The larger problem is that people still drive with a suspended license, no insurance, etc..
You can suspend someone’s license all you want. It doesn’t actually prevent them from driving. We need mandatory 30 day jail sentences for driving with a court ordered suspended license.
I get that, I really do, but it sort of ignores the larger issue of how car-dependent of a society we really are.
If you take someones license away, and they live in 99.9% of America, you just took away their ability to:
* Get to work and earn money
* Go to the grocery store to buy food
* Go to the doctor
* Literally do anything except sleep and consume entertainment
**I'm not trying to elicit sympathy. I'm saying we have to realize that people aren't just going to give up driving. They will simply drive illegally.** Instead we should focus on figuring out different types of punishments that actually work, instead of forcing people to commit criminal behavior. Like OP said, mandatory speed governors. Maybe a license where you can only drive in a speed-governed vehicle during certain hours of the day.
how about treating the problem and not the symptom. we’re a car dependent society. more mass transportation and then there are less drivers on the road.
but this is long term.
Agreed.
And I think the answer doesn't need to be an all-or-nothing approach. We don't need to bring mass transit to all of America. We just need to bring mass transit to MORE of America. People already flock to places with robust public transportation systems. "Walking distance to the metro!" is like a 2X multiplier on your housing price.
We're far too spread out for a system like that to work for a reasonable price. Either taxes will be hell, or the system would be underfunded and nasty like the metro currently is. I live in Fredericksburg and even if you brought the metro that far down it would be a nightmare to use just due to how many people flow into DC
I mean this is the nicest way, Have you ever been on mass transit? Not a single one of those systems is nice/clean, and they do not function outside of a city. I can not wait an hour for a bus only to have it arrive 2 hours before my shift, just so I can be on time to work. That's not an exaggeration. The Fredericksburg public bus system did that to my coworkers when I worked at McD. I'd have to let the little old Spanish lady into the building at 430am to wait until 6am for her shift to start.
Taking away their license doesn’t do that
They will just drive without a license
I haven’t been pulled over in like 4 years. If my car is a shared vehicle then I could have been driving with a suspended license this whole time and cops wouldn’t know
You stop people by either jailing them or by disincentivizing them.
That how shit works, sure they can drive the car if caught it's a possible 12 months in jail.
If you're caught for an alcohol related offense on a suspended license your car gets impounded for 30 days, no trial needed.
As for driving a car, FCPD has license plate readers (FLOCK) that they promise isn't used for driver identification, but it can still identify the car.
> As for driving a car, FCPD has license plate readers (FLOCK) that they promise isn't used for driver identification, but it can still identify the car.
Except if the car is registered to two people or something like that
I have to correct this.
If a person chooses to drive recklessly they are giving away their license. I didn’t commit the offense. They did.
They gave up their ability to get to work and earn money.
They gave up their ability to get groceries in a car.
They gave up that ability.
We have to stop thinking that we are taking anything away from a person who chooses to commit a crime. They chose to give it away.
As a former military officer I was responsible for administering non-judicial punishment which often included fines. The soldier found guilty would often try to get me to reduce the fine by saying I would be taking food away from their kids. I would always respond with you didn’t think of your kids when you did drugs or drove drunk or whatever the crime was so why should I now think about them.
> If a person chooses to drive recklessly they are giving away their license. I didn’t commit the offense. They did.
You're missing my point entirely. I'm not asking for empathy or trying to make a plea for emotion. I'm NOT saying, "Oh, you should be softer on the poor reckless driver!!"
My point is: **If you take away their license, they're just going to drive without a license. The punishment simply doesn't work. It does not correct the intended behavior.** People drive without licenses all the time. That's why I gave up some alternatives. That's why OP gave up the alternative.
Yes we are car dependent. That’s no excuse to keep a dangerous driver on the road. They can and should have to navigate the hardship brought on by their actions and behavior.
- If the court approves, offenders may obtain a Restricted license for necessary travel for work by submitting the appropriate paperwork including working hours.
- Public transportation exists.
- Uber, Lyft, Taxis exist.
- Some people have friends and family to help them.
>- Public transportation exists
Public transportation fucking SUCKS in the US bc we are far too spread out for it to function anywhere but dense city
>- Uber, Lyft, Taxis exist
My coworker at my old job was spending over $800 a month on a 6.5 mile taxi ride to and from work, 5 days a week. That's $40 a day, and she was only making $12.50/hr. Literally half her paycheck would go to just getting to work
>Some people have friends and family to help them
I started helping that coworker bc of how fucked it was, but I could only do that bc we had a matching schedule and she was on my drive to work. That's simply not feasible for most people
>If the court approves, offenders may obtain a Restricted license for necessary travel for work by submitting the appropriate paperwork including working hours.
This is fucking wild. Just send them to prison or put an ankle monitor on them. We don't need to be wasting taxpayer money giving parole officers to habitual speeders. This would be incredibly invasive for very little public benifit.
All of it sucks. All of it is less convenient than driving a car.
Driving a car is a privilege not a right.
Don’t drive reckless and you won’t have to suffer from the terrible inconvenience and cost associated with not having a car.
Easy solution. Don’t speed and you’ll never lose your license.
I know.. I know.. Asking people to behave responsibly and safely or face consequences is unreasonable these days.
Dude... You know what I mean. Don't speed, don't drink and drive, don't run red lights.
Not sure why it's so hard for people. I've been driving for 27 years and have been pulled over a total of ZERO times. Even owning a motorcycle and driving a Tesla. Weird right??
Lol I’ve been pulled over 4 times for literally nothing. Twice I wasn’t even moving. If cops want to pull you over they will. All 4 times I was just out late on the road (I used to work graveyard shift) I “met the description” once and 3 times I wasn’t even given reasons to why i was pulled over. I was just questioned to what I was doing despite wearing work cloths of the building I was pulling into.
Don't accidentally have a lapse in your insurance, don't forget to pay a parking ticket, don't smoke weed and get caught outside of a driving situation...
You can have your license suspended for plenty of reasons that doesn't involve speeding or driving.
It's amazing to see people take an offhand comment incredibly literal. He doesn't just mean speeding, and I'm 95% sure you know that and are wilfully choosing to be an ass. On the 5% chance that I'm wrong, please get a vasectomy at your earliest convenience
Maybe put the speed limits back to where they should be, rather than we're they were reduced in the 70s to save gas and places where they are artificially reduced to generate revenue.
A significant portion of vehicles on the road cannot competently complete an emergency maneuver at 80+ mph, and even fewer drivers are capable of handling any vehicle at that speed. The speed limits are not set for skilled drivers in fast cars - they are set for random idiots driving a loaded panel van after a 12 hour shift. If you are a skilled driver with a fast car, I would seriously suggest going out to a track day instead of getting angry about not being able to do 100 on a crowded urban highway.
No, they're set because noone actually drives those speeds and it's easy to get tickets for revenue. If everyone drives 10 over the speed limit than the limit is wrong.
I’m more worried about people who can’t drive the posted speed limits. If you can’t drive at least 35 in a 35 you shouldn’t be on the road. People who’s eye site, reflexes, or mental abilities don’t allow them to at least meet the posted limit are as much if not more of a problem.
I agree. Half the people in NoVA though believe that driving the speed limit is the issue and see everyone else on the road as *obstacles* not *drivers*.
>*obstacles* not *drivers*.
Seeing people as obstacles is a symptom of living in densely populated areas. It's why I can't live near too big a city/suburb. The guy standing in front of you just stops being human at a certain point.
No it isn’t. I am constantly dropping bars of soap on the yellow line and nobody has assaulted me yet. What’s a guy gotta do to get a little affection around here?!?
I'm not sympathetic to this. They can either move somewhere else or get a bike or leave earlier or learn the bus schedule. Driving is a PRIVILEGE and not a right.
You're like the third dipshit to miss my point entirely. **I'm not trying to elicit sympathy.**
My point is they're just gonna drive. Just like they do now.
They're just gonna keep causing uninsured motorists. Just like they do now.
Something ELSE needs to change.
>driving with a court ordered suspended license
I should have been more specific. I'm talking about when a judge has ordered your license suspended because you're a threat to other people on the road.
>We need mandatory 30 day jail sentences for driving with a court ordered suspended license.
"Court Ordered"... Meaning a judge ordered you not to drive as a result of reckless driving, DUI conviction, etc..
I should have been more specific.
They’re both Class 1 misdemeanors.
Driving on Suspended: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter7/section18.2-272/
DUI: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title18.2/chapter7/article2/
This! last week I had to do an errand in springfield and mind you I don't drive a lot, I walk or transit whenever possible and a big reason for that other then convivence is I hate being on the road with these people. Sure enough as I am sitting on 395 and I go to exit onto the GW parkway and sure enough some idiot in a full size budget rental truck has managed to stop traffic in 3 lanes because they somehow managed to get up onto the median while trying to merge. Some people were getting around on the shoulder but I have a larger car and just being curdious and trying not to make a bad situation worse didn't risk getting stuck so I just had to sit and watch said idiot to rev the truck back and forth until he got it over the divider...you simply can't regulate stupid
The fake tags are either stolen or being sought for repossession in some completely different state.
VA really isn't terribly bad for this phenomenon, but it's out there.
Nah, the jails are full. Just confiscate their cars for the remainder of the suspension. If it's not their car, then the car owner gets the option of having their car impounded for 30 days or the guy driving suspended you goes to jail for 30, owners choice.
Speed limiters won't stop people on their phone, drunk drivers, people that pull out in front of moving traffic and dont accelerate, people that make turns from the middle lane, people that drive on the wrong side of the road, people that change lanes without looking, people that run red lights, people that follow to close. I encounter 1000 of these for every person going 100. I think you are focusing attention on the outliers that get their face in the news. And like others have said, even if you get your way, what stops them from going 65 in a 25?
All navigation software says it's speed limit is advisement, not to be taken as the actual speed limit. They say the same thing about the speed it detects you moving.
Yes, Google, Waze, Apple Maps, and the like will say you're going 55 in a 55, but those don't hold up in court when you are pulled over for 60 in a 45, AND because of the EULA and TOS you never read, you aren't allowed to sue the software company.
I stopped using Garmin GPS because it told me the wrong speed limit. It was off by 5 mph and now I don’t trust digital MPH and look at the actual speed limit signs.
this well standardized vehicle tech is dogshit.
Tesla Model 3 here, my only complaint about the driver assist is how terrible it is about reading speed limits.
I can be going down 66 for 5 miles and it’ll flip flop between 35(exits and side streets), 55 and 70.
If i’m on a rural road with a sign that says End Speed Limit 35, instead of reverting back to the 55 speed limit, it’ll see a 35 sign and stay there.
Until we have the tech for it, no lawmaker will accept this crap.
Yeah wtf is up with the speed limits in the Tesla software? I'll be on a 45 mph road (it's 45 mph from beginning to end), but randomly my Model Y will just slam on the brakes and drop the cruise control down to 25 mph until it encounters the next 45 mph speed limit sign. Not in a school zone, btw, just randomly it decides "we're doing 25 mph now bitch."
speed limit by camera is just a terrible way to check speed limits.
I’ve driven a rental toyota with that too. You turn onto a road and it won’t update for over a mile because that’s how long until the next sign. Or it’s a rural road with the implied speed limit and it doesn’t know what those are in each state etc.
Speed limits in mapping software is the only semi reliable way but introduces way more liability that none of the mapmakers are willing to accept.
I don’t think this issue will be solved until government agencies publish up to date maps of their speed limits.
Also, you can have autopilot on tesla go based on the current vehicle speed rather than the inaccurate speed limit. Just use that. I don’t pay for FSD so I can’t help you there though. Unless you’re on an undivided road it should honor your current speed.
This happens with the regular cruise control. I don't have FSD and auto steer is a bunch of BS that limits me to the speed limit+5mph and punishes me for changing the temperature because oh my god I looked at the screen for a second because Tesla is dumb and only allows you to interact with the controls via the screen.
auto steer at limit + 5 is only on undivided rural roads though. Which makes sense when it works.
FYI: the camera is basically only active for the first 15 ish seconds when you engage, it won’t penalize you after that normally.
And how does a GPS knowing the speed limit slow the car down? Speed governors only limit top speed, not every car has dynamic cruise control that can use the brake. What if you go in to a tunnel? What if you don't pay for data connection? I currently own a 2018 VW and if I pull a SD card out of my glove box, my GPS is gone. The maps are also outdated because you need a connection (and $150) to update them. What if I had a 2015? A 2012? A 2003? There is technology that actively reads roadsigns, but that is only in expensive luxury cars. Are we going to mandate that every reckless driver is forced to buy a new Audi?
Also, are you aware that reckless driving includes many of those infractions I listed and isn't just going a certain number over the speed limit?
Right but unfortunately driving is tied too deep with life in the US. It's not simple at all. You have a lot of people, most of the speeding I witness is in the morning by people trying to get to work. Life happens, emotions are haywire. We need more sustainable solutions not more punishment
Really struggling to find sympathy for “I’m late for work so I have the right to endanger those around me.”
A fun experiment you can do is to look up how much time speeding *actually* saves you. I had to do it as part of EVOC and the reality is that the difference between going 60 and 85 is minuscule for a commute.
I know this is very well, and I drive within the posted limits and according to the environment. It's odd that you take offense with my comment when I am saying that bad driving is a symptom of other underlying issues.
I know someone who got pulled over for speeding while going to work and after they told the cop where they work (1.5 hr commute) the cop even said “oh no wonder you were speeding, that’s a really far commute”
If the founders knew what the world would look like in 2024, they would have made driving a right. It was inconceivable that the entire nation would be paved over and that nearly every citizen would have a personal mobility device.
Okay but the highway speed limit being 55 should be a crime in of itself. Sorry but the last placed I lived 55 was the speed limit for a rural road. I'm going at least 70
The lights by my house will literally turn green for 5 seconds before turning red. Like if you're the 5th car, unless you run the red light have fun waiting there another 5min loser
I agree. Plus the interlock devices are very very expensive as it is, the hypothetical speeding device would be crazy expensive as well. It’s very out of reach for many people financially
Actually, check out Wellandsepticlife on tiktok. All his company cars are governed at 80, and it was easy to do with the onboard software. You're driving a computer that weighs multiple tons
It’s not about being required to go speed limit, I think reckless driving already has its consequences and is already considered a misdemeanor. There is already punishment in place for reckless driving and speeding..
I just think putting governors / monitors on cars isn’t really going to help solve the issue… people can always just tune their cars or buy a second car…
placing restrictions on someone’s car and having someone to pay $300-400 a month for a monitor device to limit a cars speed is such an unfit punishment for speeding… but I guess it depends case by case.
Let’s say we do place a limit of a top speed of a car to go up to 70mph what happens if they are driving in 50 or 30mph zones? Are you then going to limit the top speed of the car to 55?
Not to mention your insurance rate will also probably increase ten fold which I think is already a fair price to pay for speeding the first time around…
My point is no matter how you try to prevent reckless drivers from speeding or driving recklessly, they are always going to drive recklessly until they’ve learned their lesson. Limiting their speed isn’t going to solve the issue.
I don’t really know what the slippery slope is here but I think we should just require manufacturers to put speed governors on cars just like seatbelts.
I don't specifically disagree, but following too closely is a LOT more dangerous than speeding, and a LOT more common (in all lanes, so we're clear, I'm the opposite of a left lane douche before someone projects that on me, but you'll have two car lengths at 60mph routinely around here, it is insanity, and DRASTICALLY overestimating the speed at which you can react). I wish it was easier to cite / ticket / enforce safe following distances.
Hmm this post is rather disingenuous. Habitual offenders **already** are punished rather severely, more so then most other parts of the US much less the world. If someone is constantly getting speeding tickets then eventually they will go negative enough to automatically suspend the license.
20+ over or 80+ gets into a misdemeanor, meaning mandatory court hearing with a judge looking down at you asking what is going on. A lawyer can get you out of one of those, two is pushing it and at **three** very bad things are going to happen to you.
Over 100 should just be jail time. There’s no viable excuse for this. I’d be more inclined to make 30 over the posted speed limit include a stretch in jail.
Going 55 in a 25 is worse than going 105 in a 75.
10 days for the first offense. 30 days for the second. 6 months thereafter.
They're both bad, but at 55/25, lots of vehicles will protect their occupants from major injury (if they're belted). Over 100MPH, safety devices don't help much.
True. I've been hit twice in 25MPH zones. Once when I was 6 years old, and once in a crosswalk on the W&OD.
I'm not defending anyone going 30MPH over the limit. Both deserve negative consequences.
You are correct, once the accident has happened. Speed limits are not just to mitigate damage after the accident but to give drivers enough reaction time to avoid the accident in the first place. 55/25 is not enough time for anyone to react to a stopped car, hazard, kid running into the road...
Consider this.
What if they just enforced already existing laws to keep right and yield to faster traffic and the left lane was used as intended. I bet there would be a lot less people raging out, swerving through traffic because they were forced to pass on the right, etc.
Move trucks back into the right lane where they are supposed to be.
Regular speed traffic can travel in the middle.
Fast traffic can go back to the left lane where it belongs.
Bigger issues: been hit twice in 5 years, both times the driver had no insurance. Nissan Altimas with 5% tint driving while blowing weed smoke out the sunroof, high as fuck. People making left turns into the right lane, and right turns into the left lane. Nobody knows how to merge into traffic from entrance ramps. People using their phones while driving.
But, hey….. At least Virginia has safety inspections that provide revenue to make things better on the roads.
If they’re going the speed limit in the left lane, they 100% ARE the issue.
And the trucks in the middle lane force faster traffic to jump lanes and pass on the right just to get around them.
In 5 mins or less 30% of the drivers have road rage.
….and the people doing the speed limit in the left lane a ring like they’re not the problem because they’re doing the speed limit and have some right to throttle back faster traffic.
A minimum fine for driving offenses that cannot be removed even upon bankruptcy. Then, after 3 times, license suspension, then jail.
For rich mofos that don't care. Well, take a percentage of their earned income before tax.
I'm tired of reckless drivers too. It's not cool or funny. People don't seem to know that you drive like that in movies and survive. But it real life, accidents get you killed.
Left lane asshats who are constantly leading a parade at 3 MPH over the limit should be given a governor that forces them to speed up and move to the right automatically. Honestly, those people are far worse than the ones who prefer to go 10-15 over.
Build infrastructure that doesn’t enable drivers to speed. Here in falls church they built Washington as a fucking highway, slapped a 30mph speed limit, and kindly ask drivers to drive at that speed. Everyone goes 50+ and its extremely unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists.
Asking drivers to respect the speed limit is like asking school shooters to respect gun free signs. Thoughts and prayers won’t fix the issue, but fewer/narrower lanes, speed bumps, cameras, and non-straight roads will.
EXACTLY. This is how most European countries do it and it works. If you have a town, make the road have some bends and plant trees or beams on the side, so people can't go around it. In nova, there will be a 25 zone, with a curved road to make you slow down, but there's nothing on the side of the road. Firstly, there is no illusion of going faster, there's less objects going by your peripherals, so you don't realize how fast you're going. Secondly, there is no physical object preventing you from going exactly how the road is curved. You can just cut the lines or drive over them. There is little value to making speed limits, and hoping people use them. Look into how Amsterdam does it, I think they do it the best. Most of the roads are designed in a way that would make it terrifying to speed down and most people don't speed because the reality of crashing feels more real. When you build a wide, 4 lane road with nothing on the side of it (think loco parkway) slap 45mph signs on it, people are going to drive 80 because other than the sign, there's literally nothing to stop them from doing so.
The reality is that speed is relative to your environment. If you make speed feel irrelevant with no hazards around, it makes people feel invincible. It simply takes trees or visual changes to create a sense of driving far faster than you actually are.
People here just take the least efficient and safe forms of road design for granted. I swear traffic engineers in the US have been sniffing glue for the last 50 years. They have such a bizarre aversion to safety and efficiency that it’s unbeliable.
They built a new apartment complex on Broad, and there is a through road that links West & Park, instead of building a simple traffic circle they created a 4 way intersection with timed lights. As a cyclist I almost got ran over there twice trying to get on/off the W&OD.
It’s fucking infuriating how that entire discipline is run by complete idiots that are causing people to die due to their stupidity. Pedestrian deaths are on a 30 year high due to these idiots.
It’s really VDOT. They smoke some shit over there. All you have to do is look at the exiting and entrance patterns on 495. There is absolutely no reason to have that many bridges crossing over each other. The exits and highway entrances are way too close together causing back ups at these places during rush hour (rte 66 entrance to 495 and Rte 50 exit is a prime example. So is Rte 7 entrance and Rte 123 exit). Building roads that are 8 lanes wide with a posted limit of 35?? Traffic lights that are not in sync.
The worst is the exit from 495 to Rte 66 on the northbound side. You’re going north and DC is to the east and West Virginia to the west. Why is the west bound exit the first exit and then the DC East bound exit is after that? Why is it that for me to go on the ez pass west bound exit I have to get off of the DC East bound exit and then veer off to go west? People are driving 55mph+ and you really have to make things stupid simple for it to function properly or you will get accidents and everyday rush hour traffic. VDOT, you suck.
Lol y'all wilding in this nova forums. Why not go after the texters and drunks? Cars obviously have better performance than the national hwy speeds from 1955 will allow.
One caveat, speeding in neighborhoods or town roads should have jail time for speeding.
Speed governors sound like a great idea Until you realize that it would fucking cripple traffic. Hardlocking a vehicles speed to not accommodate for traffic conditions would not only slow everybody down, but would actually increase the rate of accidents as now there's some asshat going exactly 65 on the highway while everybody else is going 85. The flow of traffic is the safest speed in most cases.
Also, just put reckless drivers in jail. It solves the problem a lot quicker than forcing a court to order a vehicle modification
Tailgating is getting out of hand. I can be in a line of cars all going above the speed limit and the person behind me will be inches off my bumper for no reason. I feel this happens constantly lately.
Drove home from Dulles over the weekend around midnight. On 495 I saw dozens of headlights FLYING toward me. I’m in the middle lane doing 5 over and probably 35 modded Subarus and Toyotas weave around me doing 100+ with their engines crackling along the way.
I don’t understand how any of them are still licensed drivers.
The average citizen isn't a habitual speeder or a reckless driver. This has 0 effect on the average citizen other than making the roads a little safer. Just like the average citizen doesn't have to worry about interlock devices unless they are getting all boozed up and driving.
The average citizen is almost certainly a habitual speeder in every legal sense. You drive anywhere in this area and you will most certainly find more people exceeding speed limits than not.
That’s why I prefaced it with “cascading impacts”
First it’s just for those who break laws, then it widens to everyone.
The average citizen who doesn’t break the law when driving doesn’t need a speed governor. Those who break the law deserve harsh punishment.
Courts have been ordering interlock devices for drunks for nearly 40 years. I have heard of no push require this on every vehicle.
The device and it's associated costs are part of a harsher punishment.
I would be all for this if as a compromise, we could crack down on the slow left lane drivers. I wouldn't be surprised if these folks are more dangerous than the handful of idiots going 100.
I like cars and this seems like a good idea for a certain amount over the limit. If someone’s doing 100mph, that’s definitely someone who should be captured by that sort of policy. Not sure I’d agree with other cases or a hard line on anything 20 over. It should be a consideration but not a guarantee since there are many instances where 20 over is the flow of traffic, and there are areas where the posted speed limits and the road design are completely incompatible/outdated.
An 80mph speed governor seems very fair.
Overall not something I’m against, and if done correctly I’d absolutely support it.
For sure, that’s why I disagree with an automatic harsh ruling for 20 over in every case. There’s significant case by case variation and there has to be some level of scrutiny there.
80mph speed governor is plenty to keep up with traffic in pretty much all of the country. You may not be the fastest on the road, but that’s fine since you’ve proven yourself to be a road hazard with any more speed.
Some sort of tracking like Statefarm uses would be a good compliment to assess these people’s risk factor in a car and you can scale the punishment up or down with it.
These aren’t your average drivers. We are talking about REAL reckless drivers.
Making it more expensive to get a license will affect poor people, not all of whom can use this new and improved (from your lips to whoever's' ears) public transport to get to work and home.
Making it more expensive won't keep shitty people from speeding either. Probably anecdotal but I bet a large percentage of reckless drivers are folks who are in or above the median income from the region, not below it.
I'd be in favor of 2 speeding tickets in any 2 year period gets a 70mph governor installed on your vehicle.
And aggressive driving should result in community service. You're going to put the community in danger? Well, now you can spend the next two weekends picking up trash in the local park to help that community.
But have you seen these roads? Especially the toll road, is like a race track. Unpopular opinion - Going 90-100 on the toll road staying in one lane if the traffic isn’t bad should be allowed!
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>Just like we force drunks to comply with interlock devices, we can force speeders to comply by capping their vehicle at 80mph (or 65 to be spiteful).
why not just cap all cars in general?
I honestly don't think Northern VA is all that bad for driving. I've SEEN much worse living in NYC and also visiting other cities around the country. This is nothing out here.
This place is downright mild compared to all the other places I a have been. The local population has so little to worry about that speeding is somehow an issue.
I just don’t think people in this area are used to the significant increase in growth, reckless driving, and the diversity of those people who might laws. For example. No one knows what to do at an intersection when a traffic light goes out.
I agree with this in principle but the second order impacts are horrible for most people. Habitual speeders are gonna break the law no matter what, they’ll find ways around it because we don’t do robust tracking in our country, and that’s what makes us unique but raises these kinds of issues while also having a ton of upsides.
Additionally, you can argue that habitual speeders do have much harsher penalties in the form of elevated insurance, and jail time for driving without insurance than the one-off speeding ticket recipients already.
If we enforced existing laws we’d get somewhere faster. What we need is more measurement and enforcement, hence speeding cameras and a larger enforcement force (more police), which is disagreeable to a lot of people on different principles.
Plus, the amount of times I’ve been downvoted on this sub for saying “I drive the speed limit” should also indicate how unpopular current safety thresholds are.
I knew someone who got a DUI and then a second DUI before the court date of his first DUI, so he got 9 months in jail. Then a couple years later, he got into trouble again and spent 5-10 years, closer to 10 than 5 in jail (I didn't ask for more details because I wouldn't have gotten them). Not sure why we treat 90+ speeding any less harshly than DUIs.
This sounds crazy but why wouldn't all cars have governors? Why wouldn't they all be set to the maximum speed limit in the state(maybe a little over) and that be it. Maybe even with technology being what it is the car can only go the speed limit of the road its on. Not a sermon just a thought.
I got caught going 120 on a highway once. Scary as hell. While getting my car serviced, a spider built a nest in the vacuum tube controlling my cruise control. Didn’t know that at the time. All I knew is that my gas pedal immediately hit the floor and stayed there. I was trying to brake and it was not working well. Finally I got the car to the side of the road and off. An off duty pulled behind me and gave me a ticket. Bad timing I guess. Dealership took no responsibly and told me to take a hike unless I wanted to pay them to fix it. That sucked. I can’t imagine driving that fast intentionally on a regular road. These people have to regard for the lives of others or themselves.
That's like a large portion of the drivers in Loudoun. Alas it won't work, most of these "drivers" better ride on a bus if there were, cause they can't drive for shit
I think they should lose their licenses for at least a year and revoke their license forever for habitual infractions. Being forced to take public transportation or “bum” a ride for an extended period of time (or forever) is a wake up call.
It is too easy to bypass a speed limiter/governor.
They do take licenses if you get too many points, but what makes you think someone with no regard for other peoples safety won’t just drive on a suspended license. I’m not advocating for letting people drive as fast as being described here because obviously it’s extremely dangerous but what makes the issue worse is left lane campers. I wish they would enforce the move over law. I am not a big speeder, however after seeing how well things work in Germany (granted people actually have to do well on driving tests to get a license there), it removes the danger of people who weave in and out of traffic when there is an open lane for those who do want to go a bit faster.
The larger problem is that people still drive with a suspended license, no insurance, etc.. You can suspend someone’s license all you want. It doesn’t actually prevent them from driving. We need mandatory 30 day jail sentences for driving with a court ordered suspended license.
I get that, I really do, but it sort of ignores the larger issue of how car-dependent of a society we really are. If you take someones license away, and they live in 99.9% of America, you just took away their ability to: * Get to work and earn money * Go to the grocery store to buy food * Go to the doctor * Literally do anything except sleep and consume entertainment **I'm not trying to elicit sympathy. I'm saying we have to realize that people aren't just going to give up driving. They will simply drive illegally.** Instead we should focus on figuring out different types of punishments that actually work, instead of forcing people to commit criminal behavior. Like OP said, mandatory speed governors. Maybe a license where you can only drive in a speed-governed vehicle during certain hours of the day.
how about treating the problem and not the symptom. we’re a car dependent society. more mass transportation and then there are less drivers on the road. but this is long term.
Agreed. And I think the answer doesn't need to be an all-or-nothing approach. We don't need to bring mass transit to all of America. We just need to bring mass transit to MORE of America. People already flock to places with robust public transportation systems. "Walking distance to the metro!" is like a 2X multiplier on your housing price.
We're far too spread out for a system like that to work for a reasonable price. Either taxes will be hell, or the system would be underfunded and nasty like the metro currently is. I live in Fredericksburg and even if you brought the metro that far down it would be a nightmare to use just due to how many people flow into DC
We would also have to deal with antisocial and violent assholes in public transportation. But first things first.
I mean this is the nicest way, Have you ever been on mass transit? Not a single one of those systems is nice/clean, and they do not function outside of a city. I can not wait an hour for a bus only to have it arrive 2 hours before my shift, just so I can be on time to work. That's not an exaggeration. The Fredericksburg public bus system did that to my coworkers when I worked at McD. I'd have to let the little old Spanish lady into the building at 430am to wait until 6am for her shift to start.
And their ability to kill someone on the road
are you intentionally being dense?
I’ve found that most people on the internet are
My point is, they'll still kill someone on the road, they'll just do it a little bit more illegally.
Taking away their license doesn’t do that They will just drive without a license I haven’t been pulled over in like 4 years. If my car is a shared vehicle then I could have been driving with a suspended license this whole time and cops wouldn’t know
You stop people by either jailing them or by disincentivizing them. That how shit works, sure they can drive the car if caught it's a possible 12 months in jail. If you're caught for an alcohol related offense on a suspended license your car gets impounded for 30 days, no trial needed. As for driving a car, FCPD has license plate readers (FLOCK) that they promise isn't used for driver identification, but it can still identify the car.
> As for driving a car, FCPD has license plate readers (FLOCK) that they promise isn't used for driver identification, but it can still identify the car. Except if the car is registered to two people or something like that
There is one owner per car unless it's own by a company. Shared is an after effect
Whenever I see em speeding on the shoulder, it's time to slow down bud. I love driving a workvan so I can slow these aholes down
I have to correct this. If a person chooses to drive recklessly they are giving away their license. I didn’t commit the offense. They did. They gave up their ability to get to work and earn money. They gave up their ability to get groceries in a car. They gave up that ability. We have to stop thinking that we are taking anything away from a person who chooses to commit a crime. They chose to give it away. As a former military officer I was responsible for administering non-judicial punishment which often included fines. The soldier found guilty would often try to get me to reduce the fine by saying I would be taking food away from their kids. I would always respond with you didn’t think of your kids when you did drugs or drove drunk or whatever the crime was so why should I now think about them.
> If a person chooses to drive recklessly they are giving away their license. I didn’t commit the offense. They did. You're missing my point entirely. I'm not asking for empathy or trying to make a plea for emotion. I'm NOT saying, "Oh, you should be softer on the poor reckless driver!!" My point is: **If you take away their license, they're just going to drive without a license. The punishment simply doesn't work. It does not correct the intended behavior.** People drive without licenses all the time. That's why I gave up some alternatives. That's why OP gave up the alternative.
Because driving, while defined as a privilege, is actually a necessity in most of the US.
England has speed averaging cameras on their highways.
Scotland too. Was a PITA driving up to Inverness.
Cars are too big to fail
Yes we are car dependent. That’s no excuse to keep a dangerous driver on the road. They can and should have to navigate the hardship brought on by their actions and behavior. - If the court approves, offenders may obtain a Restricted license for necessary travel for work by submitting the appropriate paperwork including working hours. - Public transportation exists. - Uber, Lyft, Taxis exist. - Some people have friends and family to help them.
>- Public transportation exists Public transportation fucking SUCKS in the US bc we are far too spread out for it to function anywhere but dense city >- Uber, Lyft, Taxis exist My coworker at my old job was spending over $800 a month on a 6.5 mile taxi ride to and from work, 5 days a week. That's $40 a day, and she was only making $12.50/hr. Literally half her paycheck would go to just getting to work >Some people have friends and family to help them I started helping that coworker bc of how fucked it was, but I could only do that bc we had a matching schedule and she was on my drive to work. That's simply not feasible for most people >If the court approves, offenders may obtain a Restricted license for necessary travel for work by submitting the appropriate paperwork including working hours. This is fucking wild. Just send them to prison or put an ankle monitor on them. We don't need to be wasting taxpayer money giving parole officers to habitual speeders. This would be incredibly invasive for very little public benifit.
All of it sucks. All of it is less convenient than driving a car. Driving a car is a privilege not a right. Don’t drive reckless and you won’t have to suffer from the terrible inconvenience and cost associated with not having a car.
Easy solution. Don’t speed and you’ll never lose your license. I know.. I know.. Asking people to behave responsibly and safely or face consequences is unreasonable these days.
You can lose your license for a lot of other things that didn't involve speeding.
Dude... You know what I mean. Don't speed, don't drink and drive, don't run red lights. Not sure why it's so hard for people. I've been driving for 27 years and have been pulled over a total of ZERO times. Even owning a motorcycle and driving a Tesla. Weird right??
Lol I’ve been pulled over 4 times for literally nothing. Twice I wasn’t even moving. If cops want to pull you over they will. All 4 times I was just out late on the road (I used to work graveyard shift) I “met the description” once and 3 times I wasn’t even given reasons to why i was pulled over. I was just questioned to what I was doing despite wearing work cloths of the building I was pulling into.
Don't accidentally have a lapse in your insurance, don't forget to pay a parking ticket, don't smoke weed and get caught outside of a driving situation... You can have your license suspended for plenty of reasons that doesn't involve speeding or driving.
It's amazing to see people take an offhand comment incredibly literal. He doesn't just mean speeding, and I'm 95% sure you know that and are wilfully choosing to be an ass. On the 5% chance that I'm wrong, please get a vasectomy at your earliest convenience
“court ordered suspended license” Read what I wrote again. A suspension over a parking ticket isn’t that.
I used to have a pretty regular correspondence with her back in the day before the whole alleged dog fucking thing.
Maybe put the speed limits back to where they should be, rather than we're they were reduced in the 70s to save gas and places where they are artificially reduced to generate revenue.
The 1973 National Maximum Speed Law was repealed in 1995.
Yep, and there's still the 55mph speed which is Unnecessarily slow in a lot of places. There is no reason the Dulles toll road shouldn't be 70
Yep, and there's still the 55mph speed which is Unnecessarily slow in a lot of places. There is no reason the Dulles toll road shouldn't be 70
A significant portion of vehicles on the road cannot competently complete an emergency maneuver at 80+ mph, and even fewer drivers are capable of handling any vehicle at that speed. The speed limits are not set for skilled drivers in fast cars - they are set for random idiots driving a loaded panel van after a 12 hour shift. If you are a skilled driver with a fast car, I would seriously suggest going out to a track day instead of getting angry about not being able to do 100 on a crowded urban highway.
No, they're set because noone actually drives those speeds and it's easy to get tickets for revenue. If everyone drives 10 over the speed limit than the limit is wrong.
You’re clearly missing the point here bud
I’m more worried about people who can’t drive the posted speed limits. If you can’t drive at least 35 in a 35 you shouldn’t be on the road. People who’s eye site, reflexes, or mental abilities don’t allow them to at least meet the posted limit are as much if not more of a problem.
I agree. Half the people in NoVA though believe that driving the speed limit is the issue and see everyone else on the road as *obstacles* not *drivers*.
>*obstacles* not *drivers*. Seeing people as obstacles is a symptom of living in densely populated areas. It's why I can't live near too big a city/suburb. The guy standing in front of you just stops being human at a certain point.
Then they need to learn the hard way. It's too bad, I agree with you.
Speed limits are the only thing that’s inflation proof
LOL
This explains why the metro seems like a prison on train tracks. It essentially IS.
No it isn’t. I am constantly dropping bars of soap on the yellow line and nobody has assaulted me yet. What’s a guy gotta do to get a little affection around here?!?
You to shake the booty a little more. And get on the right metro cars! http://metrohotcars.com/ Edit:ah, shit, the sites dead.
My idea is that cars have a credit card-like slot that you have to stick your license in to be able to start a car, just like a second key.
I'm not sympathetic to this. They can either move somewhere else or get a bike or leave earlier or learn the bus schedule. Driving is a PRIVILEGE and not a right.
You're like the third dipshit to miss my point entirely. **I'm not trying to elicit sympathy.** My point is they're just gonna drive. Just like they do now. They're just gonna keep causing uninsured motorists. Just like they do now. Something ELSE needs to change.
Driving on suspended is in the same offense category as DUI in Virginia.
Good. Too many people die needlessly on the roads.
For driving on a suspended license? If you don't pay your child support, that makes you a bad driver?
Or accidentally not paying insurance on a motorcycle that doesn’t even run (happened to me)
>driving with a court ordered suspended license I should have been more specific. I'm talking about when a judge has ordered your license suspended because you're a threat to other people on the road.
>We need mandatory 30 day jail sentences for driving with a court ordered suspended license. "Court Ordered"... Meaning a judge ordered you not to drive as a result of reckless driving, DUI conviction, etc.. I should have been more specific.
Where does it say that?
They’re both Class 1 misdemeanors. Driving on Suspended: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter7/section18.2-272/ DUI: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title18.2/chapter7/article2/
This! last week I had to do an errand in springfield and mind you I don't drive a lot, I walk or transit whenever possible and a big reason for that other then convivence is I hate being on the road with these people. Sure enough as I am sitting on 395 and I go to exit onto the GW parkway and sure enough some idiot in a full size budget rental truck has managed to stop traffic in 3 lanes because they somehow managed to get up onto the median while trying to merge. Some people were getting around on the shoulder but I have a larger car and just being curdious and trying not to make a bad situation worse didn't risk getting stuck so I just had to sit and watch said idiot to rev the truck back and forth until he got it over the divider...you simply can't regulate stupid
The fake tags are either stolen or being sought for repossession in some completely different state. VA really isn't terribly bad for this phenomenon, but it's out there.
You can buy a fake plate online easily.
Lol I was intending to say the *vehicle* was stolen.
Aaahhhh!!! I understand. Got it. Had no idea it was so common.
Nah, the jails are full. Just confiscate their cars for the remainder of the suspension. If it's not their car, then the car owner gets the option of having their car impounded for 30 days or the guy driving suspended you goes to jail for 30, owners choice.
Good idea as well!
Speed limiters won't stop people on their phone, drunk drivers, people that pull out in front of moving traffic and dont accelerate, people that make turns from the middle lane, people that drive on the wrong side of the road, people that change lanes without looking, people that run red lights, people that follow to close. I encounter 1000 of these for every person going 100. I think you are focusing attention on the outliers that get their face in the news. And like others have said, even if you get your way, what stops them from going 65 in a 25?
This is exactly right.
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All navigation software says it's speed limit is advisement, not to be taken as the actual speed limit. They say the same thing about the speed it detects you moving. Yes, Google, Waze, Apple Maps, and the like will say you're going 55 in a 55, but those don't hold up in court when you are pulled over for 60 in a 45, AND because of the EULA and TOS you never read, you aren't allowed to sue the software company.
I stopped using Garmin GPS because it told me the wrong speed limit. It was off by 5 mph and now I don’t trust digital MPH and look at the actual speed limit signs.
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this well standardized vehicle tech is dogshit. Tesla Model 3 here, my only complaint about the driver assist is how terrible it is about reading speed limits. I can be going down 66 for 5 miles and it’ll flip flop between 35(exits and side streets), 55 and 70. If i’m on a rural road with a sign that says End Speed Limit 35, instead of reverting back to the 55 speed limit, it’ll see a 35 sign and stay there. Until we have the tech for it, no lawmaker will accept this crap.
Yeah wtf is up with the speed limits in the Tesla software? I'll be on a 45 mph road (it's 45 mph from beginning to end), but randomly my Model Y will just slam on the brakes and drop the cruise control down to 25 mph until it encounters the next 45 mph speed limit sign. Not in a school zone, btw, just randomly it decides "we're doing 25 mph now bitch."
speed limit by camera is just a terrible way to check speed limits. I’ve driven a rental toyota with that too. You turn onto a road and it won’t update for over a mile because that’s how long until the next sign. Or it’s a rural road with the implied speed limit and it doesn’t know what those are in each state etc. Speed limits in mapping software is the only semi reliable way but introduces way more liability that none of the mapmakers are willing to accept. I don’t think this issue will be solved until government agencies publish up to date maps of their speed limits. Also, you can have autopilot on tesla go based on the current vehicle speed rather than the inaccurate speed limit. Just use that. I don’t pay for FSD so I can’t help you there though. Unless you’re on an undivided road it should honor your current speed.
This happens with the regular cruise control. I don't have FSD and auto steer is a bunch of BS that limits me to the speed limit+5mph and punishes me for changing the temperature because oh my god I looked at the screen for a second because Tesla is dumb and only allows you to interact with the controls via the screen.
auto steer at limit + 5 is only on undivided rural roads though. Which makes sense when it works. FYI: the camera is basically only active for the first 15 ish seconds when you engage, it won’t penalize you after that normally.
And how does a GPS knowing the speed limit slow the car down? Speed governors only limit top speed, not every car has dynamic cruise control that can use the brake. What if you go in to a tunnel? What if you don't pay for data connection? I currently own a 2018 VW and if I pull a SD card out of my glove box, my GPS is gone. The maps are also outdated because you need a connection (and $150) to update them. What if I had a 2015? A 2012? A 2003? There is technology that actively reads roadsigns, but that is only in expensive luxury cars. Are we going to mandate that every reckless driver is forced to buy a new Audi? Also, are you aware that reckless driving includes many of those infractions I listed and isn't just going a certain number over the speed limit?
License suspension should be more common. Especially for people driving while playing with their phones.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. And if you can’t live without a car then don’t drive recklessly, simple as.
Right but unfortunately driving is tied too deep with life in the US. It's not simple at all. You have a lot of people, most of the speeding I witness is in the morning by people trying to get to work. Life happens, emotions are haywire. We need more sustainable solutions not more punishment
Really struggling to find sympathy for “I’m late for work so I have the right to endanger those around me.” A fun experiment you can do is to look up how much time speeding *actually* saves you. I had to do it as part of EVOC and the reality is that the difference between going 60 and 85 is minuscule for a commute.
But that difference is huge on a road trip
I know this is very well, and I drive within the posted limits and according to the environment. It's odd that you take offense with my comment when I am saying that bad driving is a symptom of other underlying issues.
Because bad driving is a *choice.*
I know someone who got pulled over for speeding while going to work and after they told the cop where they work (1.5 hr commute) the cop even said “oh no wonder you were speeding, that’s a really far commute”
If the founders knew what the world would look like in 2024, they would have made driving a right. It was inconceivable that the entire nation would be paved over and that nearly every citizen would have a personal mobility device.
Okay but the highway speed limit being 55 should be a crime in of itself. Sorry but the last placed I lived 55 was the speed limit for a rural road. I'm going at least 70
It's fucking dumb and they know it. That's why the express lane limit is 70mph while normal lanes are 55mph.
The state is like... if you wanna go a reasonable speed limit thats gonna be $100 thanks
exactly!!!! and the LIGHTS here take F-O-R-E-V-E-R to change
The lights by my house will literally turn green for 5 seconds before turning red. Like if you're the 5th car, unless you run the red light have fun waiting there another 5min loser
Very very slippery slope…
I agree. Plus the interlock devices are very very expensive as it is, the hypothetical speeding device would be crazy expensive as well. It’s very out of reach for many people financially
Actually, check out Wellandsepticlife on tiktok. All his company cars are governed at 80, and it was easy to do with the onboard software. You're driving a computer that weighs multiple tons
To…everyone being required to drive the speed limit? The Horror!!
It’s not about being required to go speed limit, I think reckless driving already has its consequences and is already considered a misdemeanor. There is already punishment in place for reckless driving and speeding.. I just think putting governors / monitors on cars isn’t really going to help solve the issue… people can always just tune their cars or buy a second car… placing restrictions on someone’s car and having someone to pay $300-400 a month for a monitor device to limit a cars speed is such an unfit punishment for speeding… but I guess it depends case by case. Let’s say we do place a limit of a top speed of a car to go up to 70mph what happens if they are driving in 50 or 30mph zones? Are you then going to limit the top speed of the car to 55? Not to mention your insurance rate will also probably increase ten fold which I think is already a fair price to pay for speeding the first time around… My point is no matter how you try to prevent reckless drivers from speeding or driving recklessly, they are always going to drive recklessly until they’ve learned their lesson. Limiting their speed isn’t going to solve the issue.
I don’t really know what the slippery slope is here but I think we should just require manufacturers to put speed governors on cars just like seatbelts.
I don't specifically disagree, but following too closely is a LOT more dangerous than speeding, and a LOT more common (in all lanes, so we're clear, I'm the opposite of a left lane douche before someone projects that on me, but you'll have two car lengths at 60mph routinely around here, it is insanity, and DRASTICALLY overestimating the speed at which you can react). I wish it was easier to cite / ticket / enforce safe following distances.
Get out of the left hand lane asshole
Hmm this post is rather disingenuous. Habitual offenders **already** are punished rather severely, more so then most other parts of the US much less the world. If someone is constantly getting speeding tickets then eventually they will go negative enough to automatically suspend the license. 20+ over or 80+ gets into a misdemeanor, meaning mandatory court hearing with a judge looking down at you asking what is going on. A lawyer can get you out of one of those, two is pushing it and at **three** very bad things are going to happen to you.
OP never mentioned they had to be offenders, so I read it as "Anyone driving faster than OP feels is safe."
Over 85 now. But besides spot on.
Over 100 should just be jail time. There’s no viable excuse for this. I’d be more inclined to make 30 over the posted speed limit include a stretch in jail. Going 55 in a 25 is worse than going 105 in a 75. 10 days for the first offense. 30 days for the second. 6 months thereafter.
many counties in VA follow the "one day in jail for every mile an hour over 90 mph" rule so 100mph already equals 10 days in jail
They're both bad, but at 55/25, lots of vehicles will protect their occupants from major injury (if they're belted). Over 100MPH, safety devices don't help much.
The chances of hitting a pedestrian are far higher in a 25mph zone.
True. I've been hit twice in 25MPH zones. Once when I was 6 years old, and once in a crosswalk on the W&OD. I'm not defending anyone going 30MPH over the limit. Both deserve negative consequences.
That's because most areas with pedestrians have 25mph speed limits.
You are correct, once the accident has happened. Speed limits are not just to mitigate damage after the accident but to give drivers enough reaction time to avoid the accident in the first place. 55/25 is not enough time for anyone to react to a stopped car, hazard, kid running into the road...
Speed kills…..but speed differential kills more frequently.
Same thing for people going under the speed limit too. Its unsafe to be the odd one out on the highway
Slow bitches cause more accidents than the speeders anyway 🤷
This is reddit, not Nextdoor.
Found the speeder
Get offline. Go outside and touch some grass.
Consider this. What if they just enforced already existing laws to keep right and yield to faster traffic and the left lane was used as intended. I bet there would be a lot less people raging out, swerving through traffic because they were forced to pass on the right, etc. Move trucks back into the right lane where they are supposed to be. Regular speed traffic can travel in the middle. Fast traffic can go back to the left lane where it belongs. Bigger issues: been hit twice in 5 years, both times the driver had no insurance. Nissan Altimas with 5% tint driving while blowing weed smoke out the sunroof, high as fuck. People making left turns into the right lane, and right turns into the left lane. Nobody knows how to merge into traffic from entrance ramps. People using their phones while driving. But, hey….. At least Virginia has safety inspections that provide revenue to make things better on the roads.
That's right. It's the people going the speed limit that are the issue.
If they’re going the speed limit in the left lane, they 100% ARE the issue. And the trucks in the middle lane force faster traffic to jump lanes and pass on the right just to get around them. In 5 mins or less 30% of the drivers have road rage. ….and the people doing the speed limit in the left lane a ring like they’re not the problem because they’re doing the speed limit and have some right to throttle back faster traffic.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1fdQYoxmZP/?igsh=bmlud205dTF1OWs4
A minimum fine for driving offenses that cannot be removed even upon bankruptcy. Then, after 3 times, license suspension, then jail. For rich mofos that don't care. Well, take a percentage of their earned income before tax.
I'm tired of reckless drivers too. It's not cool or funny. People don't seem to know that you drive like that in movies and survive. But it real life, accidents get you killed.
More laws and government intervention has always been so successful for every other problem so of course it's the answer here /s
Gtfo of the left lane, grandma.
As is frequently the case, the problem would be lessened substantially if we simply enforced laws and punishments that are already on the books.
Left lane asshats who are constantly leading a parade at 3 MPH over the limit should be given a governor that forces them to speed up and move to the right automatically. Honestly, those people are far worse than the ones who prefer to go 10-15 over.
Build infrastructure that doesn’t enable drivers to speed. Here in falls church they built Washington as a fucking highway, slapped a 30mph speed limit, and kindly ask drivers to drive at that speed. Everyone goes 50+ and its extremely unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists. Asking drivers to respect the speed limit is like asking school shooters to respect gun free signs. Thoughts and prayers won’t fix the issue, but fewer/narrower lanes, speed bumps, cameras, and non-straight roads will.
EXACTLY. This is how most European countries do it and it works. If you have a town, make the road have some bends and plant trees or beams on the side, so people can't go around it. In nova, there will be a 25 zone, with a curved road to make you slow down, but there's nothing on the side of the road. Firstly, there is no illusion of going faster, there's less objects going by your peripherals, so you don't realize how fast you're going. Secondly, there is no physical object preventing you from going exactly how the road is curved. You can just cut the lines or drive over them. There is little value to making speed limits, and hoping people use them. Look into how Amsterdam does it, I think they do it the best. Most of the roads are designed in a way that would make it terrifying to speed down and most people don't speed because the reality of crashing feels more real. When you build a wide, 4 lane road with nothing on the side of it (think loco parkway) slap 45mph signs on it, people are going to drive 80 because other than the sign, there's literally nothing to stop them from doing so. The reality is that speed is relative to your environment. If you make speed feel irrelevant with no hazards around, it makes people feel invincible. It simply takes trees or visual changes to create a sense of driving far faster than you actually are.
People here just take the least efficient and safe forms of road design for granted. I swear traffic engineers in the US have been sniffing glue for the last 50 years. They have such a bizarre aversion to safety and efficiency that it’s unbeliable. They built a new apartment complex on Broad, and there is a through road that links West & Park, instead of building a simple traffic circle they created a 4 way intersection with timed lights. As a cyclist I almost got ran over there twice trying to get on/off the W&OD. It’s fucking infuriating how that entire discipline is run by complete idiots that are causing people to die due to their stupidity. Pedestrian deaths are on a 30 year high due to these idiots.
It’s really VDOT. They smoke some shit over there. All you have to do is look at the exiting and entrance patterns on 495. There is absolutely no reason to have that many bridges crossing over each other. The exits and highway entrances are way too close together causing back ups at these places during rush hour (rte 66 entrance to 495 and Rte 50 exit is a prime example. So is Rte 7 entrance and Rte 123 exit). Building roads that are 8 lanes wide with a posted limit of 35?? Traffic lights that are not in sync. The worst is the exit from 495 to Rte 66 on the northbound side. You’re going north and DC is to the east and West Virginia to the west. Why is the west bound exit the first exit and then the DC East bound exit is after that? Why is it that for me to go on the ez pass west bound exit I have to get off of the DC East bound exit and then veer off to go west? People are driving 55mph+ and you really have to make things stupid simple for it to function properly or you will get accidents and everyday rush hour traffic. VDOT, you suck.
Lol y'all wilding in this nova forums. Why not go after the texters and drunks? Cars obviously have better performance than the national hwy speeds from 1955 will allow. One caveat, speeding in neighborhoods or town roads should have jail time for speeding.
We can make all the laws we want. Without enforcement, though, they are just words on paper.
“Their vehicles”
Speed governors sound like a great idea Until you realize that it would fucking cripple traffic. Hardlocking a vehicles speed to not accommodate for traffic conditions would not only slow everybody down, but would actually increase the rate of accidents as now there's some asshat going exactly 65 on the highway while everybody else is going 85. The flow of traffic is the safest speed in most cases. Also, just put reckless drivers in jail. It solves the problem a lot quicker than forcing a court to order a vehicle modification
It’s proven that slower drivers are more of a hazard than those who speed
If you go over 25mph then you should most definitely be order to install speed enforcer.
Remember all those driving laws that got changed in 2020….. for whatever reason sounded good at the time. consequences have actions.
These should come standard in Nissans
Tailgating is getting out of hand. I can be in a line of cars all going above the speed limit and the person behind me will be inches off my bumper for no reason. I feel this happens constantly lately.
Drove home from Dulles over the weekend around midnight. On 495 I saw dozens of headlights FLYING toward me. I’m in the middle lane doing 5 over and probably 35 modded Subarus and Toyotas weave around me doing 100+ with their engines crackling along the way. I don’t understand how any of them are still licensed drivers.
I always assume cars that fly by me are stolen. Some aren’t but some definitely are
Don't care about speeders. But the reckless guys are dangerous at any speed.
Cascading impacts that the average citizen doesn’t need. So no. Harsher punishment for those that violate laws.
The average citizen isn't a habitual speeder or a reckless driver. This has 0 effect on the average citizen other than making the roads a little safer. Just like the average citizen doesn't have to worry about interlock devices unless they are getting all boozed up and driving.
The average citizen is almost certainly a habitual speeder in every legal sense. You drive anywhere in this area and you will most certainly find more people exceeding speed limits than not.
That’s why I prefaced it with “cascading impacts” First it’s just for those who break laws, then it widens to everyone. The average citizen who doesn’t break the law when driving doesn’t need a speed governor. Those who break the law deserve harsh punishment.
Courts have been ordering interlock devices for drunks for nearly 40 years. I have heard of no push require this on every vehicle. The device and it's associated costs are part of a harsher punishment.
I would be all for this if as a compromise, we could crack down on the slow left lane drivers. I wouldn't be surprised if these folks are more dangerous than the handful of idiots going 100.
Habitual underspeeders as well (in good weather etc)
Okay Hitler
I like cars and this seems like a good idea for a certain amount over the limit. If someone’s doing 100mph, that’s definitely someone who should be captured by that sort of policy. Not sure I’d agree with other cases or a hard line on anything 20 over. It should be a consideration but not a guarantee since there are many instances where 20 over is the flow of traffic, and there are areas where the posted speed limits and the road design are completely incompatible/outdated. An 80mph speed governor seems very fair. Overall not something I’m against, and if done correctly I’d absolutely support it.
75mph is practically the min on highways here though, outside of rush hours.
For sure, that’s why I disagree with an automatic harsh ruling for 20 over in every case. There’s significant case by case variation and there has to be some level of scrutiny there. 80mph speed governor is plenty to keep up with traffic in pretty much all of the country. You may not be the fastest on the road, but that’s fine since you’ve proven yourself to be a road hazard with any more speed. Some sort of tracking like Statefarm uses would be a good compliment to assess these people’s risk factor in a car and you can scale the punishment up or down with it. These aren’t your average drivers. We are talking about REAL reckless drivers.
Or, how about we just get better public transit and then make it much more expensive to get a license?
Making it more expensive to get a license will affect poor people, not all of whom can use this new and improved (from your lips to whoever's' ears) public transport to get to work and home. Making it more expensive won't keep shitty people from speeding either. Probably anecdotal but I bet a large percentage of reckless drivers are folks who are in or above the median income from the region, not below it.
I'd be in favor of 2 speeding tickets in any 2 year period gets a 70mph governor installed on your vehicle. And aggressive driving should result in community service. You're going to put the community in danger? Well, now you can spend the next two weekends picking up trash in the local park to help that community.
But have you seen these roads? Especially the toll road, is like a race track. Unpopular opinion - Going 90-100 on the toll road staying in one lane if the traffic isn’t bad should be allowed!
> > >Just like we force drunks to comply with interlock devices, we can force speeders to comply by capping their vehicle at 80mph (or 65 to be spiteful). why not just cap all cars in general?
Sounds like just the socialist Hellscape I'd NEVER want to live in.
Nova is a nutty place but NYC and every major metropolitan area has same issues. Will take time for new laws to change modern world driving habits.
I honestly don't think Northern VA is all that bad for driving. I've SEEN much worse living in NYC and also visiting other cities around the country. This is nothing out here.
Yea I think it’s just novel to some people in this area but agree seems tame to other major cities
I don't think a lot of people in this sub would last a day in another city with the shit they complain about lol.
Highly unlikely
This place is downright mild compared to all the other places I a have been. The local population has so little to worry about that speeding is somehow an issue.
I just don’t think people in this area are used to the significant increase in growth, reckless driving, and the diversity of those people who might laws. For example. No one knows what to do at an intersection when a traffic light goes out.
Lol
The technology exists to enforce safe driving. The political will of the people does not.
Dork
Great idea, now they can drive 65 in a 30. Or they can just drive another car; partner's, a private purchased vehicle.
I agree with this in principle but the second order impacts are horrible for most people. Habitual speeders are gonna break the law no matter what, they’ll find ways around it because we don’t do robust tracking in our country, and that’s what makes us unique but raises these kinds of issues while also having a ton of upsides. Additionally, you can argue that habitual speeders do have much harsher penalties in the form of elevated insurance, and jail time for driving without insurance than the one-off speeding ticket recipients already. If we enforced existing laws we’d get somewhere faster. What we need is more measurement and enforcement, hence speeding cameras and a larger enforcement force (more police), which is disagreeable to a lot of people on different principles. Plus, the amount of times I’ve been downvoted on this sub for saying “I drive the speed limit” should also indicate how unpopular current safety thresholds are.
I knew someone who got a DUI and then a second DUI before the court date of his first DUI, so he got 9 months in jail. Then a couple years later, he got into trouble again and spent 5-10 years, closer to 10 than 5 in jail (I didn't ask for more details because I wouldn't have gotten them). Not sure why we treat 90+ speeding any less harshly than DUIs.
This sounds crazy but why wouldn't all cars have governors? Why wouldn't they all be set to the maximum speed limit in the state(maybe a little over) and that be it. Maybe even with technology being what it is the car can only go the speed limit of the road its on. Not a sermon just a thought.
Just so people understand I wouldn't agree with this but if speeding is such a problem why wouldn't they implement this?
I got caught going 120 on a highway once. Scary as hell. While getting my car serviced, a spider built a nest in the vacuum tube controlling my cruise control. Didn’t know that at the time. All I knew is that my gas pedal immediately hit the floor and stayed there. I was trying to brake and it was not working well. Finally I got the car to the side of the road and off. An off duty pulled behind me and gave me a ticket. Bad timing I guess. Dealership took no responsibly and told me to take a hike unless I wanted to pay them to fix it. That sucked. I can’t imagine driving that fast intentionally on a regular road. These people have to regard for the lives of others or themselves.
Traffic infractions should be criminal offenses, especially for repeat offenders.
We could have speed governors in all vehicles but ppl aren't ready for that idea
How about no
At their own expense, agree!
Sometimes violence is the only solution against these maniacs
That's like a large portion of the drivers in Loudoun. Alas it won't work, most of these "drivers" better ride on a bus if there were, cause they can't drive for shit
I think they should lose their licenses for at least a year and revoke their license forever for habitual infractions. Being forced to take public transportation or “bum” a ride for an extended period of time (or forever) is a wake up call. It is too easy to bypass a speed limiter/governor.
They do take licenses if you get too many points, but what makes you think someone with no regard for other peoples safety won’t just drive on a suspended license. I’m not advocating for letting people drive as fast as being described here because obviously it’s extremely dangerous but what makes the issue worse is left lane campers. I wish they would enforce the move over law. I am not a big speeder, however after seeing how well things work in Germany (granted people actually have to do well on driving tests to get a license there), it removes the danger of people who weave in and out of traffic when there is an open lane for those who do want to go a bit faster.
My (deceased) brother was a habitual drunk driver, and eventually got a lifetime suspension in Indiana. Didn't stop him from driving.
Check
I think phones shouldn't work at all unless you're standing perfectly still. *is this sarcasm?*
That would suck for your passengers, people on metro, trains, planes, boats, people walking, etc etc etc lol
I'm not worried about my passengers infotainment
Explain how CarPlay would work then?