Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders • Hacker News Board

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

#771

Post by potato3732842 » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:12 PM UTC

Xylakant wrote: post #312

BriggyDwiggs42 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Road conditions change. Sometimes it’s the middle of the night and nobody is on the county road, so you can run your brights. Sometimes a particular section of road has high visibility that makes a higher speed safer, while other sections are best taken under the limit. Some vehicles have better headlights than others, different stopping distances. Your logic only says “lower is safer,” it provides no means by which…

You’re trying to apply the “I am a good driver and my judgment is better than other people’s” argument - but the majority of people believe they’re an above average driver. That’s a dangerous fallacy. Now, you might truly be, but your argument paves the way for everyone else to say the same. After all, nothing happened so far. And that other driver might be the one that misjudges and crashes into you. On country road…

>You’re trying to apply the

No, he's not. But that's never stopped anyone from lobbing a strawman. He's saying that limits are set based on a low-ish common denominator and wind up being way below the typical common denominator and then they get ignored a bunch of the time hence why nobody takes ignoring them as a serious violation.

You strawmanned the shit out of the headlight example because it was a foot in the door (he should have known better). The point was that vehicles and equipment vary so safe speeds vary. 90s headlights vs the best you can get today. Work van handling vs sports car handling. Etc. etc.

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

#772

Post by hulitu » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #667

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…

Just reading phrases like "sky-high rate of crash deaths", "Blazing-fast vehicles" (and similar ones throughout the article) makes it very clear that this is not an attempt to report news, but push an agenda. Reminds me of the "German news is different" video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jphacgBLrc0 ) that explains the difference between US "news" and Tagesschau (famous for being considered a neutral, trusted so…

> Tagesschau (famous for being considered a neutral, trusted source across most of the political spectrum).

Maybe in a parallel universe. /s

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

#773

Post by ryao » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

ty6853 wrote: post #557

ryao wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet the German autobahn suggests that the fallacy is the reasoning that highways even need speed limits. The autobahn is safer without speed limits than every single innovation we have had in setting speed limits. Perhaps it is time to stop blaming drivers and blame highway speed limits for causing safety issues.

This all seems like a moot point to me until there is actual consequences for people who ACTUALLY cause accidents. We all know someone (maybe ourselves) who had their car totaled, seriously damaged, or been harmed by people that hit and run, had no financially responsibility for their damage, intoxicated, etc. And jack shit happened to them. When an illegal hit my car and totalled my car (and then ran off), the polic…

My car was damaged by a guy who drove into my rear quarter panel in bumper to bumper traffic and convinced the officer and insurance that it was my fault by fabricating a story that I cut him off. He was trying to merge into my lane after I had been fully merged. He had stopped inches from the center of my car, and the moment he saw me move forward, he pressed the accelerator, going into my car. I suggested we move to the side of the road so that we would not block two lanes of traffic, which had worked against me because it made things look consistent with his story versus having stayed in place and blocking traffic. When I called 911 to have an officer come, the guy started yelling in my ear so much that I was deeply shaken and could not even speak to the officer well to describe what had happened.

Getting consequences for people who cause accidents sounds great, but we need actual ways of achieving it. In my case, I believe retrofitting my car with a traffic camera would achieve this. I also am not going to ever move my car following an accident in such conditions until police arrive either again.

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

#774

Post by hulitu » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

hcurtiss wrote: post #767

jollyllama wrote: post #760

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It does not require manufacturers to pre-install them, and it does not use the electronics built into the car. It sounds analogous to the breathalyzer devices that are an option for judges in some jurisdictions. There's already a law on the books requiring breathalyzers in all new cars by next year: https://live959.com/law-mandates-mass-cars-to-have-breathaly... Presumably, anti-speeding tech will be made mandatory…

Wait -- I have to pay for a breathalizer in my new vehicle because other people can't follow the law? That's BS. I don't drink alcohol and I hate everything about this.

> That's BS. I don't drink alcohol and I hate everything about this.

But you might. Remember, everyone is a potential terrorist. /s

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

#775

Post by hcurtiss » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

bluecalm wrote: post #749

Gareth321 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The primary reason is political: people don't like the idea of the government living inside our cars 24x7, telling us how fast we're allowed to go. Even though most of us don't speed. Other examples of this phenomenon include: * A government mandated alcohol, cigarette, and BMI limit to prevent major health issues. * Government surveillance of our emails, messages, phone calls, bank accounts and internet activity. *…

One of those is not like the others. Speeding drivers kill innocent bystanders. Obesity, cigarettes or what not will just kill you. Speeding in a car is like swinging a machete in a crowd.

Is it so different? Obesity significantly increases societal costs. And given tradeoffs, those costs add up to other people's lives.

If safety were your overriding concern, you'd set the speed limit at 20 mph. Or better yet, 5.

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

#776

Post by afavour » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:17 PM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #759

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>there is a perception among many of lower socioeconomic status I don't think this is it at all. In the US we don't enforce social norms. The public transit experience in the US is dominated by an extreme antisocial minority ("crazy" bums, drug users, bluetooth speakers, etc). This is the true killer of public transit in America.

It's the killer of public transit everywhere . The ability to avoid such people is a huge benefit of individual transportation. Nobody sane wants to be subjected to stuff like that. Anyone saying otherwise is virtue signalling.

I’d argue not everywhere, it just requires a critical mass of “normal” (anti-anti-social?) people to use it.

Like in NYC. Most assuredly there are anti social people on the subway but they’re a tiny minority of overall passengers so people still use the system. But it’s a self-reinforcing thing that has danger of collapse, the more people drop off the more the ratio will change… and more will drop off.

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

#777

Post by graemep » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

vel0city wrote: post #591

Leynos wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. It's illegal to drive without insurance in the UK.

It's illegal to drive without insurance in Texas as well. It's also illegal to murder someone and yet people still do it from time to time. Stealing is illegal and yet stuff gets stolen. Drunk driving is illegal and yet people drive drunk. Turns out just making something illegal doesn't completely stop the action. When we build our societies where you need to drive to function it's not surprising people will continue…

What are the consequences?

About 1% of cars do not have insurance in the UK at any given time.

> When we build our societies where you need to drive to function it's not surprising people will continue to drive when they shouldn't. Maybe we should build our societies so people don't have to drive just to live.

In cities, definitely. In rural areas?

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

#778

Post by jlarocco » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #726

DCH3416 wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Driving scooters to work is impossible in many places due to distance or weather. People do this all over the world. Maybe some folks need to take a moment to deal with a little discomfort. Or better yet, build out infrastructure so people have better options.

> Maybe some folks need to take a moment to deal with a little discomfort. Your scooter wouldn’t even clear the snow here, let alone stay upright on the ice. I think some folks need to realize the world is a big place that doesn’t always look like their local area.

Meh. If a person can't be responsible while driving, then I don't really care what the consequences are for them; they shouldn't be on the road.

In fact, I hope it does make life difficult for them - maybe they'll think twice and not drive like an idiot and put innocent people's lives at risk.

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

#779

Post by kubectl_h » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

skyyler wrote: post #732

Aurornis wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now it's a 4-8 lane stroad People weren’t letting their kids play near 8 lane freeways back in the day, either.

You missed the point, which is that many roads that used to be easily crossable roads are now 4-8 lane stroads. Yes, people didn't let their kids play near freeways in the past. But now a much larger number of streets are freeway-style roads.

Is this a California or Texas thing or something?

The hyperbole in this thread is wild to see.

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

#780

Post by potato3732842 » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 4:21 PM UTC

voidUpdate wrote: post #447

Could I choose to have a device that lowers the maximum in exchange for lower insurance rates? I've never seen the point in speeding

This product doesn't exist because it isn't actually correlated with claims paid out.

For the average insured hitting stuff at 100+mph is hidden in the sub basement archives of long tail risk. It happens so rarely insurers don't feel a need to address it specifically.