VA Speeding Fines increasing...

[Luke]

I really do feel The Great Hate II is upon us.

I'm with Evan. Rj routinely bitches about the inconsiderate nature of others but then defends cyclists who are doing the same? Bollocks!

I dont mind cyclists jumping over sidewalks and hooning around at all, as long as they dont moan when they get knocked off occasionally. I dont mean aim for them but its similar to horses on the road, the weaker link in the food chain must understand where they fit. Without the mean old car roads would cease to function without taxation going through the roof.

[Apoc]

We don't have horses on the road 'round these parts.

[Luke]

We don't have horses on the road 'round these parts.

You dont have roads in the truest sense of the word but hey, let's not split hairs :wink:

[CaptainHenreh]

We don't have horses on the road 'round these parts.

You dont have roads in the truest sense of the word but hey, let's not split hairs :wink:

Well, we *have* had a shortage of cobblestones for quite some time....

[Luke]

We don't have horses on the road 'round these parts.

You dont have roads in the truest sense of the word but hey, let's not split hairs :wink:

Well, we *have* had a shortage of cobblestones for quite some time....

As well as cambers, double apexes, tightening radius's and the best invention of all time 'macro textured' road surfaces on single track roads with accident blackspots 8)

[Feersty]

Well they didn't the revenue they expected from these fees, maybe because people around here are driving safer? Actually they are thinking of getting rid of them all together.

[CaptainHenreh]

Well they didn't the revenue they expected from these fees, maybe because people around here are driving safer? Actually they are thinking of getting rid of them all together.

Those fines had nothing to do with driving safer, Feersty.

[Feersty]

Well they didn't the revenue they expected from these fees, maybe because people around here are driving safer? Actually they are thinking of getting rid of them all together.

Those fines had nothing to do with driving safer, Feersty.

What makes you so sure? I know I have, I am sure .RJ is since he got burned. When I say safer, I mean driving less time in a gross excess of the speed limit.

[CaptainHenreh]

Well they didn't the revenue they expected from these fees, maybe because people around here are driving safer? Actually they are thinking of getting rid of them all together.

Those fines had nothing to do with driving safer, Feersty.

What makes you so sure? I know I have, I am sure .RJ is since he got burned. When I say safer, I mean driving less time in a gross excess of the speed limit.

Well, I'll break down my logic.

Had these fines *actually* made VA safer...there'd be no talk of repealing them. They'd change the law to add out of staters, set up a special commission to collect from those out of staters, and then not fund it. So we'd have the same thing we do now, except it would stand up to a constitutional chalenge.

You follow me? If there were even the most remote possibility that the statistics would support that the fines did anything more than piss people the fuck off, they'd be kept.

I won't get into the "slow is safe" argument. Because sometimes it is and sometimes it ain't.

[Andy]

I don't know Rex. I'm there with you in terms of not trusting our gov't to give up cash cows, but how do you account for the lack of revenues from these fines? Maybe folks aren't speeding as often or cops are being more judicious with their traffic stops. On my end of things, I've noticed that 66 is a lot slower than it use to be but the traffic stops are just as frequent so from what I've seen, I would have to think that folks are slowing down.

[Ginger]

People may be driving slower - it's probably not safer all the time, though, as Rex said.

People respond to incentives, so it wouldn't surprise me to find out that people are going slower. But Police and Judges are people, too, and I doubt any of them want masses of hugely angry citizens (doing things like challenging the constitutionality of their local justices 'cooperation') on their hands. It's probably two sided...

BUT, if they're justifying removal of the fines because they didn't generate the expected revenue - that's bull. They're considering repeal because of the outcry over disproportionate punishments and because the fines won't stand up to the constitution.

[Mike]

Random data point: I'm very conscious of staying below 80 nowadays. Does that make me any safer? hrug: I feel perfectly safe up to about 90 with slower traffic around me and I'm quite certain that at 90mph, I'm in more control than any SUV at 75, but that is neither here nor there...

[Jess]

I don't know Rex. I'm there with you in terms of not trusting our gov't to give up cash cows, but how do you account for the lack of revenues from these fines? Maybe folks aren't speeding as often or cops are being more judicious with their traffic stops.

Nope. Don't forget it's not just speeding- its DUI, driving with a suspended/revoked OL, etc. I find that most of my clients fall under the DUI/suspended OL category, and guess what? The state is not getting a dime of the fees from them. Why? Because you can't get blood from a turnip.

Most likely their license was suspended for failure to pay court fines/costs. They still don't have the money to get their license reinstated, but they continue to drive and rack up the convictions and fees. Further, of the reckless tickets I do see, sometimes the judge will reduce it to 10-14 over the limit to get around the fees. But from what I see day in and day out in Roanoke City traffic court, the number of cases has not dropped because of the new fees. It just makes my job harder...and puts my clients deeper in debt. :roll:

[Andy]

I was more talking about revenue generation.

[Jeff]

I was watching "Speeders" on TruTV last night. They rode with a VA cop and explained the new fines because they stopped a Virginian doing enough over the limit to get the fines, but dropped it to a lower speed to avoid them. I would guess cops don't want to be dicks to people so more often then not they are dropping the speeds down if the person is not too far over. The cop on the show even said he thought they were kinda crazy.

[CaptainHenreh]

I don't know Rex. I'm there with you in terms of not trusting our gov't to give up cash cows, but how do you account for the lack of revenues from these fines? Maybe folks aren't speeding as often or cops are being more judicious with their traffic stops. On my end of things, I've noticed that 66 is a lot slower than it use to be but the traffic stops are just as frequent so from what I've seen, I would have to think that folks are slowing down.

You've got the same argument as Feersty, and it doesnt' hold up. I never said it wasn't an effective speeding deterrent. I *said* that the roads aren't any safer. If you can prove to me that this slowdown you see on 66 has reduced accidents or somehow made us more "safe" then I'll concede. (My wager is that there are more accidents from people driving too damn slow, but I digress).

So saying "Well, the fines slowed everyone down" is not the same thing as "The fines made everyone safer." Because I maintain, were there any proof that the fines made anyone safer, there would be no talk about eliminating them.

[Steve85]

This is from another forum, while discussing intake manifold choices.

IMHO I believe its a very good option for street driven 350-383 engines. I could not care less about top speed or performance on the strip as those are not something usable here. Drag racing is not popular (or considered a sport by 99% of people) and top speed can be a bit expensive. We have no upper limit on the speeding tickets, my largest one this far is $2000 and just a few months ago my friend was fined $15600 for driving 106mph at 75 zone. The record is $731000 one guy was fined couple of years ago after speeding inside city limits with his Lambo.

hock:

After a few questions about how the fines are calculated...

The fine is not all about the speed, its mostly about your income. Well, speed is taken like this: 1-10mph speeding, fine only like 200 bucks, over that they will look at your income and then you will start to suffer. 16mph or more speeding and your family will suffer too We have a progressive tax system so more you make more you pay. In the speeding issue this means they try to make fines hurt everybody as much. So, they check what your net income is and calculate the fine according to that. If your income is massive, your fine will be equally massive.

If I remember it correctly the lambo was only doing like 38mph at 18mph limit zone. That is like 100% over the limit which is considered bad even if there was no real danger.

Its been 15 years since I was fined so I knock on wood and hope not to get a serious fine (16+mph speeding) any time soon. It would really hurt

[WRXtranceformed]

As much as I hate to say it, and even though I'm not living in VA anymore, those fines definitely made me very conscious about going over 80mph as well and more conscious about sticking closer to the speed limit in most areas. I'm with Mike though; has this made me a safer driver? Not really. So I'm going 5mph less than what I was before. I also don't speed recklessly or do crazy stuff in traffic. What they SHOULD have done is police aggressive driving more and make the fines huge for that kind of driving.

[Evan]

if you read it on the internet, it must be true!


(where is a 18mph speed zone in VA? or even a 75 for that matter)

[Ginger]

He's trying to illustrate a point... I don't think you missed that by accident, though.

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