motorcycles are not cars and the risk is born by the rider instead of the public

Someone still needs to pick up the pieces. Plus, organs keep better if the impact force doesn't turn the body into mush.

Well, I think the first clue is when they put their lights on and tell you to pull over, if you don't then they have reason to call in the cavalry and "maintain order and justice in the land" by forcing you to stop, comply, lie face down while they cuff you first and ask questions later.

If you play nice (darn) then they ask the questions politely first and look for "tells" - you know: blood dripping from the trunk, piles of loose cash in the floorboards, a dark complexion (driving while black) - all the "usual suspects'" signs - probable cause. A remarkable percentage of actual criminals are not stone cold liars who are able to cooly answer the questions and act like nothing unusual is going on.

I've had luck with "I really really need to go to the bathroom!"

I'd even say motorcycle is optional. If you're going in a straight line, not changing lanes at all, in the left lane, on a highway or other controlled entry/exit road...you can be going mach fuck for all I care. You are not the problem.

that speed is not legal anywhere in the world.

if thier "vehicle" moves and the speed of the sound, would it mega speeder law.

that speed is not legal anywhere in the world.

Objectively wrong. I drive that fast completely legally regularly in Germany.

P.S. Most of the Autobahn has a speed limit

And where there isn't, around 160kph is cruising speed for regular cars (not trucks). People in a hurry drive 200kph legally where possible all the time. It's really not uncommon. 178kph on a highway is not super speed.

I really didn't think the Lemmy consensus would be "speeding is okay actually especially on a motorcycle"

That’s exactly how my brain read the headline.

Until he's moving too fast for normal reactions and some poor victim smears him because he wasn't in their mirror 1 sec prior. 111 mph is ~150fps. That's 10 car lengths. And the victim is only absolved if they can prove speeding - good luck if that's a smeared cop.

It is exactly the problem.

It's far beyond the posted speed limit anywhere in America, which is where this cop was riding his bike.

Highest posted speed limit in this country is 85mph, on a small stretch of toll road in Texas. Which converts to a "mere" 137kph. We don't have un-restricted highways here.

111 mph is ~150fps

It's a freeway. Everyone is going the same direction. Speed differential is what matters, and it was only around 45mph. You drive 45mph past parked cars all the time and don't blink an eye. All it takes is one parked driver to pull out and it's all over for you, apparently.

It is exactly the problem.

You people making shit up is the problem. You're literally sitting there imagining scenarios where you can feel threatened by a man sitting on a 400 - 500 pound machine, who is traveling at 45mph relative to you. You're ignoring the actual situation being discussed and inventing scenarios in your head so that you can feel threatened and express your righteous indignation while clutching your pearls. It's really weird.

Are you sarcastically trying to claim that "people in cars die to speeding motorcycles every day" is keeping a law firm in business?

I basically did the same and rode on a permit the entire time I owner a motorcycle. The difference was in my state the only difference between the permit and license (other than the permit times out sooner) is that you can't drive after sundown. Worked fine for me, got a little sketchy in the fall, but I basically had the same plan as you "shucks officer, I lost track of time and am right on my way home to Papa"

So? I'm just pointing out which lame duck speeds are considered super speed in Trumpistan.

Damn it sounds like it's easy over there. I get AM category (scooters up to 50cc) free on the account of having B category, but I have to go through a course costing over 600 euros and then do the full theoretical + riding exams like I did for B cat (those cost a bit of money too, not too much). This is also cheaper than getting it from scratch which would be 900 euros for the course (more theory lessons) and be limited to 250cc at first.

I've been contemplating it for a few years now, but something important is that if I want to get an exam time the same year, I'd have to do the course in March or April (when it might still be snowy lol) because exam times are always booked up... And particularly last few years since I'm not working full-time or even half-time due to burnout, I'm broke as hell after winter because of the heating costs and dropping nearly a grand on getting a license and then another grand or 2 on a fixer-upper first bike doesn't seem like a great idea anymore :/ Will have to wait until mid-life crisis.

"one crime at a time"

So the "victim" you describe, the guy blindly merging without adequately paying attention to their surroundings and causing a crash.

That guy is the problem.

Before I was old enough to drive, I once was riding with a friend who'd recently gotten food poisoning and who really needed a restroom. He was speeding to get there and, when he got pulled over, told the officer so.

I don't remember the exact words, but after issuing the ticket, the policeman basically said "just pull over and shit on the side of the road if you need to."

Hey it was worth a shot. I'd ignore that advice because the next cop will brand you a sex offender for it.

Comparing parked cars and cars moving at ~65mph on the highway is pants-on-head stupid

There are places in the US where there is no speed limit. They're mostly in places like Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, but they do exist.

Parked cars enter the travel lane faster than cars on the highway change lanes. Travel speed is irrelevant, rate of change is. Rotating a car 30deg off parallel to leave a space is a faster action. In both situations, I'd be riding the far side of the lane to give as much berth as I can.

I'm not your prior commenter. And no, I dont fly past traffic like that because there's always a high likelihood of someone jumping out into the faster lane. "Open lane pattern" is something to look for. But to not realize how often and how quickly parked cars leave parking spaces is pants-on-head blind

I see this often. Going that much faster means an average car still in the other lane simply will not be in the motorcyclists lane at all before the bike passes. The bike will pass while the car just has its tires on the line. The motorcyclist is looking ahead for vehicles already in the same lane. Higher risk? Obviously. But I'm tired of people acting like they're a victim because a bike blasted by and they think "I could have killed that biker" (or "that biker could have killed themselves on my car") while barely on their second signal flash. They traveled 10 car lengths, you got your tires on the lane, they pass, you complete your lane change, they're now 30 car lengths ahead.

That situation does not crash the bike into the changing car. It either makes the bike swerve out into a median or the bike passes without incident. The actual cause of speeding bike crashes in traffic is weaving when dipshits riders switch lanes and inadvertently box themselves into a dead end.

Want to avoid lane-change crashes of any type? Change lanes smoothly and predictable. Use your signal, take 4 seconds to change on the highway, and do not swerve to grab the faster lane every 15 seconds. Be predictable, go home without a collision report. You don't have to give motorcycles special treatment but collision avoidance works the same.

There's a reason USians are known to buy 1000ccs as starter bikes and yeehaw into a coffin. They generally only need either a 15 hour class or 6 month permit on a 125-250cc to be qualified for any motorcycle at all.

I will support "beginner" bikes forever. 90% of the "little bike" woes of my 250 ended up being skill issues. You know what 250s won't do on whiskey throttles when poor grip on the throttle and poor core body reaction tilts your torso back and pulls a little throttle jolt into a full throttle expedition? They won't power wheelie. I always see them say just use self control, but that's hard to do when your body is physically not experienced for a 3 second 0-100kmh rocket that only contacts your fingers and taint.

German driving skill is far above the average US citizen. Germans expect a Porsche with an itching trigger finger on the high beams to be passing at 200. USians can't be arsed to check their mirrors because they're entitled to the road and anyone going faster deserves a crash. Just look at how much road rage they have because people drive the exact speed limit in the passing lane and get passed on the wrong side.

Holy shit you're right

crazy

It's far more dangerous to drive this fast when the rest are driving like 110 kph though than in Germany where everyone below 130 kph is seen as holding up traffic. A good amount of the danger comes from speed difference between cars.

LAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW

or you could just obey the fucking laws like everyone else.

why you gotta go put your death on someone else's life because you're an impatient prick?

You’re literally sitting there imagining scenarios where you can feel threatened by a man sitting on a 400 - 500 pound machine, who is traveling at 45mph relative to you

no, they're imagining scenarios where some selfish prick who can't stand to wait in traffic like a normal human with the rest of the normal humans SPEEDS THROUGH A CLOT OF MULTI THOUSAND POUND VEHICLES like a dumbfuck. You're inventing reasons why people shouldn't care when you murder people with your 500lbs of crotch rocket, starting with yourself but often involving innocent people in your carnage.

grow the fuck up.

this is the fuckhead you're defending: https://nypost.com/2026/08/30/us-news/florida-deputy-of-the-year-resigns-after-claims-he-tracked-ex-with-flock-cameras-used-n-word-did-nazi-salute/

Don’t worry, I already know it is, but it’s probably just your average Tuesday for most county deputies in Florida.

I wouldn't say it's average, but it isn't something Florida sheriff's offices are worried about.

- Ex-county deputy in Florida

But have you considered how much easier it would be to speed if 90% of the other drivers were in a train instead? There could be so many fewer potholes if oversized vehicles were restricted. The roads could be for local commercial vehicles and enthusiasts - all speed all the time.

Funny meme, but pretending all cops are the same is how you avoid weeding out the worst of them and making the situation better.

You're basically talking about the difference between traffic cops and regular patrol.

More pedantically, it's "Traffic enforcement unit cops" or "Cops who went out of their way to take a speed measurement certification course and get issued the equipment and thus are expected to use them or lose them" vs. "Cops who didn't."

As you can imagine, the latter doesn't care nearly as much about traffic enforcement.

- Ex-cop

After reading the whole article, IMO Fultz should be charged for what he actually did, and the sergeant who told the trooper, "It's up to you," should be disciplined for not doing his job. Making unpopular decisions is one of the reasons supervisory people get paid more. That guy dodged his responsibility, laying the risks he should have taken himself onto the trooper - risk of punishment for ignoring the infraction, risk of ostracism by other officers for making the arrest. When a subordinate specifically consults you for advice, it's your job to give it. This guy plain and simple let his trooper down. If he isn't stepping up right now to take 100% of the heat, his superiors should be penalizing him for still not doing his job.

Ironically enough, I am pretty sure I got let off by traffic enforcement units a couple of times when I was far enough over to qualify for "the expensive ticket", but very rarely when it was just 12-15 mph over. Also, even though I tend to drive about 9 over most of the time, I seem to get an awful lot of tickets for 15 over - where the fine takes a bump up... Their word against mine...

In my area (HCSO, PCPD) you could tell by their boots: jackboots = traffic enforcement.

Of course there's also FHP, who are basically an entire agency of only traffic enforcement.

I'd recommend getting a dash cam and your speedometer calibrated, just in case you got a wheel resize or gear configuration change that made your speedometer inaccurate. We were required to calibrate our patrol cars every year if we used it to measure speed, but there is zero such requirement for random motorists. I think the LIDAR and RADAR guns were yearly too, but I never applied for the class required to use one so I'm not sure.

I can't believe you actually think passing parked cars at 45mph is more dangerous than passing someone on the highway doing 45 over the limit. Like I'm actually speechless

As far as I'm aware that depends on the state; few states have the "peeing in public = sex offender" laws. Mine certainly doesn't.

Not aware of a "pooping in public = sex offender" law, but they might be covered under the same statute in the states that take issue with it.

Stay right except to pass!

I just don't understand how people are conflating speed differentials at highway speed and speed differentials when driving past a parked car.

A faster vehicle takes longer to brake and imparts more energy in a collision. Even in scenarios where the relative speeds are always the same, an accident will be more deadly, and accidents will always happen because people make mistakes.

If it were me, I'd respond: "Okay, I'll follow you to the nearest public bathroom, but you're still getting the citation."

Someone pulled that on me once, but I saw them pass a few public bathrooms as they cut around a line of cars in traffic to get to the turn lane a bit faster by going down the wrong way of the roadway, so they were obviously lying.

You might have more luck with your lie among lazier/less discerning/dumber cops, it's true.

- Ex-cop

Oh, I wasn't lying.

The thing is, smarter people think better than to speed while carrying a body or a kilo of cocaine in the trunk, but smarter people tend not to commit crime as often, on average.

So as much as it makes no sense to you, it does when you factor in common criminals. Supervisors monitoring your KPIs don't care if the arrest was made on a dumb person or a smart person.

- Ex-cop

Fair enough, it looked like you were implying it was a trick you're passing on to others.

Obviously it doesn't matter either way and I can't prove or disprove what you're claiming now.

Yeah I'm suggesting they say that if needed, but lie convincingly.