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Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

fastcompany.com

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

#611

Post by _Algernon_ »

ryao wrote: post #603
toss1 wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>monitoring everyone all the time and eliminating the ability to move from Point A to Point B privately That is a 100% strawman argument. NO ONE is proposing such measures No proposal, even the blanket EU requirements eliminate privacy in travel. The devices all work entirely locally with GPS to monitor speed vs local limits, and upon exceeding local limits, output an audio/tactile alert and/or limit accelerator inp…

Do you apply the same logic to backdoors in encryption? I am sure you could say no one is proposing implementing and using back doors on the general public as a whole, as they would only be for criminal elements. The reason that people oppose this is because the shift from only affecting criminal elements to affecting everyone is so easy to do that nothing would stop it once the infrastructure is in place.

It is extremely difficult to have a backdoor for encryption that only applies to some people, and no proposal for encryption backdoors AFAICT differentiate based on whether the subject has previously committed a crime. They are always blanket backdoors.

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

#612

Post by matthewdgreen »

snowwrestler wrote: post #551

The Fast Company article says “Republicans in Virginia just passed a law to make it a punishment for repeated traffic violations.” But the Virginia legislature is currently controlled by the Democrats. And the delegate quoted in this local news story is a Democrat: https://wjla.com/news/local/anti-speeding-device-car-reckles... That story is probably more useful than the Fast Company one. It clarifies that the new la…

Here are the votes: https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1767611

ETA: click the "Votes" tab.

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

#613

Post by ipsento606 »

ryao wrote: post #548
ipsento606 wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Explain how the German autobahn has fewer collisions than US high ways with lower than 85th percentile speed limits if the lower speed limits are such an advantage. There is no reason in the world to assume that US drivers have the same level of driving skill as German drivers.

> There is no reason in the world to assume that US drivers have the same level of driving skill as German drivers. That is a very typical response, yet the notion of Germans being intrinsically superior to others has long been debunked.

> the notion of Germans being intrinsically superior

By "German drivers" I mean drivers who are trained, licensed and insured in Germany. There is nothing "intrinsic" about it, and it has nothing to do with genetics or national origin.

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

#614

Post by matthewdgreen »

austin-cheney wrote: post #606

I have never understood the chronic war on travel velocity. Its like the war on drugs, but far more pointless. Speed is just one of many factors, and perhaps the least significant, in the frequency and probability of traffic accidents. Speed is absolutely a factor in the severity of an accident, but not the probability of one after accounting for all other variables. For example, if you leave sufficient distance betw…

Limiting the speed of chronic speeders doesn't seem like it maximizes tax revenue, though.

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

#615

Post by vel0city »

lupusreal wrote: post #451
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?

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 ra…

If almost everyone is going a speed other than the speed limit I'd agree something should be done. But it's quite a leap to suggest the thing that should always be done is to change the speed limit. Maybe the roads should be restructured and add traffic calming. Maybe through traffic should be encouraged to use an alternate route. It's not like speed limits are the only lever one can use.

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

#616

Post by ryao »

sksrbWgbfK wrote: post #395
shermantanktop wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This whole thread confirms it. Speed limits are always a burden for reckless drivers, but never an issue for people like me who drive under the limit. They should reflect on themselves about that but I doubt they are capable of it.

I have tried driving at the speed limit in NYS. So many near collisions occurred from other drivers cutting me off that it was clear that the speed limit is unsafe.

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

#617

Post by shlant »

beardicus wrote: post #495

lots of "freedom"-loving pushback on this law here. sorry y'all, we live in a society and your actions affect others. you choosing to endanger my life on the road does not make me more free. i think these speeders should just lose their license to drive forever, so maybe choose to view this law as a compassionate compromise.

yea there are some wild hypotheticals being thrown around in the comments with one of my favorites being "what if you're drinking and you have to speed to escape a wildfire but have a breathalyzer in your car?". Jeeze I guess we really should just do nothing instead.

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

#618

Post by sgarland »

ryao wrote: post #517
bayindirh wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, because people are overestimating themselves. I know a couple of people who can do 2x the speed limit relatively safely , but this is because they were race drivers in a previous life. However, not everyone (incl. me) has that reflexes and situational awareness all the time. Recently I got into an accident. A car changed into my lane completely unannounced, and I was blinded by a car in my front diagonal. The c…

Explain how the German autobahn has fewer collisions than US high ways with lower than 85th percentile speed limits if the lower speed limits are such an advantage. Actual data does not support the idea of low speed limits. They are only in place as an attempt to reduce fleet fuel consumption, and hurt safety by causing big differences in vehicle speeds.

As others have pointed out, the inspection standards are wildly different. Here’s [0] an amusing and eye-opening look at what is needed to restore an older vehicle to pass inspection. For example, removing surface rust on a spare tire mount. Even then, he still failed inspection [1], and goes into much more detail on the rigorous checks performed.

In contrast, there are U.S. states with zero inspections of any kind. No emissions, no safety, nothing.

The problem is complicated, but IMO it boils down to lack of widespread public transit, and low salaries. Unless you live in a metro that has reliable and inexpensive public transit, you generally need a car to get to work. You also need to pay for fuel and insurance, so things like preventative maintenance are often put off for lack of funds. When repairs are finally needed, chances are you’ll opt for the cheapest part available, even if it won’t last nearly as long. Same with tires: good tires are far more expensive than bad ones. My wife’s Mazda CX-9 has Michelin CrossClimate2 tires. They’re $307/ea right now on TireRack. There are also off-brands available for literally half that. I (and probably most people on this site) am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to buy the best tires, but that is definitely not true for most Americans. $1200 (plus mounting and balancing costs) for a set of tires is completely out of the realm of possibility. So now you have a car with parts of dubious reliability on tires that don’t grip as well, and remember, in some states there are no checks that your tires even have tread depth left, let alone their stopping ability.

If every U.S. state (or the federal government, but that’ll never happen) were to require the level of safety checks that Germany does, I guarantee you that a solid 1/4 – 1/2 of cars I see on the road would fail. It would be a devastating blow to the U.S. economy, purely from the sudden drop in worker availability.

Finally, re: speed limits, it’s unclear to me how you think Newton’s 2nd Law doesn’t apply.

[0]: https://www.jalopnik.com/heres-everything-i-fixed-to-prep-my...

[1]: https://www.jalopnik.com/i-took-a-250-000-mile-minivan-throu...

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

#619

Post by ryao »

allenrb wrote: post #563
sksrbWgbfK wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This whole thread confirms it. Speed limits are always a burden for reckless drivers, but never an issue for people like me who drive under the limit. They should reflect on themselves about that but I doubt they are capable of it.

You’re not American, are you? The number of roads marked 55 mph on which nearly every vehicle is moving 75 mph is very high. Driving under the speed limit would be hazardous to yourself and everyone else.

Other countries tend to follow the 85th percentile for setting speed limits, so driving under the speed limit is actually safe there. People in them do not realize that a road that would be 140 km/h in Europe is 90 km/h in the U.S.

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

#620

Post by ponector »

austin-cheney wrote: post #606

I have never understood the chronic war on travel velocity. Its like the war on drugs, but far more pointless. Speed is just one of many factors, and perhaps the least significant, in the frequency and probability of traffic accidents. Speed is absolutely a factor in the severity of an accident, but not the probability of one after accounting for all other variables. For example, if you leave sufficient distance betw…

You accept speed as a huge factor in the severity of an accident but cannot understand the war against speeding?
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