Street takeovers 

 

Street takeovers are in the news almost every day.  Just last week a woman was killed being hit but one of the drivers skidding in circles. They bother neighbors and businesses and are wild and unruley. In many intersections around our neighborhood you can see the car tracks of cars doing donuts during the night. Because they take over streets anywhere it’s very difficult for the police to do little more than chase them off when they receive complaints.

It reminds me when I was young how the teenagers and others would drag race on the streets.  Yeah, I did it to, while I was in high school. The police fought it for years with about the same results as the Street takeovers gangs. There were even deaths. 

But what was interesting about the drag racing, which you hear very little about now-a-days, was they found a way to curtail most of in in a very ingenios way.  Official drag racing run by racing organizations.  At first there were no drag strips so they used fair grounds, maybe abandoned airports or anywhere they could control the racing and make it as safe as possible.  And it worked.  Even now there are big crowds at drag races with all kinds of categories.

So, what about these donut makers?  What can be done to direct them like they did   to the drag racing?

I was watching a documentary series on Netflix called Human Playground. Each episode has several ways humans play.  Not just football or basketball but odd ways. One of the segments presented was called Drifting.  (See episode, In Pursuit of Perfection). Cars have to run a complicated course driving  like the donut drivers. Drifting. The idea is to complete the course without touching or turning over a cone.  It looks very similar to what we see on the street take overs.

If they controlled the drag racing by forming more controlled races why not borrow from the Drifting and start more controlled skidding and donuts.  Competition is a drive that would probably make it very successful.  Who knows.  Maybe one day we’ll see National Drifting competitions.