Opponauts, ASSEMBLE!

"Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen" (sportwagen) 11/17/2014 at 15:05 • Filed to: None

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I need your help with sources for a research paper about street racing...

Can you guys help me get a general idea where I could find sources (both print and internet) on this topic? I know that I could just go bumming around the news sites and such, but I want a balanced view on the topic...

Vivio RX-R in WRC colors for your help ;)

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:08

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http://www.amazon.com/Furious-6-Movi…

CB > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:09

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Does your school have databases you can look in?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 11/17/2014 at 15:09

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-__- Very funny

GhostZ > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:09

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What do you need? What's your general thesis? Is it about safety, danger, or historical/cultural context?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > CB 11/17/2014 at 15:09

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Nope (partially because I'm in high school) My school only has 350 people over 4 grades...

bob and john > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:10

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youtube has a couple of documentaries on the subject

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:11

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Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:11

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Like illegal street racing?

For the most part you are going to get videos about seizures of cars and what not.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > GhostZ 11/17/2014 at 15:11

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Not just statistics or news reports (AKA short newscasts)

"Keep it on the track, not on the street"

Problem and Solution type paper

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Dwhite - Powered by Caffeine, Daft Punk, and Corgis 11/17/2014 at 15:12

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Yeah, this type

CB > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:12

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I can only find stuff from the 90s or more recent stuff on Ontario's street racing laws in the databases I have access to.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > CB 11/17/2014 at 15:12

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That seems somewhat relevant ;)

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 11/17/2014 at 15:12

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>:(

CB > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:14

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Let me know if this link works for you.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:19

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roll racing or dig racing?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 11/17/2014 at 15:19

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either!

Milky > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:19

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Street racing is fun and fuck the police.

Source: Milky

Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:20

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If you mean the history of street racing rather than the current version, here's an interesting story of what I think may be the first documented street race. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/duryea.htm

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Milky 11/17/2014 at 15:20

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I'm not against it, I just thought it would be an interesting topic to write on ;)

GhostZ > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:20

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Your problem can't "street racing" since that's not a comparative static. You have to identify a problem that you can change.

I would suggest "deaths due to excessive speed" not only is very easily measurable (stats are everywhere) but is reported on by multiple sources. This is because there's a legal distinction, unlike "street racing" which is not, in itself, a crime. Reckless driving, reckless endangerment, vehicular manslaughter, excessive speed, etc. are all crimes.

Next, you need to identify current measures. Look at state-by-state spending on patrol costs for speeders. That tells you what's being put forward so far, now find a way to maintain that but reduce deaths, decrease it but maintain the same level of deaths, or increase it and decrease deaths by a marginally higher amount.

Now identify a cause, this is tricky. Try to avoid correlation ("fast cars go fast, therefore they cause more deaths") and look more to causation, what makes people speed? Lack of information? Inadequate safer goods available? Comparative low cost of entry? (all of these are true). The answers to each of those are, respectively, a PR campaign, opening more and larger tracks for less money, and an increasing license restrictions, fines, and enforcement. All three of which also come with a comparative "social tax" on society by putting resources toward them.

This is the same process that a bill (ideally) would go through before being approved and budgeted.

If you're going to propose a solution, to be honest, your best bet is to ignore facts and evidence, ignore rational thought, and ignore big-picture analysis . Focus on the emotional appeal, because at the end of the day, street racing is such a tiny, negligible harm to our society compared to the vast other causes of vehicular death, or even preventable death, that ANY suggestion in an increase in enforcement would do more damage to our society (since those resources can always be allocated somewhere better, unless we're talking trillions of dollars here) would do more harm than good.

In other words, you can't write this paper logically and successfully without screaming "Think of the kids!" and "Street racers are idiots!" enough to quiet facts. Keep that in mind and you'll do well. If you try to be rational about this, the data is going to look very flimsy compared to your peers'.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. 11/17/2014 at 15:22

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I'll take all of it!

CB > Milky 11/17/2014 at 15:23

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Engage in illicit avenue automobile competitions. Disregard the constabulary.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > GhostZ 11/17/2014 at 15:23

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I meant the problems with street racing... so I find solutions to those problems.

My issue was that all the things linked to street racing are just news sites that say that all racing is evil and will kill our children!

GhostZ > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 11/17/2014 at 15:24

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Dig racing, unless your momma mobile's tires just spin on your FWD automatic grocery getter!

RallyWrench > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:26

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There have been several in-depth documentaries on the subject in the last 15 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fast_…

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > RallyWrench 11/17/2014 at 15:28

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LOL I've gotten that answer numerous times... STAHP ALREADY

Vicente Esteve > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:31

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Its what I got.

JGrabowMSt > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:33

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County Library should have access to educational databases like EBSCO and Lexis Nexis. Go in and talk with someone at the front about your situation and they will help you out. Trust me, you'll get way better help doing that than struggling in your schools library if it's so small they can't give you access to that.

RallyWrench > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:33

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Yeah, I derp'd and didn't see those first. It was a knee-jerk response. That franchise was aimed squarely at 20 year old street racer me when it came out. Except I was pulling up to race all the Civics in an old Audi. So dumb.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > JGrabowMSt 11/17/2014 at 15:36

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I'll try that

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > RallyWrench 11/17/2014 at 15:37

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lol

GhostZ > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:40

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Look up Principal-agent problems, adverse selection problems, Moral Hazard problems, and asymmetric information problems. These are general economic terms that apply to the "market" for street racing, and describe market failures. In other words, general problems of society that are very evident in street racing.

The market is buyers (street racer, who spend time and money street racing) and producers (everyone else nearby, who pays for roads, police, maintenance, etc. which allow them to race). Those are your "buyers" and "sellers".

Principle-Agent problems are failures in a market when the actions of one person (the agent, in our example, the street racer) directly impact both himself AND someone else (the principal, aka, everyone else). It means that if the street racer acts foolishly, the principal, who has no control over their decisions, is still affected by them.

An adverse selection problem is when those who are affected by a problem, lack the adequate information to protect themselves. In other words, the street racers, who know the routes they take and when they will race, do not publicly disclose this information to the general public, which means that the sellers (everyone else) end up acting foolishly (driving down a road that someone is racing on). The root of this problem is ACTUALLY law enforcement, since if a street race is made public, they'll arrest the racers. Granted, there are more problems, but that effect is what makes it an adverse selection problem.

An Asymmetric Information problem is a general problem that Adverse Selection falls into, but it means that a lack of information causes improper measurement of risk (think used car dealers, who sell a car without revealing all of its problems, so it costs other people far more than they can afford when they drive it later). In street racing, there are TWO kinds of Asymmetric information problems in addition to the adverse selection problem I outlined above. The first is street racers having inadequate measures of their own risk. This is literally a mathematical way to say "driving beyond your skill". Because the party that has the most information (professional drivers) are not the ones who deliver it to street racers. Likewise, crash tests are not designed for street racers either, this lack of adequate information on how a car (modified or not) would respond in a crash (and its likelihood of it happening) result in street racers UNDERESTIMATING THEIR RISK. The second problem is between two street racers, which both aim to hide their cars capability, safety, etc. because of the value gained for winning a race. Since your chances of winning can increase with how much information you hide about your vehicle, it means that not only do they underestimate their own ability (first problem) but they underestimate EACH OTHER'S ability as well (second problem).

Lastly, a Moral Hazard problem is a more specific type of asymmetric information problem, but it works the opposite as described above. It's when those who know the MOST about what they are doing act foolishly because of their information. In this case, it's that street racers, who have the most information about their own races, act without regard for citizens or civilians who are not street racers (more so than a normal driver would) and UNDERESTIMATE the normal citizen's ability to respond to danger.

ALL of these are present in failed markets, which usually result in black markets, which Street Racing is definitely. It's just hard for most people to think in these terms because they believe Economics = Money, but it's about buying and selling Energy, Risk and Time as well as money. You can actually describe all four of these types of problems (and more) using drugs, illegal firearms, securities fraud, and more.

Milky > CB 11/17/2014 at 15:41

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Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > GhostZ 11/17/2014 at 15:46

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HOLY SHIT

THAT'S A LOT OF INFORMATION!

THANKS!

GhostZ > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:48

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Psst. It's a secret gold nugget from the vaults of the 3rd year at the world's highest rated undergraduate econ course. I think it should be taught in every high school, but most people disagree with me. People spent DECADES trying to find general solutions and problems for the world, and we just sort of ignore them.

What's interesting is by generalizing these problems, you DON'T say Street Racing is Evil! Rather, you point out the misconceptions, misappropriations, and failures to satisfy both sides that happen, and each one of them already has implicit solutions. The reason we haven't implemented them yet is just this big complex web of politics and money.

Good luck.

GhostZ > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 15:51

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Also, I just realized that my post alone is a 3-page double spaced paper. Feel free to copy or paraphrase it as much as you want!

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > GhostZ 11/17/2014 at 15:51

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Yeah, street racing isn't inherently evil, rather it is the people who do it that give it a bad name. If it weren't mostly done by idiots and racecar driver wannabes (F&F) it wouldn't be so "evil"...

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > GhostZ 11/17/2014 at 15:53

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Thanks! That will help ;)

jkm7680 > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 18:46

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Lots of fun people to interview here probably!

https://www.doc.ks.gov/facilities/lcf

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > jkm7680 11/17/2014 at 18:54

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lol that's actually pretty funny (just not for they guys in there ;)

crowmolly > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 21:00

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Take a look at anything about Big Willie Robinson and Terminal Island. He helped many use racing as a way to outlet frustration at the time- especially given the racial tension of the '60s and 70's.

At the close of the 1960s, street racing and racial tension were just two of the problems facing the LAPD. Big Willie (a nickname given to Robinson by a Los Angeles Times reporter) was seen by police as a way to address (but not resolve) both issues in a somewhat controlled manner. An odd alliance was formed, with the LAPD agreeing to allow controlled street racing run by Robinson's L.A. County Street Racers organization, the forerunner of what would become the International Brotherhood of Street Racers.

See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013…

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > crowmolly 11/17/2014 at 21:01

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"Terminal Island"

Death Race?

I kid, but thanks!

crowmolly > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/17/2014 at 21:03

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LOL.

His story might be just what you want- a case study about how sanctioned racing can be a good thing.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > crowmolly 11/17/2014 at 21:04

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Yeah, that would help a lot! Thanks!

Just4GP > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen 11/18/2014 at 13:38

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Do a google search for "Race Legal". It's an organization in SoCal that has worked to move street racing into sanctioned environments. If I'm not mistaken, they have a bunch of case studies on the subject.