daylight clearly illustrates. Illegal street racing is rapant all over California. And coincidentally, both of our cars are on the top ten list of targets most often stolen and used in street races. You might have read earlier that our 24 year old Perly Perlman was once abducted by hooligans (Rundbrief 03/2012), and since then, we've given up on parking it on the street overnight and are leaving it in the garage instead.
Greetings from the lawless country:
Angelika & Michael
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