Speeding in Virginia

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by B.A.D., Aug 4, 2014.

  1. B.A.D.

    B.A.D. Club Coordinator

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  2. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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    Just drove though there yesterday. I'm lucky they didn't send me to Supermax.
     
  3. Friskie

    Friskie Well-Known Member

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    He mentioned how annoyed he became after hearing the inmates talk about nothing but what put them in jail in the first place. That's kinda how I began to feel and about where I quit reading. He got the point across too soon. Besides, how many times was he told. Learning curve?
     
  4. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    Should have been running a Valentine V1.

    Don't tell me they are illegal in Virginia I know, but so is speeding.:ihih:
     
  5. vetsvette

    vetsvette MINI Alliance Ambassador

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    Poor guy. Let me be the first Virginian to apologize for his igno.... I mean inconvenience. He's lucky he didn't stuff that Camaro up the a$$ of one of the big John Deers that frequent the curvy rural roads in VA.
     
  6. Belhaven

    Belhaven Active Member

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    My "lesson" in VA was much less expensive - 81 in a 70 was $250 for the lawyer (who negotiated the offense down to Faulty Equipment) and $250 for the fine (which is based on what you were originally charged with - NOT what you eventually were convicted of or pled guilty to)
     
  7. vetsvette

    vetsvette MINI Alliance Ambassador

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    Last November I was on the way to the cemetery for my Mom's graveside ceremony. I wasn't paying attention when I transitioned from 55 zone to 45. Trooper pulled me for 62 in a 45. I explained where I was going and I was late and fessed up that I was indeed at fault for not paying attention. He cut me some slack and wrote me up for disobeying a traffic sign instead of a speeding ticket. He said "this way it is only a $30 fine". I told him thanks and went on my way.
    A week later when I payed the ticket online the total cost for the $30 ticket was $190 and change after including court cost and other misc charges.
    There ain't no such thing as a cheap ticket any more. Just cheaper.
     
  8. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    Or, you could NOT drive 90 in a 55.....

    Some of those comments seems to indicate that people think it's OK to speed as long as you don't get caught. Interesting point of view.....

    I know a lot of MINI owners/drivers don't seem to think the laws apply to them either.

    I bought a classic, it's pretty hard to exceed the speed limit anywhere in it! :biggrin5:

    Not that it won't do it - it will - but it's so loud and uncomfortable that lower speeds are just a whole lot more pleasant - the perfect speed control. Lol.
     
  9. DneprDave

    DneprDave Well-Known Member
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    It is OK to "speed"! Bad laws are bad laws and I will not follow them.

    Most speed limits are set with no regard for scientific traffic safety studies. Governments just shoot from the hip when setting speed limits, they are more concerned with revenue than safe, efficient movement of traffic.

    I have a radar detector and will soon be getting a laser shifter. I also fight every ticket I receive and beat most of them.

    A great ticket fighting resource is the National Motorists Association, National Motorists Association Website

    The NMA also lobbies the government to change poorly thought out traffic laws and are responsible for the repeal of the 55 mph national speed limit. I think that every automobile enthusiast should be a member of the NMA and support their work.

    Dave
     
  10. Crashton

    Crashton Club Coordinator

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    :yesnod:
     
  11. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    I was pulled in Virginia for doing 91 in a 70 when I did not have my V1.
    Ok truth be told I was racing a Mustang on 81 south heading down to the Dragon and I was passing him on the right going up a hill on a wide open highway.

    We blew right threw a speed trap and I pulled over as soon as I saw him turn his lights on. (The Mustang kept going)
    Since I had my FOP information and was not an a55hole he wrote me up for 75 in a 70. :Thumbsup:

    The Mustang ran and was picked off at well over 100 and arrested about 5 miles down the road. :lol:

    FYI the whole country is not 55 MPH anymore most states allow 70 MPH.
     
  12. mrntd

    mrntd Well-Known Member
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    I have found over the last couple us day that people drive quite fast in VA. Haven't seen nearly as many caps as we have in OH
     
  13. Dave.0

    Dave.0 Helix & RMW Powered
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    Yup but it all depends on where you are in VA. Be very carefully if you are on 81 North or South within 20 of Roanoke.
     
  14. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    I thought a great deal about what you wrote, and I have to say I'm surprised at what you said - and I think you need to rethink your statement. While I would agree that not every speed limit is set according to the best scientific principals and engineering studies, (what community could afford to do that for every single speed limit ?) I find most of them to pretty well match prevailing local conditions of traffic flow, sightlines and weather conditions. Yes, a Ferrari 458 Italia could traverse the same road safely at much higher rates of speed, but so what? 99.99999% of drivers are not that skilled nor do they drive 458's! Nor does that take into account the effect of one or more cars traveling the same roads at much greater speeds. So why have speed limits at all? Everyone should drive as fast as they like and woe betide the driver who gets in their way? Is that it?

    I also find your attitude disturbing - selfish and shortsighted, not just because you would espouse civil disobedience in a public forum, but that it seems more and more to be the prevailing attitude amongst all drivers - stop signs are more of a suggestion than a rule, right turn on red after stop? a memory - now you just drive thru and don't even bother to check to see if someone (who is moving with the light and has the right of way) is coming and might be affected by your sudden appearance in their lane. It's the same with speed rules, especially in urban areas, they seem to be a joke to many drivers these days. Courtesy on the road? Piffle! "I'm on my way and you all better move" seems to be the new way.

    So if you're not going to follow speed rules, are the rest of the rules of the road out the window too? Are we all to merely move out of your way and allow you to pass thru? Is that how it works?

    Traffic laws are enacted to allow orderly and safe travel for all motorists, and when a few drivers think the rules don't apply to them, the system quickly breaks down and there is chaos on the roads - the best examples I can show of this are all those Russian dash cam vids - that's what you're supporting with your comments. By your logic, 55 in a school zone must be OK too?

    I'm not suggesting that everyone is perfect - I'm certainly not - tho I generally do follow speed limits and I always try to signal my turns - I do not run red lights or stop signs and I try to make the roads safe for all drivers, not just me, while getting to my destination quickly too. I save my fast driving for track events.

    But to come onto a forum and suggest that it's OK to ignore all speed limit signs (and by extension all the other rules of the road) is wrong - IMHO. I'll ask you to reconsider your position.

    It's not about you - it's about all of us.
     
  15. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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    MA - saving the world, one Internet at a time :)
     
  16. DneprDave

    DneprDave Well-Known Member
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    It seems that you really didn't give much thought to what I wrote or really understand what I had to say. Instead you interpreted my statement to an almost comical extreme. Hyperbole is not the way to have a civil discussion.

    I commented only on unfair and stupid speed limits, not rules of the road.

    Engineering studies have shown that the safest speed limit is the speed at which 85% of free flowing traffic moves on any particular road, this is not an expensive thing to calculate. Instead, governments set speed limits so as to maximize revenue from fines, with no regard to safety. Studies have also shown that unrealistically low speed limits encourage an unsafe differential in the speed at which traffic is flowing. Setting speed limits at the 85th percentile helps by raising speed limits to a reasonable rate and makes roads safer to travel.

    Espousing civil disobedience in a public forum is the American way, it is one way we Americans have changed unfair laws since the days of the county's founding fathers.

    I am all about safety and the efficient movement of traffic, but bad laws are bad laws and I will continue to ignore them, fight them in court and through the National Motorists Association.

    Dave

     
  17. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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  18. ScottinBend

    ScottinBend Space Cowboy
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    You can speed all you want, you just have to be able to afford it. I am familiar with your part of the country dnepr and can say that there are indeed studies that are done to set speed limits. Do you have to agree with those decisions......no. But you do have to pay for those decisions.
     
  19. DneprDave

    DneprDave Well-Known Member
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    I've had two speeding tickets in the last ten years, I beat one of them in court. It doesn't cost me much to stick by my principles.

    Dave
     
  20. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    I'm trying to understand what principal it is your trying to stick to.....that civil disobedience is OK, no matter what the venue, or only that civil disobedience of speed laws is OK?

    My problem with your ideal is, where does it stop? How much is OK? How far can you break the law and consider yourself as sticking to your principals?

    Is 20 over OK, 30? where do you draw the line? Or is there a line to be drawn?
    Do you only speed on highways, or is it OK to speed in a school zone, as I asked before? You say I took your statement to comical proportions, that's only because it is comical, that you can pick and choose when and where you break the law and it's OK to do so...and how do you know where the "bad law" lies? Have YOU done engineering studies to justify your position that the law is wrong, or are you just winging it? Because unless you have, your justification of your behavior is just as wrong as the guy's postion who imposed the speed rule, isn't it? You can't hold others to a standard that you won't uphold yourself.

    And if ignoring speed limits is OK because YOU believe them to not be accurate for the road your driving, what other laws are OK to be broken too?

    It's a slippery slope you're on, and your position is indefensible, IMHO.

    And I also am trying to have a simple respectful discussion here, I'm not name calling or anything else....simply asking you to clarify and justify what you wrote....but I don't think you can other than to say that it's what you do and what you're going to do.......it sounds like self indulgence hiding behind a mask of principal to me.
     

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