Talk:Speed racer achievement

Think we can add a bit about making sure the road is clear before trying this? If there is a geohash on a road, there's always the possibility that someone is going to be standing in the middle of the road with a GPS just around that blind curve up ahead....

Copyright issues?

The Acheivement page has an ongoing discussion as to whether to stick figure images should be favored. Since this award uses a copyrighted image, I clipped the XKCD Mario Kart comic for a race car, as a suggested alternate. I'm not taking sides, just doing the work. -- Jevanyn 20:25, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Greatest Speed Racers

Has anyone attempted the slowest or fastest Speed Racer? The Speed Racer for 2009-03-21 45 -108 is at a stop sign, so the maximum legal speed is a complete stop... David Souther 15:59, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

No, a stop sign is no maximum speed limit. You are allowed to drive the same speed as everywhere else, as long as you manage to stop your car once. -- relet 17:02, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

A stop sign does not change the speed limit, but the maximum legal and safe speed around a stop sign changes as a function of your distance from the stop sign. Both of the following assume the only way to reach the hashpoint is by approaching, stopping at and then leaving the stop sign. (there are no usable cross-roads for instance)

• For points before the sign, the maximum safe speed is the maximum speed you can go while still being able to safely stop at the sign.
• For points after the sign, the maximum safe speed is the fastest you can go without accellerating uncontrollably or making it a police hash (due to eg: Hoon Driving). (depends alot on the area I would think, amount of pedestrians, that sort of thing.)

mykaDragonBlue [- i have no sig -] 11:05, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I disagree with relet, and partially agree with MykaDragonBlue. The stop sign establishes a speed limit that varies according to outside factors: When you reach here the maximum legal speed instantly drops to zero, then once you reach that speed limit it instantly goes back up again. Much like a traffic light establishes a "zone of speed limit zero" over a certain area during the time it is red. The real question, therefore, is *where* exactly the point was on the intersection. If it was next to the stop sign (within the area in which, if you didn't stop there, you would be violating the stop sign) huzzah. If it was after that area even by a millimeter, you have to accelerate to the previous speed limit before reaching it (or decelerate from said speed limit before crossing the stop sign) in order to get the award. Furthermore, is the point in your lane? How certain are you of this? If it was in the opposite direction lane, you have to pass over it at the maximum allowable speed there. If it is in the center of the intersection, is there no direction from which you could have approached that would allow you to pass over the point without having to stop? Could you have come from the opposite direction or made a turn?

In other words, in my opinion getting a zero-kph speed racer award is possible, but it has an *extremely* rigorous standard of proof compared to other ones.

Yerushalmi 11:07, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I added a speed section to the Speed Racer Ribbon Template so we can figure out how to compare speed racers. David Souther 22:28, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

German Autobahn

There's a potential problem with the wording "at the maximum (legal) speed" on the Autobahn in Germany - unless a stretch of road is marked specifically as having a certain speed limit, there is only a "recommended (maximum) speed" of 130 km/h, but no legal speed limit. While some cars may go easily to 250 km/h (an experience I don't care to repeat), that is still not "the maximum legal speed", since there is none. So, what speed is acceptable for the achievement in this case? I hope it doesn't have to be in excess of R 17 ;-) --dawidi 12:55, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

If there is no speed limit, then you're in the wrong place to gain this achievement. -- relet 13:16, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

There aren't many places on the earth where there is now speed limit, surely. I'm all for leaving this award as it was. -- UnwiseOwl 10:47, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I think the point of the achievement was to go "really fast" through the hashpoint - "at the maximum (legal) speed" was included to not encourage speeding and to avoid people taking risks just to be faster than the previous record holder. Therefore, when there's no enforced speed limit (which I'm sure the creators of the achievement didn't think of), falling back to the advisory speed (or within measurement accuracy of it) should be acceptable. Just "driving a vehicle through the hashpoint" certainly is too vague. --dawidi 10:55, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

No, I think it shouldn't be winable there at all. Then again, I don't realy mind, I'll never get to go that fast being an Aussie. It's probably up to you europeans to work out.-- UnwiseOwl 10:56, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I disagree. The maximum legal speed in a no-legal-speed-limit road is c, which you unfortunately can't reach... so unless there are maximum reasonable speed laws like there are on many rural roads, I don't think you have this award. Yerushalmi 10:57, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

IMHO the maximum reasonable speed is 30, no matter what the signs say, sometimes lower. So, given that, you could get the achievement everywhere just by redefining "reasonable"? Not really, sorry. I totally agree to most other posters here that if there is no legal speed limit you can't win the achievement at that point. Ah, and a stop sign doesn't make the limit zero at that point, it just forces you to stop. At a zero limit you wouldn't be allowed to continue afterwards at all. Just like following a tractor with no chance to overtake doesn't set the speed limit to 25 although it forces you to go slow. I'm not the one that would defend the achievement as a whole but as it's already there, I think we should keep to the rules and not bend them to whatever is convenient. What's next? Claiming couch potato at a place where there is no house because if there is no house, it can't be the one of someone else? --Ekorren 11:40, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

OK... so after a lengthy and heated discussion (most of which wasn't my fault) on the topic in #geohashing, I'm un-claiming the Speed Racer ribbon for 2009-03-23 49 12 and replacing it by an error ribbon. I still don't think it's fair that we're not getting the achievement for this extremely well-documented expedition, while virtually all of the other hashers casually claiming this achievement fail to provide either proof of the limit, or proof of their speed, or both, or don't even bother telling what speed they were driving at. I wish we could just stick to Myka's Rule for justification of achievements :-/ --dawidi 15:46, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Awww, I would have thought the autobahn was a great place for a speedracer. I had fun reaching the maximum legal speed limit on a bicycle when it was 50 km/h. Put my vote the other way. Perhaps the achievement description could be changed to "at least 100 km/h but not more than the maximum legal speed limit." That opens it up to downhill skiers, bobsledders, and autobahn drivers without making everyone who rides a tricycle down their driveway a speedracer.

But I do like your error ribbon. I like to look at the unearned achievement ribbons as good things, like cookies not yet eaten, so you can eat them later. That's also why I keep making more cookies. :-) -Robyn 20:24, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Honourable Mention

I suggest everyone that races through a hashpoint but is not able to reach the legal speed limit (either because there exists none, or because there's an intersection, or because ...) claim an honourable mention. -- lyx 20:14, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Btw, lots of Speed Racer Achievements have been claimed for racing a road somewhat *close* to a geohash. Another candidate for Honourable Mention, imho. -- lyx 20:24, 24 March 2009 (UTC)