Earlier this month, some Georgia college students made a videotech project entitled "A Meditation on the Speed Limit 55." (http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/0303metfilm.html) Basically, as an act of "civil obediance," they got 4 cars to drive 4 abreast across I285 with cruise control set to 55. Their point was to demonstrate that obeying the law can be much more dangerous than disobeying it, and that driving the speed limit greatly impedes traffic flow. Not surprisingly, they pissed off a whole bunch of drivers and caused a huge traffic jam. Georgia cops said as long as they weren't impeding emergency vehicles, they weren't doing anything illegal. Are there any Virginia laws that would stop someone from doing something like this on, say, the Beltway?

Wow, very interesting.

Something like that on 66 or 495 might just piss off enough high-level government officials to at least talk about how stupid the law is.

Google video link to their actual project: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5366552067462745475

It's like when you're fucked up and going home with friends smoking ganja in the car and all paranoid. "No don't go the speed limit that's too obvious go 4 over at least". hahaha.

mmm... seriously, if someone starts organizing doing something like this on 495, im in.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Seriously, I would love to do this too. It would certainly spur some discussion.

I was wondering about the legality of this in Virginia and came across:

§ 46.2-842.1. Drivers to give way to certain overtaking vehicles on divided highways.

It shall be unlawful to fail to give way to overtaking traffic when driving a motor vehicle to the left and abreast of another motor vehicle on a divided highway. On audible or light signal, the driver of the overtaken vehicle shall move to the right to allow the overtaking vehicle to pass as soon as the overtaken vehicle can safely do so. A violation of this section shall not be construed as negligence per se in any civil action.

(1989, c. 708, § 46.1-211.1.)

Can somebody please interpret this law and tell me how it pertains to this sort of situation? Must we give up the left lane only if someone flashes their lights or honks their horn? Why does it say "certain overtaking vehicles?" What if we went as 2 rows of four cars abreast; the four "trailing" cars would directly follow the four "lead" cars with the trailing cars recieving all the "audible or light signal(s)."

Most importantly, if we get arrested, who is willing to take this case pro bono and argue it well?

A quick look at the arrest list reveals only 25 matches for "FAIL/YIELD TO CERTAIN OVERTAK VEH." Extremely low considering the offense "MURDER" returns 23 matches.

well... what if you are in a traffic jam, like ones that happen on 66 all the time, and you start horning and flashing your lights? would you have to let the person behind pass then? heh... ill be honking and flashing my lights at cops all the time. :P

i mean, logically, if you are unable or is illegal to go faster (going the limit or in a traffic jam) do you REALLY have to let someone pass? i mean, if to be taken literally, traffic can most certainly become far more fun now. :)

i think my "audible signal" will be "out of my fucking way, grandma!"

alternatively, leave the left lane open and have a camera and a radar gun and video record every speeder and turn them all into the cops. that would be one huge-ass mob of angry people. :)


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2006 03:17AM by Gravis.

Cary, that is what I remembered as well. What I remember from the VDOT driver's manual is that you must move over and let overtaking vehicles pass if you are driving on a divided highway. The only exception being if you are laready in the right-most lane. But I have actually had assholes on Braddock ride my ass in the right-hand lane and flash lights when the left lane was clear.

And in a traffic jam, there are no overtaking vehicles so they can flash lights all you want.

I think the way to perform this stunt in Virginia is to just drive in a line of cars in the right-most lane at 55. It will still clog things, especially at the exit ramps. And it will cause people to get pissed and hop out of the right-hand lane, causing some collisions which will back up the rest of the lanes I guess. Not that it's the 55-drivers fault but that may be a consequence of obeying the speed laws on the beltway.

I get behind people doing this on the parkway ... 45 mph side by side. I don't think they're organized about it or anything, but I call it a "polish roadblock".

To fuel your legal discussion ... Virginia's traffic code was mostly written in 1950 and has a couple contradictions in it

46.2-1060 - Illegal sirens, whistles, etc.; unlawful use of warning devices; exceptions. - Reads (in part) It shall further be unlawful for any person at any time to use a horn otherwise than as a reasonable warning or to make any unnecessary or unreasonably loud or harsh sound by means of a horn or other warning device.

46.2-2034 - When dimming head lights required - Reads (in part) - Whenever the driver of any motor vehicle approaches from the rear and follows within 200 feet of another vehicle proceeding in the same direction, the driver shall use the low beam of the vehicle's head lights or shall dim the head lights if the vehicle has single beam headlights.

So there you go, if you want to overtake a vehicle you can honk or flash your lights at it, but if your honking is deemed unreasonable or you flash your high beams (as most people do rather than flick the lights on and off) you could also get a ticket. Wonder who the cops would go after?

I don't think it's necessarily the speed limit that causes problems, but not being able to pass. That's why everyone was pissed off...they couldn't get around them because they were making a concerted effort to block all the travel lanes. Even if they were going 60 or 65 mph or even 70 mph I bet you the result would've been the same.

Plus, even if you bumped the speed limit up a couple of notches, you're still going to have some people driving slow as fuck anyway.

That was a POINTLESS stunt!!! they are upset that the speed limit is too slow, so they block all the lanes traveling granny style. Whatever!!! What they need to do is make the far left lane 65 or 70 as a posted minimum, that way you keep the granny's out of the way and the speedy's at bay.


L8

"Me... me... me... no... no... like Reiker's island", or the FCPD for that matter!!! Everyone should just move to Montana where there is no speed limit during the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

inkahootZ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That was a POINTLESS stunt!!! they are upset that
> the speed limit is too slow, so they block all the
> lanes traveling granny style. Whatever!!! What
> they need to do is make the far left lane 65 or 70
> as a posted minimum, that way you keep the
> granny's out of the way and the speedy's at bay.

In Virginia, speed limit +/- 15 mph is reckless driving, so the law already is supposed to remedy people driving both 70 and 40 in a 50 mph zone but we all know that doesn't happen. So minimums already exist, they just don't do any good sometimes.

I believe its +/- 20 mph for reckless for VA. -§

it's +20 in VA for reckless. BUT 80 is always reckless, regardless of the speed limit. So in one instance 15 over is reckless.

Cool, thanks for the correction.

55 is not reckless in a 35, it has to be atleast 60 to only base it on speed. That is the only exception to the 20mph rule however, you could be doing 36 in a 35 and could still be written for reckless in some cases

well, anyway, here's a nice rundown of allt he sections of our fine reckless driving laws:


http://www.vatrafficlaw.com/reckless.html

Montana only had no speed limit (actual speed had to be "reasonable and prudent") during the day for like four years in the late nineties... Those wonderful times are gone, but haulin' ass by a cop on a straight-away across the plains at 110 with no other cars in sight will always remain... priceless.

§ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I believe its +/- 20 mph for reckless for VA. -§

Hah! 20/20 hindsight pwnage for me. About 4 years ago, I had a traffic cop give me a reckless driving ticket because I was, according to him, "nearly 15 miles over the speed limit! That's reckless drivin', son." He then ate some chewing tobacco, walked to his police car and covered his face with Famous Dave's rib sauce and came back asking if they kept the livestock 'round these parts.

Okay, so he only did the first part. Still, worth it to know the laws.

((((((((((((

curious Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Their point was to demonstrate that obeying the
> law can be much more dangerous than disobeying it,
> and that driving the speed limit greatly impedes
> traffic flow.


They devised a very poor way of making such a demonstration, in that freeway driving necessarily requires varying one's speed -- even when using cruise control, which ordinarily requires regular braking and/or acceleration, unless one is driving at a time or in a place where there is little or no traffic.

For even a single car to drive at a fixed, unchanging speed - much less four such cars, driving abreast - merely demonstrates that driving at a *fixed, unchanging speed* can be dangerous, not that driving at a 55mph speed limit is inherently dangerous.

Nor is the proposition that "obeying the law can be much more dangerous than disobeying it" proved by the test. Because traffic laws impose speed *limits*, not fixed rates of speed, it is idiotic to "test" the safety of a particular speed limit by driving at a fixed rate of speed. Speed limits, whether set 55 or 85, impose no such requirement.

Because the experimental concept was fundamentally flawed, the actual experiment was, naturally, also a failure.

That said,

1) The interested reader may refer to Google for better-designed tests of the relation between highway speed and safety, and

2) the best part of this thread was its evocative title, whose promise, alas, was not kept by the thread's content.

Virginia law clearly states to love to the right. Penalty: death.