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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

#451

Post by lupusreal »

mschuster91 wrote: post #387
jonathanlydall wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is people who as matter of course travel above the speed limit regardless of if any other motorists are around them, as they are “playing by different rules”, making them more unpredictable and stressful for those around them. Just two days ago I did a long distance trip and in general I could engage cruise control at the speed limit allowing me to focus more on other potential hazards around me. Occasion…

The question is, if everyone is speeding, would it not make sense to raise the speed limit?

This is correct. Laws should reflect the values of the democratic consensus, speed limits included. If almost everybody is traveling at a speed other than the posted speed limit, whether that's faster or slower, that is a strong signal that the speed limit needs to be adjusted. Speed limits should be set such that most people naturally think the limit is a sensible speed to drive anyway.

As it is, speed limits are rarely set to the individual roads specific circumstance according to some sort of scientific or engineering method, instead most speed limits are set to a default speed used for that class of road across the state. As such, it is silly to act like extant speed limits are all correct even when nearly everybody is ignoring the limit on a specific road, evaluating that road's condition for themselves and choosing to drive at another speed.

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

#452

Post by tonyedgecombe »

wat10000 wrote: post #246
cowsandmilk wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the 15 years from 2008-2023, fatality rate per 100 million VMT has largely been stable, maybe increased some. I think that qualifies as not having recent wins.

The decades-long trend of increasing safety came to an end right as smartphones took off. I don’t think this is a coincidence.

It's probably more to do with the arrival of SUV's.

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

#453

Post by solatic »

Cities can replace smooth asphalt with rough brick and cobblestone, and replace traffic lights with traffic circles / roundabouts. If they really want to force cars to slow down, they could, in a way that doesn't take anyone's rights away and doesn't require any vehicle manufacturer to play ball.

Freedom isn't free. It's always cheaper to take away people's freedom instead of doing the hard work of building infrastructure to naturally promote traffic calming. Too bad America (left and right) doesn't believe in freedom anymore.

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

#454

Post by inglor_cz »

tfourb wrote: post #419
peepeepoopoo114 wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as mutually assured destruction brought lasting peace on the international scale, widespread civilian ownership of military weapons has also been a remarkably effective deterrent and safeguard against would-be tyrants across history. If both Karl Marx and the US founding fathers agreed that a well-armed public is important for a lasting civil peace, it's probably a good idea to listen.

[citation needed] Would-be tyrants get power (and stay in power) by gaining the support of people capable of projecting force and power onto the populace. From the perspective of tyranny, it is irrelevant if their supporters are i.e. the military or a bunch of militia guys who have acquired their guns privately. Source: Many, many civil wars across history. Trying to guard against tyranny by increasing private gun ow…

Trying to guard against tyranny by increasing private gun ownership is dumb, because you are simply creating another group of people that would-be tyrants can use to gain and retain power.

Is there any example of a widely armed society that nevertheless succumbed to classical authoritarianism from the inside?

AFAIK even the European societies that have a lot of guns in hands of civilians (hunting or others), such as the Swiss or Scandinavians, are mostly fairly free long-term.

They could be conquered by much stronger external foes such as the Nazis, but the theory that those guns would be a boon to a would-be internal tyrant does not seem to be borne out.

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

#455

Post by Clubber »

FrancisMoodie wrote: post #359
illiac786 wrote: post #320

I don’t get that. Repeat offender => temporary removal of driving license. Done. You can make it progressive, remove it for a week, next time 3, etc. I guarantee this will calm people down.

It says in the article that people who lose their drivers license on account of speeding usually keep on driving anyway. I also feel like this is already the case in a lot of countries yet speeding still exists so I don't know if I agree that this is this simple solution no one is thinking of.

Most police cars that I know of have license scanners and that scanner will inform police if the owner of said car has a suspended license, which results in an immediate trip to jail.

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

#456

Post by lupusreal »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #398
mschuster91 wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is, if everyone is speeding, would it not make sense to raise the speed limit?

That's just drivers normalising the breaking of the speed limits. If you raise the limits just because drivers are going faster, then the drivers will just increase their speeds until again, a majority of drivers are breaking the limit. Speed limits should be defined to reduce the harm from the inevitable crashes e.g. we have a lot of 20mph limits here in the UK in cities such as Bristol which are designed to reduce…

> If you raise the limits just because drivers are going faster, then the drivers will just increase their speeds until again

No. Most people who drive significantly faster than the limit are disregarding the limit and are driving at the speed they feel to be safe. They aren't considering the limit and blindly choosing to drive X over it, such that they'd drive X even faster even if the posted limit were raised by X.

If a long flat and straight country road in good condition has a posted limit of 30 and most people instead do 60 (this is common in many parts of the country), they wouldn't start doing 120 if the limit were raised to 60 because "do double the posted limit" was not their objective in the first place. Their objective was "drive at the speed which is safe for this road" and the condition of the road didn't change, so that speed doesn't change.

(The reason I know this to be true is because the proportion of drivers who speed on any given road varies wildly with the road. On some roads, 95% do substantially faster than the limit while on other roads that ratio is flipped around the other way. This demonstrates that speeds are being chosen by the condition and nature of the road, not derived in some way from the posted limits.)

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

#457

Post by Clubber »

whatever1 wrote: post #118

So if I have this device installed is it enough proof that I can never speed again in my life ? If yes, I will volunteer to get one. Will also order a raspberry pi, for a project I have in mind.

I doubt it, police departments issue tickets as a major source of revenue. I've heard it said if you want to get rid of police departments, just have everyone follow the driving laws.

I suspect they'll allow just enough over so that police can still get their sweet, sweet tax revenue in this brave new world.

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

#458

Post by inglor_cz »

solatic wrote: post #453

Cities can replace smooth asphalt with rough brick and cobblestone, and replace traffic lights with traffic circles / roundabouts. If they really want to force cars to slow down, they could, in a way that doesn't take anyone's rights away and doesn't require any vehicle manufacturer to play ball. Freedom isn't free. It's always cheaper to take away people's freedom instead of doing the hard work of building infrastru…

"Cities can replace smooth asphalt with rough brick and cobblestone"

There are some cobblestone streets in Prague and cars driving through them, even slowly, generate a lot of unnecessary noise.

Count me out, I don't want to suffer from extra noise just because it would slow some people down. I lived in one such street for years and even with sporadic traffic, I had to open my windows at night. I hated that.

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

#459

Post by herbst »

inglor_cz wrote: post #458
solatic wrote: post #453

Cities can replace smooth asphalt with rough brick and cobblestone, and replace traffic lights with traffic circles / roundabouts. If they really want to force cars to slow down, they could, in a way that doesn't take anyone's rights away and doesn't require any vehicle manufacturer to play ball. Freedom isn't free. It's always cheaper to take away people's freedom instead of doing the hard work of building infrastru…

"Cities can replace smooth asphalt with rough brick and cobblestone" There are some cobblestone streets in Prague and cars driving through them, even slowly, generate a lot of unnecessary noise. Count me out, I don't want to suffer from extra noise just because it would slow some people down. I lived in one such street for years and even with sporadic traffic, I had to open my windows at night. I hated that.

You mean the historic city center? Pretty sure that's not exactly state of the art

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

#460

Post by beowulfey »

alexjplant wrote: post #370
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…

> 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? Good question. My guess is as follows: Per the NHTSA [1] alcohol, excess speed, and not wearing restraints are the top three causes of vehicle-related deaths in the US in roughly equal measure (although alcohol edges out the oth…

It is challenging and expensive to get a driver's license in Germany, and the repercussions for screwing up are high. Also driving isn't as necessary--the excellent public transit means there are alternate means of traveling, so not having one is less of a detriment. So while the Autobahn might be considered the Platonic ideal of high-speed driving, it isn't always feasible or likely and I don't think it should be considered as such. As much as I wish we could have that in the US!
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