Looks like a reflection on the society we live in...

OK, this is in the UK, where we are suffering massive amounts of NIMBYism[1] and people who enjoy their vehicles are right on top of the anti-social list. Keep in mind that this is the country where people move into some new built house close-ish to a race circuit and then start complaining to the local council about the noise. Not only that, but the law (being an ass and all that) does tend to put restrictions on the race circuits instead of telling said morons to go away and shut up.

Anyway, here's the latest brilliant injunction:

http://onlinenews.warwickshire.police.uk/briefings/NORTHWARWICKSHIRE/2009825CarCruisersFac

Basically, the police up in Warwickshire got an injunction banning congregations of more than two cars or motorbikes between 7pm and 7am, provided they'd fit a very loose definition of a car cruise.

As usual, it seems that this is met with the usual raging apathy that seems to permeate society. Not surprising given that most of the recent petitions against some sort of annoying restriction have been met with a government response of "berkeley you, we'll do it anyway". And that includes several court decisions that didn't go in the governments favour.

I guess I really should get my backside in gear and get cracking on the last bit of paperwork we'd need to get the second step of my US immigrations process going. Or I could go back to where I came from, but Germany isn't any better...

[1] Not In My Back Yard, for those who aren't familiar with the term

The US is a few years behind the UK on the overbearing nanny-state, but we are certainly on the same exact path. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anywhere left for liberty-minded individuals to flee to after the U.S. I guess we have to make our stand here.

BoxheadTim wrote: Basically, the police up in Warwickshire got an injunction banning congregations of more than two cars or motorbikes between 7pm and 7am, provided they'd fit a very loose definition of a car cruise.

Right so here's how you fight it.

Get a group of guys who are levelheaded together with cars, go to another town and have your cruise. At the same time patronize businesses to help the local economy and maybe take sick children from a hospital on car rides(a local ferrari club did it in Connecticut). Get shed loads of good press and provide a good boost to the local economy.

Then give the Warwickshire town council the two fingered salute...

Anti car cruise laws have been in place in various US cities since at least the early 1970s if not earlier.

Wowak wrote: The US is a few years behind the UK on the overbearing nanny-state, but we are certainly on the same exact path. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anywhere left for liberty-minded individuals to flee to after the U.S. I guess we have to make our stand here.

To difficult to secure the perimeter... there aren't that many of us that we need the whole of the US - we should invade Puerto Rico. Plenty of room, good weather and hot blooded cuties abound. Ready the troops.

stuart in mn wrote: Anti car cruise laws have been in place in various US cities since at least the early 1970s if not earlier.

That's messed up. What's next on the ban list? Mom, baseball and apple pie? Cruising in your car is an American tradition!

BoxheadTim wrote: OK, this is in the UK, where we are suffering massive amounts of NIMBYism[1] and people who enjoy their vehicles are right on top of the anti-social list. Keep in mind that this is the country where people move into some new built house close-ish to a race circuit and then start complaining to the local council about the noise. Not only that, but the law (being an ass and all that) does tend to put restrictions on the race circuits instead of telling said morons to go away and shut up.

You know that the US isn't any different than the UK in this regard?

Keith wrote:

BoxheadTim wrote: OK, this is in the UK, where we are suffering massive amounts of NIMBYism[1] and people who enjoy their vehicles are right on top of the anti-social list. Keep in mind that this is the country where people move into some new built house close-ish to a race circuit and then start complaining to the local council about the noise. Not only that, but the law (being an ass and all that) does tend to put restrictions on the race circuits instead of telling said morons to go away and shut up.

You know that the US isn't any different than the UK in this regard?

I was hoping this wasn't the case but I'm not surprised that it is...

Wowak wrote: The US is a few years behind the UK on the overbearing nanny-state, but we are certainly on the same exact path. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anywhere left for liberty-minded individuals to flee to after the U.S. I guess we have to make our stand here.

How about OZ? Too bad I have no usefull skills to them.

neon4891 wrote:

Wowak wrote: The US is a few years behind the UK on the overbearing nanny-state, but we are certainly on the same exact path. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anywhere left for liberty-minded individuals to flee to after the U.S. I guess we have to make our stand here.

How about OZ? Too bad I have no usefull skills to them.

are you joking? the aussies are more nanny state than here. You can't buy certain video games in OZ because they are just too violent.

^Not to mention from what I gather on the forums, they have a bunch of odd restrictions on car modifications as well.

Like, you can swap a Lexus V8 into an E30, but you can't put spacers behind your wheels because that's considered modifying the hub.

There are places in the US that haven't been overexposed to the "Cruzing" culture. Most problems seem to come from people who can't control themselves in public, rather than the car guys.

I heard about a car club around me getting noise complaints for their autocross. Which was held in a parking lot. About 100 yards from the expressway. And near an amusement park. Um... Right.

DoctorBlade wrote: There are places in the US that haven't been overexposed to the "Cruzing" culture. Most problems seem to come from people who can't control themselves in public, rather than the car guys.

+1. "Cruises" here in North GA involve a bunch of older dudes in immaculate pre-70's awesomeness, jamming 50's music. Needless to say, the cops aren't called.

ignorant wrote:

neon4891 wrote:

Wowak wrote: The US is a few years behind the UK on the overbearing nanny-state, but we are certainly on the same exact path. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be anywhere left for liberty-minded individuals to flee to after the U.S. I guess we have to make our stand here.

How about OZ? Too bad I have no usefull skills to them.

are you joking? the aussies are more nanny state than here. You can't buy certain video games in OZ because they are just too violent.

Sorry about that, I was just having delusions about the outback being some kind of Libertarian Heaven.

We had a fun one around here recently. Builder put up a LOT of houses in a development not 5 miles from the nearby international airport/ airforce base.

People spend a fortune for cheaply built houses.. and then discover they are UNDER the main flightpath for the airport.

Did they sue the builder? No, they tried to get the FAA to reroute the flightpath. At least the FAA laughed at them

Our autocross club lost the airport we had been using for the last 30 years, it was in the middle of nowhere.

We found a new airport, problem is, it has population around it.

Noise complaints ensued (go figure, from people who live next to an AIRPORT) and there was much wringing of hands by locals about evil speeders and street racers.

We invited the police to come out and supervise the roads around the event site. The only people they managed to hand out tickets to were the people who lived in the area.

The city council then looked at how much we pay per event (it's not just our club, there's about five clubs that use the pad at the airport) and how much money we bring to local businesses. Compared that to the property taxes made from the few people who were actually complaining and guess what?

We brought more money into the area than the complaining residents did.

We still have use of the airport.

Shawn

It sounds like people who are bellyaching about others having more fun than they are... I have found a lot of people whose only hobbies seem to be watching TV, gossiping, and complaining. Maybe the offending individuals could be invited out? It's better to throw back a nice gesture than an argument.

Didn't Britain just ban beer from being served in glass pints to prevent them from being used as weapons in bar fights? Nanny state doesn't begin to describe that kind of behavior. I like the British people just fine but you guys have got to get this under control!

Will wrote: Didn't Britain just ban beer from being served in glass pints to prevent them from being used as weapons in bar fights? Nanny state doesn't begin to describe that kind of behavior.

I'm not sure if it has been banned already or if it was "output" from one of those think tanks that the government is so fond of. I guess that's what happens when you have other people doing your thinking for you.

The plastic beer glasses are only the last newsworthy item in a long list of legislation designed to make the country safe for pre-schoolers and other adults. For example, we're not allowed to work on most house wiring anymore as it was deemed to be too dangerous for us little brained fellows. Installing a light or swapping out a light switch is about as far as it goes, anything else has to be certified by a professional electrician afterwards. Fortunately my neighbour is a sparky so I can get work like that done, but try finding an electrician who's willing to do a half hour job under normal circumstance.

There have been multiple attempts both here and on a wider, European level to ban stuff like aftermarket car parts (only OEMs would be able to make parts for cars, so if yours is too old, you wouldn't be able to get any parts), or working on your car yourself which is obviously an unsafe practise etc etc ad nauseam.

Strangely enough, everytime someone has a brain fart like this or the above beer glass ban and you start digging, you tend to find a lobbyist somewhere behind it...

Will wrote: I like the British people just fine but you guys have got to get this under control!

Well, we could try protesting outside parliament. Hang on, "our" representatives introduced laws that make it incredibly hard to do so, mainly because they wanted to get rid of an anti-war protestor camped out in Parliament Square. Strangely enough he's still there (been camped there for years now) because they didn't get the legislation quite right and a judge told them to go take a hike when they tried to get the guy evicted.

OK, it's easy for me to complain and then shrug my shoulders because I can't do anything about it (I'd have to apply for UK citizenship in order to be able to vote here in anything but local and European elections), but I'm seeing this stuff in a lot of places in Europe, not only the UK. It's just that in other places people just ignore this sort of rubbish...

poopshovel said: +1. "Cruises" here in North GA involve a bunch of older dudes in immaculate pre-70's awesomeness, jamming 50's music. Needless to say, the cops aren't called.

Around here, that's also what cruises are. Participants are somewhat likely to be on golfing terms with the mayor.

On the other hand....

Where I grew up, in smaaall town Indiana, there was a town nearby (Kendallville, In) that was famous for having passed an anti-cruising ordinance. We would talk about it. "What a bunch of sex organs that Kendallville town government must be!", I'd say.

At the time, cruising, to me, meant something like driving around at 30 odd mph, waving to people, minding your business and doing no harm.

Then one evening I had to drive thru K-town to get to work. I found out that to the local youth, cruising meant packing themselves and all their mostly lame cars into a major street and slowing traffic to a crawl. Think big city gridlock speeds, creeping along, the entire street just packed, and useless for getting around. You couldn't just pull off and go around it, because it took fifteen minutes to go a block.This would spontaneously happen every Friday night or so. It wasn't formally organized or anything, they just all showed up and made that street so that all you could do was socialize on it, for miles. Meanwhile here's me, stuck in it trying to get to work on time, can't go left, right or back, and I'm sweating that timeclock like mad, because the 5 minute drive is suddenly a 45 minute drive without warning.

I realized that the Kendallville town council were, not, after all, sex organs, but apparently their children were, and the law made LOTS of sense allofasudden.

Thats a brillant plan.

Until you look at it.

Youth will be youth, they are going to congregate, period. Now, they can do it in the well lit town square, near Police and the like, or they can scatter to the coutryside of Indianna and let the cops go looking for them. "Whats that, no lights and no cops? Hey drink this, and then drive back to town." "Hey Sally, no one is around, lets make you and unwed teenage mother."" Meth you say? Don't mind if I do."

Yes, a good bit of this will happen anyway, but you've just made it a lot harder to control.

Living in Nebraska, I saw this happen a lot. Folks didn't like the congestion downtown on Friday night in a small town, pass a law, and watch their crime rates skyrocket.

Kendaville's town council may not be sex organs, but they are shortsighted.

Heh. Funny you should say that about unwed mothers and meth labs....

Though the meth almost seemed to be a function of Indiana's effective marijuana control.

The City of Lansing, Mi has recently outlawed "cruising" within city limits... but the city sponsors this http://www.cruisinthegut.com/

Boxhead- Maybe you should consider Barbados. Good car scene, very British, we have an active member there. And the weather is really nice. Safest island in the Caribbean. Want to chime in Gameboy?