@Andy: If "driving and car standards are very easily policed" then why aren't they? This very article is proof positive that neither are easily policed, if they were then these things wouldn't be a problem.

You're forgetting that these are individuals who won't conform to any rules or conventions they don't like, especially when there's no alternative that doesn't contravene laws of the land. They'll drive around in unwarrantable cars because they want to & the only way to stop them is to punish everyone by having checkpoints on every road that check for warrants, regos, licences & any other requirement that would go along with such a police state like travel & separate ID papers.

As for making fines cover the cost of policing - that won't work either. The courts can't get people to pay their fines as it is, let alone adding to that burden by increasing the amounts.

You're still not thinking forwards, only backwards, and rehashing ideas that have been tried in the past and failed. No one in NZ has tried setting up a place for these people to congregate off the road and to race each other in controlled circumstances and no one seems interested in the idea. It wouldn't have to cost the councils anything if the entry fee covered the police presence & the cost of vehicle inspectors. All you need is a fenced off patch of concrete about half a mile square to have a drag strip, burnout patch & plenty of room for spectators. Sure, the most hardcore won't want a bar of it but enough will to make it more than worth while.

F*$K all you stupid people that are saying you live in fear of the boy racers !!!!! that is one of the dumbest things i have ever heard, Terrorists?? HAHAHAHA LOL it makes me laugh. If you think were scary why dont you try walking thru town and any given time and im sure youll be scared then, all those crazy emos hangin out outside KFC and the creepy homeless people that busk along the streets that stare at young girls as they walk past, or at night when there are awhole lot of drunken youths trying to cause shit and make a fight or pick on people, the rapists, the murderers, the gangsters !!!! Get a life people because i know for sure you will never stop boy racers. You can say your going to crush our cars LOL my car is and always will be completely LEGAL and the PIGs wont catch me doing anything illegal ( ill do it elsewhere so they dont see lol )

@ Andy - to quote parts of your original comment:

The noise and disturbance these so called boy racers make is anti-social and often dangerous, so it needs to be eliminated, simple as that.

The noise regulations in this country are ludicrous, and enforcement of them even more pathetic. In 2009 there should be no reason for people to go around deliberately making their cars noisier, after manufacturers have managed to reduce car engine noise right down. This sort of behaviour is neanderthal and downright selfish.

I apologise if I got it wrong Andy - but clearly as you can see, you definitly came across that the noise and anti social behaviours were your primary concern.

I am guessing it has been a long time since your youth. Once again, I will stick to my original comment and say, there are bigger concerns in Chch than that of boyracers.

Boy racers are just on of the social ills of CHCH - the city council need to address ALL of these issues. The big problem I see is that there are so many toothless laws around that no one cares about being caught because effectively, nothing happens. An example, the fella who stole the VC's from the Army Museum...155 odd previous criminal charges and prior to being caught for the medal theft was still roaming around getting up to no good. Maybe invoke a "3 strikes" policy and lock em away for good

@Little Miss Muffet #52

I never said my primary concern was noise levels - you did! Yeah there is violent crime and delinquency as well, and of course this needs to be addressed by the cities leaders.

But that doesn't mean you don't tackle other issues. Noise is pollution and anti-social behaviour has to be tackled, else you end with a society that is toilet, which is what you have got in New Zealand and will continue to have. Clean green New Zealand? Yeah right, what a joke. Tourists are you reading this?

@Arhu #50 I agree prohibition doesn't always stop a thing from happening, but driving and car standards are very easily policed - the financial punishment just needs to be sufficient to pay for the policing.

@Random #53 Why shouldnt people be able to sit in their garden in a rcoking chair without putting up with the anti-social crap generated by these idiots?

This article completely misses the point.

The real contributor of fear in Christchurch has never been the boy racers. It is the fact there are people who roam the streets drunk or stoned just to pick fights. There are many places in Christchurch where you'd have to be very careful to walk alone in at night. The fear of being hit by a boy racer on Bealey Ave is nothing compared to having a group of thugs come up to you and beat you up for no reason.

Christchurch needs to get its bloody priorities right. How many millions has the gov put against the boy racers, who have actually existed for decades? When I hear about more legislations against the boy racers I imagine all of that money going towards the real problems in society, namely our growing P problem and our amazingly wide spread alcohol and domestic violence problems that have existed for all-too-long. As a 'boy racer' I can confidently say I have never even considered the stupid and pointless idea of bottling a cop, or an airport security officer. Why is Chch so focused on the boy racers as a whole when the real issues come from the drunken and drugged up minority that exists both within and outside of the group? I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the headline '300 boy racers ambush lone police officer', I know for a fact that there would have been no more then a handful of idiots within that group of 300 that would condone bottling and shooting a slug gun at a lone police officer, yet the media pins such acts on the whole group. Read the article closely and you'll see a comment from the officer himself claiming that the attack didn't come from the boy racers at large, but a small minority within it, and any truely knowledged person will know that he was referring to drunk skinheads and gangsta wannabes! Forget the trivial matter of loud exhausts, stop pinning nasty criminal acts on the entire boy racer group and aim our entire police force at Class A drugs, alcohol issues and domestics!

"I know these news stories are not something to believe as being representative but it gives an impression that it is a place you wouldn't want to be in."

Neither the biased sensationalist media, nor biased troll-mongering commenters here are representative of myself, or the other 300,000 citizens of my city.

"feel like im one of about 5 people in the country not in denial about what it was like to be young."

Really, this is all the chuntering about boy racers feels like. Former kitchen-table-sitting letter-to-the-editor-writing talkack-wasteland-reject bored baby boomers raining down a whole lot of ageism because they're resentful of the freedom of youth. You want to talk about youth not having respect for their "elders"? How about affording the kids a bit of respect to begin with. See how it works both ways?

"You are saying that the NZ Government (us taxpayers) have to fork out money to GIVE you something to do??? Because your bored??"

No, but communities and government (national and local) should be tending to the fundamentals of society. And that includes including ALL of society in cultural, artistic, sporting and educational efforts. If that requires a youth centre, skate park, underage rages, and (FSM forbid, to you racer haters) car clubs, then all the better for letting people express themselves.

I am not a youth, nor am I interested in cars. Sure, loud cars and douf douf music annoys me at 1am on a Saturday morning, as it would anyone. But for crying out loud, try and see it from both sides - we've denied these kids their risk assessment by denying them sport, playgrounds, bullrush, and tree climbing as kids...how else do you expect them to express themselves if they're not being taught critical thinking and risk awareness?

Simple solution that I never know is not applied to this needless problem... make it illegal to modify any car- then those who want to modify their car can apply for a permit to be decided by a JP Kaumatua etc.

If some all knowing alien creature came to earth the thing they would find most logically stupid is boy racers (and that's saying something because we all do alot of moronic things).

Support other comments that the city is falling apart, the inner city culture is absolutely zero, the majority of the people think "going to Riccarton Mall is a day out," and the seams of the city are literally being torn apart (I almost feel more safe in Joburg).

Waah waah waah have a cry about 'why should we have to pay for bored people to have something to do'... How about because although they may not be your kids, they are the kids that will grow up to represent the country in government, prisons, places of business etc... Provide them with the tools and leadership to be the best they can be. You having a whinge about 'my money' blah blah blah is just counter productive. Did the boy racers have a cry when the government built the Art Gallery (which the majority of them are not interested in)? Its the chicken and the egg, 'why should we give something to kids who don't deserve it?' and the kids going 'why should we respect adults who don't listen to our needs?'. Be PROACTIVE, not REACTIVE! And if you're too closed minded to understand that comment then you can continue feeling unsafe at night because these kdis have nothing better to do than hang out on the streets and try to emulate the "strong" role models they see on TV... which in our society of shock factor cinema and journalism means gangsters, pimps, prostitutes... People who are nto afraid of the world they live in, and seem to have a sense of 'power' because they intimidate, not get intimidated