America is a country that loves framing things a certain way. You weren’t a patriot if you didn’t support the Patriot Act. It was named that – rather than “Bill 1554” – for exactly that reason. Just as other pieces of legislation are named rather than titled. Like Florida’s new “Super Speeder” law, which just went into effect.
This law frames anyone who drives faster than 100 MPH on any road as a “super speeder” – in other words, a very bad person. Such persons are now subject to immediate arrest rather than just a “ticket” (the bland term for the lawful extortion it is) as well as up to 30 days in jail, as if the person were a criminal. Of course, some people confuse criminality with having been found guilty of something; specifically, of having affronted a law. It does not occur to the people who think this way that it was once a “crime” in the sense of having affronted the law to shelter a slave who ran away from his massa. They also do not consider that there were all kinds of laws on the books in Soviet Russia, East Germany and so on that could get you locked up that had nothing to do with your having done anything morally wrong.
Is it immoral to drive faster than the speed limit?
Why?
If it is, why does practically everyone “speed”? If it is immoral to speed, then it seems almost everyone is immoral. Including, it must be said, the cops who enforce the speed limit. This is silly, of course and everyone knows it. Including the cops. The whole thing is a kind of kabuki theater in which we pretend to believe that driving faster than the speed limit is wrong – when trying to get out of a speeding ticket, that is – while the cop who hands us the speeding ticket pretends what he’s doing is right.
This “super speeder” thing takes it to a new level. The speed limit on most Florida highways is currently 70 MPH. The traffic typically flows much faster than that – as is typically the case on all American highways because the posted speed limits are generally ridiculous for the roads as well as the times, as expressed by the capabilities of the cars (which greatly compensates for the inability of many drivers).
It bears repeating here that the American Interstate system was modeled on the German Autobahn system, which was designed to allow safe travel speeds well over 100 MPH. Most American highways had posted speed limits of 70-75 MPH back in the 1960s – when most cars had four wheel drum brakes and bias-ply tires on 14 inch wheels. Presumably, it was “safe” (because it was legal) to drive those cars 70-75 MPH.
Then – in the early-mid 1970s – the federal government used the excuse of an “energy crisis” created by its own actions to impose a 55 MPH National Maximum Speed Limit law (NMSL) that initially was sold as way to “save energy” that very quickly transitioned into an enforcement regime justified as a “safety” measure. For nearly 20 years, driving at what had been legal speeds became not just “speeding but in some cases verged on “reckless” driving subject to roadside arrest and jail time. Virginia – where I live – has a statute on the books that says anyone who drives faster than 20 MPH over the speed limit on any road is presumptively guilty of “reckless” driving. Thus, doing 75 MPH on a Virginia highway with a 55 MPH limit could get you arrested and jailed, never mind that the legal speed limit on that same highway had previously been 70-75.
You can still get arrested for driving 80 MPH – statutory “reckless driving” – on a Virginia highway with a speed limit of 70 and almost everyone driving at least 75.
Is 100 “too fast”? According to whom? Why, the government of course. According to what standard? Why, the government’s arbitrary standards – which is fundamentally what this is all about. The 55 MPH NMSL was arbitrary. So were the previous 70-75 MPH speed limits. The arbitrariness is proved by the fact that they are (generally) once again 70-75 MPH. The government almost literally just pulls a number out of its hat.
The only speed law that wasn’t entirely arbitrary was the “reasonable and prudent” speed limit that Montana once had – until it was forced to change its law to suit federal arbitrariness via the threatened withholding of federal highway funds (the funds being the ones already extracted from the taxpayers of the state and then doled back to them, with lots of strings attached to them).
Of course, “reasonable and prudent” is also arbitrary. Just in a different way. It is arbitrary in the sense that there are people who think it unreasonable to drive any faster than whatever speed they deem to be prudent. But the Montana standard was less arbitrary in the sense that it at least gave cops the discretion to leave people in peace even if they were driving faster than some people thought they ought to be allowed to. Of course, this still left it up to the cop. But – even so – there was no arbitrary number, per se. You simply got a fine for driving faster than the cop/court decided was “reasonable” and “prudent.”
Florida – like Virginia – declares that certain arbitrarily-decided-upon speeds are “super” and “reckless.” Never mind that in both cases the speeds are not much faster than traffic normally flows, even if the speed limit is considerably lower. And never mind that the “speed” didn’t “kill” (or even cause damage) to anyone.
You will still be “pulled over.”
The reason why is simple and it is not Because Safety. It is because revenue. Arbitrary speed limits create offenders of almost every driver and each of them is a potentially paying customer. Millions of dollars are mulcted in this manner. And we’re all obliged to play the kabuki of pretending we think it’s wrong to “speed” (when we’re trying to talk our way out of a ticket) while the cop pretends he’s right ticketing – and now possibly arresting you – for super “speeding.”
. . .
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You’d expect a tyrannical law like this to be passed in Calimexistan, not Florida. What the fuck is going on down there??
I just got back from and extended stay in Europe. I know lots of people here like to think everything is worse there, it really isn’t. Some things are worse, some are WAY better.
Most people still know how to drive in most of Europe. Manual transmissions are a THING still, and automatics are nowhere near as common.
The speed limit on highways is 130kph–> 80mph because adults who can control modern vehicles even in an manual econobox can maintain 80mph easily. MOST drivers are moving somewhere around 140-160kph so closer to the forbidden “super speeder” 100mph for sustained distances, not just bursts. Because again, they drive pretty well comparatively speaking.
Lastly, I drove 6 hours from Croatia to Milan Italy crossing 3 national borders. I saw FIVE police cars TOTAL in that time. There are NO police cruising up and down the highways looking to harass people.
Here back in DC? Drive from DC to NYC for instance and in that 4 hours you will see a minimum of 20+ police cars in that short distance.
This is a police state we live in, don’t fall for that propaganda “freest country on Earth” puh-leez. Not even close… Yes UK / Britain is also cooked and a total police state but anywhere south or east of Germany is a time machine back to about 1985 in the US in many ways including demographically.
So if one were to be targeted by the cops at >100 mph, facing arrest and jail time, would the driver be confronted with the choice to try to outrun the cop to avoid the penalty?
It is Florida, so I’m betting some take the bet.
The fastest I ever went.
I was a bike mechanic at Reading Cycles in Stoneham MA when the Yamaha VMax first came out in 1983? I set up one of the first to arrive and took it out on Rt 128, a 3 lane divided highway, traffic was very light and I had some open road and quickly got the speedometer to 150:). In all honesty we must subtract the up to 7% speedometer error that was common then and I had to easily be over 140. I knew at the time I’d be retelling that story the rest of my life. Glad it handled better then a Kawi triple or Suzuki TL:)
In 1972, Nevada had no Speed Limit. I drove my Porsche from the the City Limit of Reno to the City Limit of Las Vegas (ca. 430 miles) in 4 Hours 35 Minutes – obeying all Town Limits (+5MPH) and including the long stretch of 70MPH from Las Vegas to the Test Site.
Formerly best stretch of Amargosa valley now features a cluttered up convenience store intersection.
Christmas eve 2020 at 2 am was a flashback to 72. . . X2.
Take that “bad guy” label & wear it with pride.
We all know who the girls swoon for.
‘back in the 1960s … most cars had four wheel drum brakes and bias-ply tires on 14 inch wheels.’ — eric
True as far as it goes, but there’s more. The pillow-soft, ‘jet-smooth’ ride of Detroit land yachts in the days of Camelot included massive slop in the front suspension and steering. It was totally normal to be obliged to saw the wheel back and forth a half turn every couple of seconds, just to keep the wallowing, drifting hunk of Detroit iron approximately in its lane.
Nobody seemed to think this was dangerous. A preacher friend of my dad’s bragged about driving his 1960 Chevy Impala — equipped exactly as described by Eric — at 95 mph on rural two-lane highways in east Texas. I shudder in horror: Jesus take the wheel!
The first time I drove a girlfriend’s Honda Accord was a revelation. Its steering was taut and precise; not a millimeter of slop. Once you’ve experienced a properly designed and engineered car, you can’t go back to mid-century mediocre. They are great for destruction derbies, though! 🙂
I’ve driven nothing better on the interstates than my ’76 Delta 88. The wife hated driving it so we got a GTI. Loved that, too…for different reasons.
Alignment is also WAY better than it used to be. Thank you, lasers!
I always enjoy and generally agree with your libertarian opinion. Thank you.
In libtard Massachusetts, especially the high people of color, immigrant, high government dependency, no education, no functioning neocortex for impulse control, no American values, non English or ebonic rap speaking, low IQ, high drug use, oil leaking ground scraping loud shat box cars pumping thumping house shaking violent music at 3am on the streets the cops don’t even bother pretending to try and inhibit any of it. Police sirens run all ‘day’ long in Massachusetts starting at morning shift change screaming to warn people to move their cars and writing tickets in front of the street sweeper while the rest stare at their phones or computer screens in their SUVs ‘manning’ construction details. Any cop who does interfere with any of the above will be immediately and statistically branded a racist because it’s the above demographic destroying any normal quality of life with their antisocial bullshat. We already see being brown is a get out of jail free all over Europe. The cops will only arrest you and me if we step out of line. Take you income, wealth, pension, social security, home equity, all of it, out of libtard states.
Wish there was an edit button for spelling and other mistakes:)
While driving, or doing anything else for that matter, it is wise to never attract the attention of law enforcers. They has no restraint on their behavior, so best policy is to comply with everything, keep under their radar, and hope when you do get ‘pulled over’ the one doing to pulling will respect your right to not answer questions and to refuse to consent to searches…and let you go without violating you…too much.
You can be absolutely right and still dead or arrested, so you’re on target about picking your battles. Is the speed limit law the liberty hill you want to die on? It’s a fine aspect to pick at, little battles often have an outsized impact in the outcome. It cuts both ways. Seemingly routine requests for compliance slowly moving the totalitarian needle but so do little acts of defiance illustrate the nakedness of the emperor.
Anyway, I tend to be a low profile driver, drive the speed limit, signal, etc. By the book as they say. I drive an old truck that was fine with 100 HP when most cars also did. So trying to exceed 75 is a fool’s errand anyway. The average base car can do half the 0-to-60 of my old truck even when it was new and the top speed is not 75. It was built and geared when 100 HP and 55 MPH where the norm and that’s what it does comfortably. I cruise at about 65 MPH but MPG drops off the cliff above this. In 5th gear with 30″ tires and 4.10 axles I’m at 3500 RPM and even that is tough to hold with any incline or headwind.
So I get pulled over occasionally for going too slow. It’s also a manual transmission. I got pulled over for only having one hand on the wheel and it took a few minutes for the obtuse young cop to put two-and-two together that in traffic it’s very difficult to drive at 10-and-2 when you’re throwing a stick shift around. I bet I’d blow his mind trying to explain why the steering wheel on my old Land Cruiser is the size of a trash can lid (hint, it does not have power steering).
Florida is a law and order state which sounds great dealing with thieves and burglars until you realize a bunch of old northeasterners retired down there and are going to be stricter on all kinds of things eventually. By Chicago, people doing 100+ is pretty common when there is no traffic on some roads. I 90 for example was recently redone and is super wide and flat for a good stretch after you pass farther out than Ohare. 120 Mph is totally safe and having been on the autobahn, it is a far superior and roomier road than what they have at least by Munich in Germany. So one in theory would have no trouble doing 150+ on that stretch of I90 if there was no traffic or people stayed to the right like Germany.
This only works if your prior driving experience is not a camel or goat, you understand the local language, and your brain isn’t numbed on weed or destroyed by crack. That leaves to many Massachusetts drivers incapable of participating on public access roads like yours above.
lol true I 90 is often chaotic because of that, but its nothing compared to the madness that is the free highways inbound south of Chicago. I made the mistake of returning home from Michigan at about 9-10PM Saturday night on an old slow by modern standards motorcycle. Everything you mention was there plus vehicles that fall apart or leave parts on the road, people weaving in and out cutting you off or lane changing into you driving you into the shoulder, possible shootings and a good number of cars with no plates so if they hit you, they’re gone. Sketchy even in a full size SUV
The key to the autobahn is that everyone understands how to use them. The driver might be fine at 120 and parts of the highway may, too. One thing overlooked is the autobahn’s curves are banked to allow a car to navigate around them at speed, which Interstates aren’t necessarily. Anyway, even if all that was true the other 99% of people randomly switching lanes or entering/exiting are gonna mess things up real bad.
Republicans currently control all three branches of state government in Florida, and the current seat of the party’s power lies in The Villages, a massive retirement development spanning three counties … and growing.
FS720 enables a lot of fascist HOAs in Florida, with residents of The Villages among the most militant.
I read an article once that talked @ horsepower needed to attain certain speeds. I remember it saying a motorcycle only needs 30-something horsepower to get to 50 mph or so. The reqd horsepower per mph curve displayed in the article was parabolic. 100mph needed about 60HP or so. I personally can attest to this with my Harley Dyna: It probably has about 60HP or so and top speed is just about 110.
So if we equate fuel consumption with HP, then all things being equal will be less fuel consumed. Your point of being told to slow down via speed limit reduction still stands and is still valid.
For a short while, when I was younger, I believed the govt was interested in saving fuel. How silly of me back then! Exhibit A against this are the car pool lanes: With 3 lanes of stopped traffic (e.g. 0mpg) and 2% using the carpool lane at 30+mpg. The mask finally came off when the state adopted the toll lanes.
The newer “open road” tolling/mulcting systems are much less effective at velocities above 100 MPH, and Florida has plans for aggressive expansion of their Turnpike network.
Eliminating speed limits AND speedometers while enforcing Keep Right Except to Pass would eliminate 90% of the problems on American highways. But, as you say, it’s all about the Benjamins. Left Lane Bandits (h/t Brock Yates) and center lane dawdlers create most of the problems. Throw in the cell phone/texters and you have an absolute mess.
However, Eric, you assert that traffic in Florida flows above the 70mph posted speed limit. This is the case about half the time. The other half of the time you’re stop-and-go for mile after mile. And, you should see some of the Lambos racing through Orlando. More than once I’ve encountered a pair dueling it out in the middle of town on I-4.
And, where do guys learn to steer their 3/4 & 1-ton pickups with their wrist dangling over the top of the steering wheel while on the phone?
Amen, Mark!
I would end speed limits as enforceable things. Instead, they ought to be advisories, like “curve ahead” signs. The only thing that ought to be an enforceable thing is when a driver loses control, causes damage. That is prima facie evidence he was driving too fast for conditions, the capabilities of his vehicle or his own abilities. Absent loss of control, all we have is conjecture that the driver was driving “too fast.” And that’s nothing more than a matter of opinion, not fact.
Left Lane Bandits (h/t Brock Yates) and center lane dawdlers create most of the problems. Throw in the cell phone/texters and you have an absolute mess. – Mark
Those problem drivers would naturally go away if they understood that someone might be coming up behind them at a speed that would make it impossible for them to react in time. There’s no time to check your messages if you have to constantly watch your six.
Hit send too soon…
And if the normal situation was that fast cars were allowed to go fast, it would probably scare a fair number of people onto public transportation too.
I am that guy, I am constantly texting and web surfing on my phone.
Why am I such a scofflaw? I live in the middle of nowhere with minimal traffic and grossly under posted speed limits. Since I’m resigned to the fact that someday I’m going to have to fight it out with the communist enforcers, I avoid interactions with them and one of the easiest ways is to observe the posted speed limits. If it’s 55 on a rural 2 lane blacktop, I drive no more than 62. If it’s 60, the limit is about 66/67. At these speeds I spend a couple hours a day creeping along in places where I could easily and safely be doing 90-100, I keep myself awake by reading web sites, listening to/lightly watching you tube videos, or doing texts and calls.
The law is an ass.
My point, Ernie, is that people are doing this crap on their phone while being oblivious to the hundreds and thousands of others around them. Not giving a damn about lane usage and courtesy all the while. The wrist over the steering wheel is the topper. How can you react to an emergency with such poor control of the wheel?
As my wife has said for many years, “just don’t be the fastest guy our there”.
And, yes, the law is an ass.