Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Virginia passes law to enforce maximum vehicle speeds for repeat speeders

fastcompany.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

911–920 of 954 posts

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

#911

Post by squigz »

jerlam wrote: post #840
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Quoting from GP, the article literally is wrong:

> 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

And from other GP:

> 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.

The agenda is one of fear and distrust.

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

#912

Post by [deleted] »

pc86 wrote: post #663
shlant wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

your slippery slope argument is not very convincing. What do you suggest be done (that isn't already) about people who regularly speed, putting themselves and those around them in danger?

Judges already have the power to permanently revoke people's license to drive, the problem is they don't. It's a very simple problem with a very simple solution. If someone proves multiple times they won't follow the rules of the road, revoke their ability to legally drive. Most states go to jail time on the first or second offense of driving without a valid license. This whole argument smacks of "let's not make thin…

[deleted]

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

#913

Post by andsoitis »

appreciatorBus wrote: post #907
parliament32 wrote: post #899

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-the-grid homesteading is looking more and more appealing every year.

Fill your boots, though tbc, cars aren’t really an off the grid type of device, unless your homestead has an oil well and a refinery :)

Also at some point you’re gonna need new boots

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

#914

Post by shpongled »

cutemonster wrote: post #862
shpongled wrote: post #788

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most car "accidents" are intentional - drivers are choosing to speed (35%), drive intoxicated (30%), or scroll tiktok (15%) rather than pay attention to the road.

Interesting, all those things could be prevented using modern tech? Eg eye tracking (Not abruptly stopping the car because looking at TikTok, but ... Fines? Limiting speed? Withdrawn license, if repeated?) And building more railways, subways! Also creates jobs. Edit: From where did you get the numbers? I googled for "solo car crash reason statistics", and sleepiness seemed to be one main reason (too?)

I just googled "car fatalities [alcohol/distracted]" etc, and found either NHTSA or California statistics. All of them could be prevented using modern tech, but considering that we can't even get speed cameras socially/legally accepted I don't see it happening. We just don't have a culture of caring about this stuff in the US, despite >40,000 people dying each year due to traffic fatalities.

[1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving [2] https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/speeding [3] https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving

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

#915

Post by SR2Z »

squigz wrote: post #911
jerlam wrote: post #840

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Quoting from GP, the article literally is wrong: > 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 And from other GP: > Just reading phrases like "sky-high rate of crash deaths", "Blazing-fast vehicles"…

I mean, sure, but the objective truth is that we SHOULD fear and distrust human beings driving cars faster than about 10mph.

We're not good at it. It doesn't really fit our reaction times, it doesn't really fit our attention spans, and it keeps trading places with gun violence for the #1 acute condition (i.e excluding heart disease) that kills people.

The article could certainly have done a better job of pointing this out, but the unfortunate truth is that people still believe the exact opposite of the facts and insist that they should be allowed to drive fast and not be hassled over traffic laws.

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

#916

Post by Lammy »

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.

> y'all

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

#917

Post by vv_ »

GuB-42 wrote: post #630
vv_ wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even though most of us don't speed. I visited California once and was going from LAX to Kings Canyon National Park. I was driving the speed limit (I wasn't in any hurry) and got passed by literally everyone on the road. The vast majority of people drive faster than the speed limit. The question is "how much" over the speed limit you can comfortably go before you run the risk of being stopped and fined. Repeat offen…

That's one thing I found weird driving in the US. Everyone consistently drove about 5 mph above the speed limit, which I ended up doing too as driving at the speed limit felt like being a nuisance, and was probably less safe too. I remember joking that American are so much into tipping that they even tip speed limits. But why? If people, including law enforcement are comfortable with doing 70mph on 65mph roads, why n…

> That's one thing I found weird driving in the US. Everyone consistently drove about 5 mph above the speed limit

This is the same in Europe as well. At least from my experience(-s) of driving in Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland and Germany.

> If people, including law enforcement are comfortable with doing 70mph on 65mph roads, why not make the speed limit 70mph

The speed limit is set based on what is considered safe upon collision in a particular area. Furthermore, if you increase the speed limit from 65 mph to 70 mph, you'll likely see drivers going at 75 mph.

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

#918

Post by branko_d »

bluecalm wrote: post #412
branko_d wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gun deaths: 46,000 Car deaths: 40,901 Gun utility: small Car utility: large (data from CDC and NHTSA for 2023)

I was wrong about absolute numbers, still if you subtract suicides and gang infightings reckless driving kills and hurts way more people. >>Gun utility: small Car utility: large It's not about cars but speeding in cars. You can eliminate one without the other. This is not the case with guns. Utility of speeding is negative even if you never kill anyone.

> It's not about cars but speeding in cars.

That's like saying "it's not about guns but killing by guns".

If we could only identify those pesky people that will kill with their guns before they do it, we could solve our problem! Just as if we could separate out only the drivers that will crash before they actually do it.

Alas, while you can probably speed many times without serious consequences, shooting someone without serious consequences is far rarer! This means we at least have a chance to catch the repeated speeders before they do irreparable harm, but we rarely have the same luxury with shooters.

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

#919

Post by Xylakant »

ryao wrote: post #762
Xylakant wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The german autobahn demonstrates exactly the opposite. Everywhere that speed limits are introduced, the number of accidents drop. Less injured people, less fatalities. One example is the A24 https://www.geo.de/wissen/vergleich-auf-a24-weniger-verletzt... where the number of fatal accidents dropped by 50%.

This is a relative matter. The autobahn, without speed limits, is safer than US high ways with speed limits. The speed limit being suggested there is also a higher speed than the speeds reached on most US highways, which were a clone of the autobahn. Research into this matter has long suggested that there is an optimal limit at the 85th percentile and setting a speed limit above or below it harms safety. The autobahn…

The autobahn with speed limits is demonstated to be safer than the autobahn without - there's no need to compare to US highways. You could compare the autobahn with germanies european neighbors, but the better comparison is the article that I posted in my previous comment. The same 62km long segment of autobahn, no infrastructure changes, compared with and without speed limit. The posted speed limit of 130km/h is also largely in line with US speed limits.

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

#920

Post by WindyMiller »

lupusreal wrote: post #867
WindyMiller wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Is democracy only for drivers?

Aren't interstates?

I don't see anything about interstates in your comment. But even roads reserved for motor vehicles have noise and pollution effects on people who don't use them. Plus, passengers exist.
Post reply on HN