Richardson: With speed comes responsibility

Mark Richardson

As if speed limiters on trucks aren't a contentious enough issue, a Toronto man went and pushed the envelope this week by allegedly driving his Infiniti G35 at 250 km/h on Hwy. 400.

"That's the highest we've got someone at that I know of," OPP Sgt. Dave Woodford told the Star.

"According to the manufacturer, that's the top-rated speed, 250, before the engine conks out. That's what it's limited to."

Which raises the question: Why such a high limit? Why not a more realistic 150 km/h limit? Or a Big Brother 120 km/h limit, or 100 km/h?

Woodford was quoted in a follow-up article saying that "the government is looking at limiters on trucks and if they're a good idea, they may be extended (to all vehicles). That will be up to the government."

Jim Kenzie offers his opinion of truck speed limiters, but the idea – even the vaguest notion – of imposing a non-yielding electronic limit on the ability to speed across the province is usually enough to make politicians run for cover.

After all, it is a Draconian measure, the equivalent of being ordered to do something instead of being asked not to. We elect our government in order to look after the country, not to tell us how to live our lives.

But if it's undeniably fair to say that the government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, is it just as fair to say that it has no place in our vehicles? We can't hurt other people in our bedrooms as we can, and do, on our highways.

Here at Wheels, we don't consider speed to be necessarily a bad thing. But we believe strongly in driving responsibly, which means taking it to a track, and in driving being a privilege, not a right. So we have no sympathy for anyone winding a performance car to its limit on a public road.

But I can say this, somewhat sanctimoniously, as a 46-year-old who's had his share of tickets and warnings.

Back in the early '80s, when I bought my first high-powered motorcycle, I would ride that bike flat-out everywhere. Twice I was called in to the ministry to explain why I should be allowed to keep my licence, and twice I got away with it through apology and sheer bravado.

I sold the bike in order to travel, and to give my licence a welcome rest from the provincial authorities. But the love of speed endured, as did my aversion to the regulations and limited availability of racetracks.

Nothing really changed until my dad died. I rode to his funeral on a Suzuki Hayabusa, the fastest motorcycle in the world, and got there in record time. But I wasn't really thinking straight, under the circumstances, and gunned that bike without properly weighing the consequences. Approaching a sharp curve near my parents' home, I realized a few tenths of a second too late that I was travelling at least 50 km/h faster than usual and came this close to the gravel at the side of the asphalt, the bike leaning as far as it would go.

Still high on the adrenaline of that moment as I watched my dad's coffin go in to the crematorium, the full impact of the consequences of irresponsible speed finally hit home. I still drive quickly, but my licence will be safe.

One feature that I now value on a performance vehicle is the speed warning chime: many cars will let you know with an instrument warning when you exceed a set speed. The last Jaguar I drove, a couple of years ago, even had a button that would actually limit the sports car's speed to whatever the driver wished to set as a maximum. I thought that was a great idea.

And the most innovative auto device in years, Ford's MyKey, allows the owner of a 2010 Focus coupe to set a maximum speed of 130 km/h on other drivers of that car – young and inexperienced, presumably – who will also have the radio limited to 44 per cent of its possible volume (and muted if the seatbelts aren't fastened), and warning chimes at various other speeds. Other Fords and Lincolns are due to get this feature soon.

These are all well-intentioned nannies, and they're enough for me. I wouldn't vote for any politician who would impose his or her standards so heavily over mine as to restrict the potential of anything I do, including driving. Let me make that decision for myself.

In the meantime, I'm just grateful I made it this far.

Mark Richardson is the editor of Wheels. mrichardson@thestar.ca

Related links:
Kenzie: Speed limiters a menace?

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