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

#831

Post by ryao » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:03 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #804

ryao wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way he worded his reply suggested some sort of intrinsic superiority that by definition could not be replicated anywhere else. That said, if we can replicate Germany’s success in vehicle safety in the U.S., we should, yet discussion on vehicle safety seems to justify increasingly draconian bandaids on the status quo rather than just mimicking what the Germans do. It is also easy to say that they have higher stand…

> The way he worded his reply suggested some sort of intrinsic superiority that by definition could not be replicated anywhere else. This is something you read into the comment. Given how Germany is tied with Japan for the assumption that they place a higher priority on attention to detail and safety culturally, I would suggest the more parsimonious explanation thar they were simply echoing a stereotype Americans hav…

I was comparing NYS’ standards for vehicles and drivers to Germany’s alleged standards. So far, no one has given a single example of German driver education being better than NY driver education.

If you paid attention the remarks about the 85th percentile, you would know that speeding on NY high ways is actually safer than following the speed limits. That is because the speed limits were lowered in the 1970s in a misguided attempt to save fuel that never worked since nobody listened to the speed limits after they stopped reflecting the 85th percentile. Many of the things you cite have nothing to do with highways where the discussion of speed limits is centered either.

As for insurance, the minimum standards are still the highest in the country. Many (myself included) go higher for insurance policies. You can write to the state legislature if you believe the minimum should be higher.

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

#832

Post by TulliusCicero » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:03 PM UTC

1970-01-01 wrote: post #754

TulliusCicero wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like, "lock your doors? Nah bro, it's entirely possible to get through any lock, therefore locking is pointless." Most of these people are just generally reckless, they're not really intent on Going Fast No Matter What. Sure, people who actually modify their cars to race around will probably go around this kind of safety measure, but even most people speeding aren't that.

>Most of these people are just generally reckless That is not a good take if you include the fact that reckless driving in Virginia is already the lowest bar in the United States. 86 MPH is a criminal act. If you are caught doing 86 MPH you are literally put in handcuffs and go to jail.

What the hell even is this comment? My point was just that these people aren't absolutely dead set on going super fast like actual racers are.

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

#833

Post by vel0city » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:03 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #825

vel0city wrote: post #800

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the consequences? For most drivers most of the time, they save a few hundred bucks a month. If caught, they'll issue a ticket with a fine that's about a month or two of insurance. Maybe their car will get impounded (unlikely). Maybe they'll face jail time with enough repeat offenses, but once again its unlikely they'll get pulled over in the first place. We'll just continue crushing the poor. The consequence…

You seem to have somehow interpreted what I said as defending driving without insurance? Did you read my other comments (particularly the ancestor to this)? I meant consequences for those who are caught - i.e. is there a real deterrent? Why do some of the US states mentioned have such high rates of lack of insurance. > Most people don't live in these "rural areas". but many do > And even then, I'd argue those "rural…

I mean, what, are we going to start executing people because they were poor and decided to pay rent instead of their car insurance bill to get groceries? Give them some poverty-inducing fine they can't discharge in bankruptcy? That'll really teach them to be poor!

Most people not bothering to pay for car insurance aren't wealthy. They're doing so because being asked to pay several hundred bucks a month just so they can go to a $12/hr job and eat is a stretch too far, and chances are nothing will happen on any random day of them driving without insurance. Meanwhile on the unlucky day they massively harm someone else and will probably flee the scene and end up continuing on without consequences. And even if they do, they'll once again probably just get a fine, maybe get some kind of judgement against them which will be like getting blood from a stone.

The consequences are most of the time they'll be fine. Otherwise they'll get a fine. If they keep doing it and they keep getting caught their car will get impounded and they'll go to jail. Then they'll get out, scrape together enough to buy a car, and the cycle continues. But that requires actually getting caught many times which the whole "getting caught" part is pretty lacking.

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

#834

Post by nitwit005 » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:05 PM UTC

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…

Just limit it to 70 mph max, and require some sort of application to be filed to have it disabled. If that application can't be done at time of sale, most people won't bother.

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

#835

Post by Teever » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:05 PM UTC

rpmisms wrote: post #352

Teever wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay let's lower the number from 75 to 74 to accomodate situations like you're describing.

No, let's reconsider the entire idea of what you're proposing. Let's redefine driving as a right and punish antisocial behavior.

What public interest is served by redefining driving ad a right?

To what extent should this right be regulated? Should children be allowed to drive? Drunk people? Senile people?

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

#836

Post by QuadmasterXLII » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:05 PM UTC

zoklet-enjoyer wrote: post #668

_fat_santa wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will say this as a car guy, Virgina has an exceedingly bad reputation among gear heads. If you look at virtually any east coast rally, they will all route around Virginia to avoid driving through it. - VA is the only state to ban radar detectors - It has the lowest interstate speed limit in the country - It has some of the stiffest super speeder and reckless driving laws in the country. In most places if you go lik…

Sounds good to me. People shouldn't be driving 30 over. Reckless driving should be taken seriously. These don't sound anti-car. They're pro-life and safety.

It’s not 30 over, it’s 30 over the limit, or anything over 80 mph. They tried to nail me for reckless driving for going 82 on an empty interstate, when the speed limit was 70. Then, because I have a common name, the dumbass lawyer I hired showed up to the court date of a different person with the same name as me who was also charged with reckless driving, no one showed up to my court date, and I was threatened with jail time.

I was eventually able to clear everything up thanks to a sympathetic judge, but overall Virginia is not a serious state.

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

#837

Post by ryao » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:06 PM UTC

mlhpdx wrote: post #768

ryao wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot speak for other states, but NY requires a driving test and has police regularly enforce traffic violations too. None of this supports the idea of setting highway speed limits below the 85th percentile or even having high way speed limits. It instead suggests that we should copy the Germans. As for gruesome accidents, there will always be Darwin Award recipients. Trying to prevent them from earning their rewa…

Let’s start by copying the German requirement that all new cars have intelligent speed assist systems.

Which vehicles have those in the U.S. aside from Tesla vehicles?

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

#838

Post by lupusreal » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:08 PM UTC

ChoGGi wrote: post #549

lupusreal wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Failure to drive 70 mph on a highway posted at 60 will (very often, road depending) result in far more cars overpassing you. Each instance of passing carries a small but definite amount of risk; it is safer to match the speed of the other cars on the road than to obstinately stick to the limit and get passed hundreds of times in a single trip. (As for ripping up roads and relaying them so drivers intuitively find the…

Everyone doing 60 doesn't see each other because we're all doing the same speed, the ones going faster are the dangerous drivers.

It's a rare stretch of American interstate highway where the majority are sticking to the speed limit. On different roads the ratio of speeders to "speed limit doers" varies, but interstates have fairly consistent driving conditions and the safe speed for those conditions is consistently higher than the posted limit.

Usually traffic on American interstates is staying at the speed limit if: there is a fair amount of congestion, everybody is stuck behind somebody doing the limit, or there is rain/fog/snow/etc.

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

#839

Post by ryao » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:09 PM UTC

tfourb wrote: post #813

ryao wrote: post #727

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When everyone is driving beyond the speed limit, the ones actually obeying the speed limit are the dangerous drivers. It is unfortunate that speed limits in the US have not corresponded to how people actually drive since 1973.

How does this make sense? If I'm driving the speed limit and someone else is crashing into me from behind while speeding, they are the dangerous driver. No matter how many other people also ignore the speed limit. Also, increasing the speed limit does nothing to make traffic safer. That doesn't make any sense at all, as increased speed is correlated very well with increased accident rates and severity of traffic-rela…

It should be obvious that driving substantially slower than everyone else would make you a danger to others. Try driving at the speed limit on a high way in southern NY, especially in the left lane. You will have many near accidents and the reality is that you would be the dangerous driver for not keeping pace with everyone else.

Increasing the speed limit to the 85th percentile so that you do not have the few people who actually obey it posing a hazard to others does make things safer.

Getting cars off the road sooner by reducing travel time, decreases the number of cars on the road. This increases the distance between cars and accidents only when the distance betweeen a vehicle and something else reaches 0. Forcing people to drive slower therefore causes collisions by bringing cars closer to one another.

The severity is a separate matter from whether there is a collision. As for severity, people drive much faster in Germany where there is no high way speed limit for much of the autobahn yet their autobahn network has half the fatalities that U.S. highways have. The safety data from 2012 shows this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn#Safety

As for your link, it talks about pedestrian safety. As per the data there, pedestrians are unsafe on highways no matter what the speed limits are. There are also no pedestrians on highways. There is no point to setting highway speed limits based on studies showing the danger to non-existent pedestrians.

Did you post the first link that seemed to agree with your position as part of some fallacious appeal to authority because logic failed to agree with your preconceived notions that you were never equipped to defend? I suspect that is exactly what you just did.

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

#840

Post by jerlam » Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 6:10 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…

An agenda of... traffic and public safety?

While I agree with your interpretation that modern American "news" is trapped into clickbait and outrage headlines, immediately rejecting anything that is perceived as "biased" does not necessarily mean the article is wrong.