At least two states – Virginia and Illinois – are or soon will be enforcing speed limits via speed limiters attached to the cars of people who “speed.” The latter word is bracketed within air fingers quote marks to deride the arbitrary yet vicious business of framing anyone who drives above a certain speed is deserving of punishment.
For “speeding.”
Are people punished for running “too fast”? Well, why not? Isn’t it possible that a person running too fast might run into someone else and knock them down? Wouldn’t it be safer if they slowed down? You could even say that running – like “speeding” – “kills,” since it could. Hyperbole? Certainly. But hyperbole doesn’t obviate the point.
It just brings it into focus.
People are punished every day for doing nothing more than driving faster than a number on a sign says they’re allowed to – and the worst thing is many people have accepted this with insouciance as just the way it is. That’s true, of course – about it being just the way it is – but it doesn’t mean it ought to be accepted with insouciance, because it is outrageous. An affront to both common sense and justice. Because there is no justice in punishing people for something that hasn’t resulted in any harm to anyone and (in most of these cases of “speeding”) could not even plausibly be argued stood a meaningful chance of causing harm. It is doubtful even one out of 100 “tickets” – as these extortion notes are styled – are handed out for driving 100 MPH through a school zone (the usual hyperbolic argument trotted out by defenders of speed limits).
The majority of “tickets” handed out are for not crawling along at the preposterous speeds of 25, 35 or 45 MPH on secondary roads – as if it were 1920 and modern cars had Model T brakes. The 55 MPH National Maximum Speed Limit that held for 20 long years is perhaps the best (worst) example of this business of punishing people for driving faster than speed limits set so low as to assure almost every driver on the road is a “speeder.”
Perhaps the most hyperbolic – and unjust – tickets are those issued by states such as VA that define as “reckless” driving (a serious misdemeanor punishable with jail time up to a year as well as automatic loss of driving “privileges” for a year) getting caught driving faster than 80 MPH on any road and 20 MPH faster than any posted speed limit. To grasp the ridiculousness of this, consider that the legal speed limit on many VA highways is 70 and almost everyone is doing at least 75. Just a little bit faster than that is . . . “reckless.”
It’s ridiculous. But deadly serious.
How about “20 MPH” over? It sounds fast but often isn’t, really. A for-instance being roads with say a 35 MPH posted speed limit and everyone – just about – is doing 45-50. Just a little faster and it’s . . . “reckless.” 
Get two of these “reckless” driving tickets and it’s look out, as OJ used to say. They’ll take away your driving “privileges” and the insurance mafia will kick up what the government forces you to pay for harms you haven’t caused to twice or three times as much as before, which will probably make it too expensive for you to drive.
Legally, at any rate.
Well, now VA and IL – and it’s not just them – want to kick it up a notch. It’s not enough to threaten “speeders” with up to a year in jail, loss of their “privileges” and thousands in fines, lawyer fees and insurance mafia “adjustments.” The new punishment – which it goes without saying is in addition to the existing punishments – requires the convicted “speeder” to have a speed limiter installed in his vehicle.
“A qualifying offense is a conviction or order of court supervision for excessive speeding over 25 miles per hour over the limit or reckless driving,” says state Rep. Martha Deuter, who sponsored the bill (number 4948) in Illinois. 
She says this is “equitable,” by the way – because it is a way to allow the “speeders” to continue driving – just without “speeding.”
What she means is that most (75 percent, it is estimated) of the “speeders” who have their “privileges” rescinded drive anyhow – because how else are they going to get to work or shop or deal with the day-to-day necessary things that are difficult if not possible to realistically do (for many) without driving?
“In the United States, a car isn’t just a way to get around, it’s the key to economic mobility,” Deuter said. “By switching our enforcement mechanisms to be proactive rather than reactive, we’re able to build a more equitable system that holds super speeders accountable while still allowing them to go to work, visit their families and be part of their communities.”
Italics added.
And isn’t that special?
Deuter and those in her camp are being proactive – and equitable! In other words, they are being nice. In the Lords of Discipline sense.
Thank you, sir. Well, ma’am! May I have another?
Us, too – because these speed limited vehicles will become speed limit enforcers in their own way – by operating as rolling roadblocks, preventing other drivers from “speeding.” This is already happening – on the highways. Most big rigs are speed limited and that’s why you’ll often find yourself jammed up behind a pack of semis that are crawling along at just barely the speed limit. They can’t go any faster – and so neither can you.
And this is just the beginning – because (drum roll, please) pretty much every new car and most cars made since about five years ago already have speed limiters built in. They’re just not being used to limit speed. For now.
Here’s the situation:
About five years ago, the various car manufacturers – not all, but a majority – began to include what they market as speed limit assistance “technology” as standard equipment in the vehicles they make. It is increasingly part of the standard suite of “safety technology” they increasingly do not give you the choice to skip (assuming you want to buy the vehicle).
Assistance being the ground-laying for limiting. 
A little icon pops up. It looks just like the speed limit signs by the side of the road. If you’re “speeding,” the icon turns red and sometimes flashes. This is marketed as “assisting” the driver to not “speed.” The supposition being that he didn’t realize how fast he was going – as opposed to being hectored by the car about his speed. Anyhow, as this is normalized – as people get used to the hectoring – the assistance will be turned up to limiting. Understand that the gas pedal in a modern vehicle is like the gas pedal in an arcade driving game in that all you’re doing is sending input to a computer that decides to let you accelerate. The same electronically controlled capability to allow you to accelerate can also be used to prevent you from accelerating – and “speeding,” too.
This is what’s wanted, ultimately.
Doubt it?
Well, the National Traffic Safety Board has recommended the mandatory adoption of speed limiters nationwide, regardless of driving records. And what about vehicles that aren’t limited? Well, they’ll be decreed unsafe and so illegal to drive.
This is what comes of giving them an inch.
Let them define “speeding” as a punishable offense and – inevitably – “speeding” will be rendered impossible.
. . .
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If they spent HALF the time they do on “speeders” vs. people who are ACTUALLY dangerous drivers……..
Speed isn’t the problem.
It’s people doing dumb things when driving (incompetent, not paying attention, or just plain rude) Like pulling into traffic right into somebody, or pulling into traffic too slowly so everybody who has the right of way has to stomp on their brakes to not get hit. Or sitting in the left lane, or worse pacing the person in the other lane. If anything the LACK of speed is the bigger problem. The lack of awareness, or being rude and inconsiderate are FAR more problematic than someone going ten over the under posted speed “limit”.
Frankly under-posted speed limits are a much bigger problem than “speeding”.
26 over in Illinois can already get one 6 months in county jail. The deal was make 26 over carry that penalty and they would raise the speed limits. Guess what happened? They didn’t raise the speed limits. After a few years they raised the speed limits in some places. I doubt anyone goes to jail over it. Illinois and the crony traffic ticket lawyers just want money.
Anyway I started reading the bill. This has no impact on garden variety revenuing for speed in Illinois. The way Eric wrote it I started to think the greedy democrats in state government lost their minds. The version Eric has would mean they would lose revenue. But when I read as much of the bill as I could and then found another summary it turns out to be a classic Illinois government crony racket.
If a person has a suspended license for two reckless driving convictions or two convictions of more than 26 over in 12 months then they can pay a crony provider to put one of these devices in their vehicle and be allowed to drive again. Now that makes Illinois sense. The government willingly puts people they declared to be too dangerous to share the roads with back on the roads because they’ll fork over cash to the government and cronies.
https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/license-suspension-or-speed-control-lawmakers-explore-alternative-for-reckless-drivers/
“…while still ‘allowing them to go to work”. Oh, how generous and thoughtful of our beloved overlords. Thank you for “allowing” us to drive our own vehicles that we paid for, pay continual, perpetual taxes on, pay to keep maintained, so that we can go to work. Uh huh, just so that one can pay Big Brother more for the BS ticket you got in the mail, from a nanny Karen who believes that because she is miserable, so, too, should everyone else.
Illinois is ruled by progressives.They don’t want to lose a tax slave to a couple of speeding tickets for doing 81 in a 55. But also important to them is keeping the population terrorized so if they can get the reckless drivers who truly endanger people back out there the statistics will be in their favor for more micromanagement of our lives. Allowing people to drive if they just pay a crony to put devices in their vehicles is the perfect Illinois progressive solution.
This is spot on, Brent –
The obkect – as always – is not “safety.” It is punishment and compliance. As well as control and money, of course.
IL, and the US, are ruled by the jews.
To know who controls you, only examine who you cannot criticize….
The tribe just wants your shekels, goyims.
Pay up all & everything you have, and there won’t be any problems!!! LOL …
“We are the destroyers….”
(((Maurice Samuels)))
Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch, the prison walls built up around me.
Here’s a blast from the past about Shell gasolines additive Platforate, that supposedly increased performance and mpg. It’s at minute 44.33. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75M8R3s57K0.
Let’s pray, all of us, for peace on this planet.
Also notice how there’s just one commercial during a break and it’s not someone yelling at you with seizure inducing graphics.
Here’s another government enforced scam to be looking out for. Since the “affordable” party took power in Virginia, they have been taxing everything possible under the sun. Well, that great democrat utopia in California is getting ready to tax drivers there a fee per mile on top of the other auto fees. Since the “moderate”, “affordable” her highness Gov. Pantsuit and her party minions draw inspiration from their comrades in power in other states, be on the lookout for this scam.
The logical progression of this technology is that future generation cars will “narc you out” for exceeding the posted speed limits, and automatically debit your bank or credit card account.
You will probably have to “create an account” and give a valid credit or debit card number in order to drive your “own” vehicle. Johnny Cab is looking better every day. 🙂
Observes an AGW motorcycle “officer” fishing the other day. He caught one about every 5 minutes, but the remarkable phenomenon is how many motorists “got away” by hitting the brakes when they saw his motorcycle & speed gun? Do AGWs tell fish stories?
‘Virginia defines ‘reckless’ driving as driving faster than 80 MPH on any road.’ — eric
On stretches of I-10 in west Texas, the speed limit is 80 mph. The highest speed limit in the US, 85 mph, is posted on a 41-mile stretch of Texas State Highway 130 (the Pickle Parkway) southeast of Austin.
Several other states, primarily in the western US, have maximum speed limits of 80 mph, including Idaho, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. So what’s legal in vast swathes of the US is criminal anathema in the Old Dominion.
Virginia’s ridiculous 80 mph threshold for reckless driving is eastern seaboard thinking, or better to say, NoVa thinking. It imagines the entire state as a densely packed urban village like Alexandria, settled 150 years before automobiles were invented, and never designed for warp speed travel.
It’s sickening that these urban beehive creatures took over a large, diverse state and p****-whipped it into submission. A well-planned cordon sanitaire around NoVa to block food deliveries could starve them out in a trice.
NoVa should be forcibly hived off to the District of Columbia, so that it can enjoy the dubious blessing of being ruled directly by 535 anencephalic Congress Clowns.
Robert E Lee wept.
>NoVa thinking
“No va” is right.
Better than “fuego” I suppose..
Who knew VA has became bilingual?
I have thought for a few years now that the solution to the DC Statehood issue was to make DC statehood contingent on including the counties/cities of Alexandria/Arlington/Fairfax/Falls Church and the east half of Loudoun (the western part has wanted to split off for years) and maybe Prince William in VA and the counties of Montgomery and Prince Georges in MD into a new entity called “Swamplandia” or “Fedlandia” that gets its own representation but frees much of MD and VA from their oppressive diktats. It’s a win/win for everyone. Yes VA is still stuck with Richmond and MD with Baltimore but it would be more balanced hence the situation manageable.
Who says it has to be a dream? There could not be a better time.
Step 1) Make DC a state.
Step 2) Force them to secede.
I think I could get behind that.
The only problem is the Constitution. The COTUS stipulates that Washington, DC be its own separate and discrete entity. Its size, 10 square miles, is also stipulated in the COTUS, so expanding it to encompass the MD and VA suburbs of DC would be a no-go also.
Another instance where the citizens let their servants get out of control and break the law.
Every one of these traffic tickets where the fine is in excess of $20 has a right to a jury trial.
Jury trials are expensive and likely to result in the chickens#!t getting thrown out.
The whole extralegal scam works only because they are allowed to steal property without due process. Claiming driving is a privilege adds a layer of illegitimacy to the scam.
>Every one of these traffic tickets where the fine is in excess of $20 has a right to a jury trial.
Read what it says on the “payin’ paper”.
At least in CA, the ticket price is officially “bail” which is forfeit if you “fail to show” in “court”.
Maybe, Adi, I haven’t read one lately. But the last one I did read said something like that and claimed that not appearing/forfeiting bail was an admission of guilt. And when you do show in court they will claim you do not have the right to a jury trial, and usually will claim some statute as the reason.
Statute law cannot exceed powers granted to a government.
It is a very obvious racket and a well organized crime.
F*ck these gotdamn busybodies! So if you ever have to stomp on the gas to avoid being t-boned, which has happened to me several times over the years, the car will just putt along and get you killed. How wonderfully saaaaaaaafe.
I was unaware of this in illinois…but I did notice in several areas on local roads the speed limit has been decreased from 30 to 25 this year after being 30 for decades. An obvious money making scheme because the road didnt change and cars are in theory safer and more capable with better brakes
Another reason to never buy a new car or truck.
I am working on getting my old vehicle up and running, Hans. It has none of the nanny crap on it. For with the way things are going, that old girl is going to be worth gold. My newer vehicle has the speed limit sign, as well. It is a hit-or-miss as to whether it works correctly. Half the time, the sign disappears. Out in BFE, it does not register at all. The camera for that is in front of the rear view mirror. Funny how a piece of black tape makes it all disappear. I suppose doing that, one day, will brick the car. I surmise I should not give TPTB any ideas.
Morning, Shadow!
Good stuff re the rehab of the old vehicle. Would love to hear more about your project!
I’ve mentioned here before my experience with 2023 BMW X5 rental which refused to allow cruise control to set for a speed above the posted limit on the road sourced from the map database in the “infotainment” system of the vehicle. I don’t know if the “feature” was due to law or manufacturer getting ahead of the “compliance” game.
BTW, I’ve seen this story in multiple outlets this week about how Colorado has turned to mulcting via modified toll plaza technology on I24. They’re just not collecting tolls … for now.
https://www.motor1.com/news/792050/colorado-automated-speed-limit-cameras/
The Transurban toll systems on the express lanes of the Beltway, the “Fred Ex”, and I-77 running north from Charlotte in the direction of The Woods can do the same thing. Of course, for now, since those toll systems benefit private interests, specifically Canadian and Australian pension funds, Transurban *wants* you to use the lanes.
Just another reason to dislike that neighboring state. Here in Kansas the highway patrol reminds people there are minimum speeds on our highways and driving too slow can present a traffic hazard.
https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/what-is-the-danger-with-driving-too-slowly-on-the-highway-in-kansas/
When freedom is outlawed only outlaw’s will be free .
Underrated comment. In fact only outlaws are ever free.
Mommy Deuter and Mommy Spanberger and going to smack your pee-pee for driving too fast, little boy. And they are not going to let you have a gun because you’ll shoot your eye out with that.
“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.”
Isaiah 3:12
Why women CANNOT have power! This is the inevitable result, because women seek safety and security above and beyond everything else.
Who is Jim Dalton Bell?
Freedom of movement is a big part of being free. In the Plaque that started in 2020 the first thing they did was to tell you not to go anywhere while all the so called elites boarded private planes and did whatever they wanted.
Today it’s so called speeding tomorrow they’ll be going after you for thinking you can visit your Aunt Rose without permission.
You would think people would of developed a backbone after all those lock downs but only time will tell.
For a good Spanbergering, VA should adopt the Finnland method of ticketing speeders. Speed limiters are not good for increasing revenue.
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/06/in-finland-speeding-tickets-are-linked-to-your-income/
To think, my ancestors took up arms against the British empire for the Tax and Intolerable Acts. How much shit will we put up with?