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Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

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Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#261

Post by bradlys »

Another method for the state to collect tax dollars. Speed limits have a very low effect on “saving lives”. People will drive whatever speed they think is suitable for the road they’re on.

Go out to places where the speed limit is 55mph but it’s a straight stretch with high visibility and everyone will be going 90mph+. Is everyone suddenly dying on this road? No. However, it’s great revenue generation for the local police departments to start ticketing people.

If you’re concerned about the speeds of which people are going - design your roads such that they don’t make sense to go quick. (And I don’t mean ridiculous speed bumps that are wildly ineffective and just increase the amount of noise in your local neighborhood)

I don’t think most people are concerned about 25 vs 30mph in cramped city roads with many pedestrians. I think most Americans get pissed off when you start saying you can’t go 80mph on what is essentially an autobahn like 280 in Silicon Valley. It’s ridiculous the speed limit there is sometimes 55 for no justification whatsoever. It’s a massive open road where you can often have visibility for miles.

I’m saying this as someone living in NYC where I don’t think cars should even exist. But if you have to have cars, Jesus Christ make it efficient to get around and stop using every fucking mean possible to just tax middle class people to death. These things won’t bother anyone with any real money. I should know, I get my tickets every so often. I consider them my little tax and I get no points to my license every time. I have radar and will be installing laser jammers soon (god damn cops on 280 are running laser at midnight now, wtf).

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#262

Post by AlexandrB »

aftbit wrote: post #146
usefulcat wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. No one is 'forced' to exceed the limit, not remotely, and there are plenty of drivers who, for a variety of reasons, drive at or under the speed limit (many large trucks, for example). On a highway, driving slow in the left lane is not good, but doing 65 in a 70 in the right lane is perfectly fine.

You need to be glued to the right lane though, or be willing to speed while passing even slower traffic, or you will definitely mess up the flow.

What really messes up flow is traffic "waves"[1] and these are often caused by drivers hitting the brakes because they're following too closely or someone cuts in front of them aggressively.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_wave

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#263

Post by protocolture »

adrr wrote: post #255
GuB-42 wrote: post #205

There are cars that can go way over 100 mph, and they almost all speed controlled by software. High performance cars are often speed limited by software to about 150 mph. How is this legal? Cars with speed limits that high belong to the track, not public roads, with a possible exception for emergency vehicles. There are some rare (emergency) situations where "superspeeding" might help, but I can think of many others…

How will my road legal car know when it’s on a track or a closed road? Some how putting a way to disable it defeats the purpose. If its GPS controlled, people will be spoofing GPS to remove the limit, just need a raspberry pie and some other components. You’ll have unintended consequences.

They demonstrated the japanese system on topgear once, and it was disgustingly accurate. They drove onto a track and bing it opened up. No lag or anything.

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#264

Post by usefulcat »

zo1 wrote: post #126
usefulcat wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you can always count on people to have sufficient self awareness to rationally evaluate the pros and cons of their decisions before the fact, especially those who have demonstrated a repeated willingness to drive recklessly.

How is this different from actual criminals that we lock up behind bars? Sometimes till the remainder of their lives. These aren't children, and the quicker we start treating them as adults, the quicker they'll learn to obey the laws before the real and life-changing consequences kick in.

I don't doubt that you could further reduce the problem with stricter laws.

The question is, how much more are we willing to pay to do that? The US already incarcerates its population at a greater rate than most of the rest of the world (5th highest as of 2022).

If incarceration was really that effective, shouldn't we also have some of the lowest crime rates in the world? If that's not the case, then why should we think that doubling down on that strategy is likely to be effective?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_United_States_in...

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#265

Post by AlexandrB »

bdangubic wrote: post #227
dataflow wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your link is about Waymo. It doesn't imply the same is true for human drivers. When I search around whether driving too slowly is too dangerous, basically every source I see says it is. Random example: https://www.allstate.com/resources/car-insurance/dangers-of-... Anecdotally, I see people dangerously tailgate slow drivers too; it makes sense that everyone warns against slow driving.

if slow driving wasn’t as dangerous (if not more), highways would not have minimum speed. would you personally choose cars driving 15mph on a highway you are on or 90mph? between those two choices, I’d choose 90mph any day of the week and twice on sunday

You must live somewhere warm. On Canadian highways 15 mph is just a fact of life a few times a year. I've never seen a Canadian highway with a minimum speed.

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#266

Post by abap_rocky »

SoftTalker wrote: post #229
analog31 wrote: post #4

An interesting thing is that I've observed a lot less speeding over the years, as more cars acquire active cruise control. Correlation or causation? Who knows. I don't think enforcement has changed.

I don't know where you are but that is not my observation. More cars are going 15+ over the limit than I can ever remember. I drive on Chicago expressways a few times a year and that is especially insane. Everyone is already driving 15+ over the limit, and then there are those in Chargers, Challengers, or tuned BMW or Mercedes just weaving from lane to lane through the slightest gaps at 90+ No cops ever to be seen. I…

Literally had the same experience this past weekend driving out to the Chicago suburbs. Doesn't matter if general traffic is going 15 over, you're still going to have a handful of unsatisfied daredevils just blowing past at 30 or more over as they weave between those "slower" cars.

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#267

Post by shermantanktop »

allenrb wrote: post #224

Speed limiters built into cars. Anti-infringement technology built into general-purpose computers. And yet, guns and ammo freely available and unrestricted outside of automatic weapons and the like? Yeah. Can’t wait to move off-grid someday. (Yes, obviously American) I’ve got enough sense to keep it slow and safe in populated areas, yet occasionally open it up elsewhere when conditions are right. Guess that’s another…

I’ve never met a person taking high risk actions who thinks they are unqualified to do so. But they always think some other people are.

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#268

Post by williamscales »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #242
tzs wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What happens if you sell the car or let somebody else borrow it? This will put an onerous burden on people who borrow cars. If they intend to go more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit in the borrowed car they will need to make sure to only borrow cars from people who have not been convicted of speeding over 100 mph and forced to have an ISA installed.

Going the speed limit is an onerous burden?

I read GP as sarcastic, as in it’s not an onerous burden at all

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#269

Post by tzs »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #149
zo1 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different from actual criminals that we lock up behind bars? Sometimes till the remainder of their lives. These aren't children, and the quicker we start treating them as adults, the quicker they'll learn to obey the laws before the real and life-changing consequences kick in.

Speed limits in the US have a particular problem. The speed limits are set too close to the speed people are expected to drive. If the typical traffic speed on some highway is 65 MPH and someone is driving 76 MPH, that... isn't much different. It's not some night and day distinction where you can objectively say that 65 is perfectly safe and 76 is recklessly dangerous. The variation in stopping distance between those…

> The normal way you resolve this sort of thing in the law is by setting a legal limit which is objectively reckless, e.g. by setting the speed limit to 125 MPH. Then you aren't actually expected to drive 124 MPH, you're still expected to drive around 65 MPH, but we can reasonably say that if you're caught doing 130 there you're deserving of some penalties.

I can't think of any teenage boy I've ever known who would have driven anywhere near 65 mph if the speed limit were 125 mph, no matter how much they were told that people were "expected" to drive around 65 mph.

Re: Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

#270

Post by AlexandrB »

SoftTalker wrote: post #229
analog31 wrote: post #4

An interesting thing is that I've observed a lot less speeding over the years, as more cars acquire active cruise control. Correlation or causation? Who knows. I don't think enforcement has changed.

I don't know where you are but that is not my observation. More cars are going 15+ over the limit than I can ever remember. I drive on Chicago expressways a few times a year and that is especially insane. Everyone is already driving 15+ over the limit, and then there are those in Chargers, Challengers, or tuned BMW or Mercedes just weaving from lane to lane through the slightest gaps at 90+ No cops ever to be seen. I…

I don't know what happened, but since the pandemic it also feels like traffic enforcement is as lax as it's ever been here in Southern Ontario. And not just for speeding - I've seen more people run red lights in the last few years than in the 20 years before that.
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