Nevada Politician Pitches $25 Passes To Let You Speed
from the budget-crunch dept
Via Slashdot, we find the story of Nevada gubernatorial candidate, Eugene "Gino" DiSimone, who is proposing a somewhat different idea for raising some extra money for the state: offering special "speeding" passes for $25 per day, which would let you drive up to 90 mph on designated highways. He claims it would raise $1 billion per year, which... seems extreme. If my math is correct (and it may not be), that means 40 million uses of this pass, meaning over 100,000 people using it every day. And those would have to be people who not only want to speed, but also figure $25 is worth it balanced against the likelihood of getting pulled over while just traveling 90 on your own. And it will only be allowed for vehicles that pass a special inspection and get a special transponder installed -- further limiting the number of folks who can use it.Also, nowhere are the "costs" of such a program discussed. Not only will there be these extra inspections, the transponders will cost money, and there's technology infrastructure as well, including the ability to read the transponders, manage the database, set up the call-in system that will let people purchase the day pass, etc. The police are against the idea because they say it'll create more accidents, which some might argue isn't proven fact, but it probably does make their lives more complicated as well. Seems like this is more of an attempt to get some attention (oops, it worked) rather than any sort of serious proposal.
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Filed Under: eugene disimone, nevada, politics, speeding
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Dictionary Edit:
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Liability
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The context of what he said was to indicate that the 'excessive' (unreasonable, unneccessary) speed is STATE-SANCTIONED at that point...
Thus the question is raised on whether or not the State - having authorized and sanctioned these ridiculous speeds - would be liable for any portion of the responsibility, insurance, otherwise...were a horrible accident (caused by unreasonable speeds) to occur.
His question is completely logical and valid. Flawlessly valid.
If you could not see this yourself, you have no business taking part in this discussion.
Get out.
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; P
I only know the speed limit / accident rate because I did a detailed report for school (once upon a time, long long ago).
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Looking at the report CLEARLY reveals that there is a NIGHT AND DAY difference between speeds where fatalities are concerned.
What else could matter if not fatalities? That IS the whole point... To avoid killing someone. Nothing else really matters.
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Perhaps you need to learn how to read then, friend. He didn't claim otherwise.
What else could matter if not fatalities? That IS the whole point... To avoid killing someone. Nothing else really matters.
If the possibility of getting killed is all that matters to you then I suggest that you never get in a car. People have been killed in cars that weren't even moving.
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I'm hoping this is sarcasm because anyone with eyes can see there were more fatalities under 55MPH than those caused at "excessive" speeds.
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That's actually the bigger issue with this proposal. Why are the police allowed to stop me and give me a ticket if I'm speeding? The justification is that speeding endangers not only myself but other people. So either the state is willing to allow me to recklessly endanger other people in order to raise money, or the state has just destroyed it's rationale for enforcing speeding laws.
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Re: Liability
Can you sue the state because there was an accident and you think they set the limit too high?
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Sheer stupidity
First of all, I've lived in Nevada. Las Vegas to be exact. There's no way this would raise money in Vegas. The simple matter is that there's not enough ROAD to effectively speed through. If you're trying to get from Eastern to Sahara west of the Strip, then it just takes 5-10 minutes. The saying is that it takes about 30 minutes to get everywhere in the city. That's especially true.
Bear in mind, there's also a lot of stop and go traffic which pretty much impedes on this. Quite frankly, the only time this would really be used is with Californicators coming in from LA or a further city.
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Re: Sheer stupidity
Just got back from there yesterday and couldn't agree more. Driving through Vegas is the perfect task for those with scenery ADD.
Look, Desert! Ah, Lights! WTF, mountains? AAAAHHH, desert again!
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Re: Sheer stupidity
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Extremely bad in two ways:
2) Promotes acceptance of on-vehicle transponders, as adopted by the privileged for a status symbol. That leads to existing plan for transponders on all vehicles, and charges by the mile -- with private corporations owning the roads, end of freedom to travel.
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Cool, a license to break the law!
How about $50 to be able to ignore impaired driving laws?
maybe $100 to ignore drug laws. $500 might get you a free pass to ignore break and enter, or theft. $5000 to ignore the murder laws? Whay not, it's all money in the governments coffers.
this idiot should not be allowed to hold any position of responsibility, anywhere.
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Yes, we need this.
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Re: Yes, we need this.
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special transponder installed
No thanks, ill wait until it becomes mandatory, and then refuse to have one.
Nuts on the road I take to work already do 80, and ive been in packs that blow by state troopers at 75. No need here in Western PA.
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Things sure have changed in Nevada, a state that not too many years ago had virtually no speed limits on its highways outside of suburban areas.
Then I used to feel I was poking along if my speedometer dropped out of the 3 digits range.
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Terrible Idea
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I get what you mean, but on a freeway, there is no pulling out. There are on ramps and off ramps leading onto and off of the far right lane where traffic is usually slowest. I do agree that two speed limits on the same freeway would be chaos. They'd have to do what an earlier commenter suggested and have a designated lane for "speeding."
On a tangent, I've always thought speed limits were ridiculous and arbitrary. Why should a Ferrari being driven by a professional driver be constrained to the same speed as a 60 foot RV driven by a 90 year old geriatric? That's the basis of my argument the next time I get pulled over for speeding. That and appealing to his vanity in that the government puts officers in their positions and gives them the power to determine what's safe and what's not. Hopefully it will come across better in person than it looks in writing. And hopefully I won't need to use it anytime soon.
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Yeah cops usually love the "the law shouldn't apply to me" argument. Good luck with that one. FYI professional race car drivers get speeding tickets all the time.
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Exactly never. Your space and proportion sense is so off if you do this, you should give up driving.
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Nevada?
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Re: Nevada?
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Proof
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[http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20100905/NEWS/100909776/1070&ParentProfile=1058], which outlines his other ideas, pretty much paints him (depending on your viewpoint) as the local teabagger candidate. I wouldn't read too much into it.
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NHP sets their radar 15mph above posted speed limit. I know this because I asked a NHP patrol officer while at south command HQ during a service call (service tech for Xerox).
this proposal is for areas way outside city limits on some of the most desolate roads in the state.
think Silver State Classic.. a race along at 93 mile stretch of road where depending on class you can go as fast as you want... Yee HaWwwww..
this clown is only proposing something that everyone does now just to generate revenue.. heck going up to the whore houses north west of vegas would take less then the normal 2 hours to get some nookie for all those tourists that want to go get laid and back to the tables faster. and No prostitution is NOT legal in Las Vegas or clark county.
heck little known fact - the "strip" is not actually in las vegas.. that short three odd miles of land going up thru the center of town is actually Clark County, which means metro PD has zero jurisdiction.. thats sheriff territory and they will NOT step one foot on casino property unless called in by hotel security...
/stepping off soap box
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Huh?
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I can see the writing on the wall. When someone gets killed by someone who was speeding after getting one of these passes, the lawyers will be stacked up through the roof suing these politicians like crazy.
"It was your fault my spouse got killed, you said he could speed for $25. Think of the children, I need to feed them and put them through college"
Remember when Domino's pizza (I think it was) guaranteed that they could get their order to you in like 30 min or less and one of their delivery drivers ended up getting into an accident because of that. That program got shut down in a hurry after the lawyers got through with it.
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This proposal is like officially recognizing that speeding isn't dangerous and tickets are just driving tax.
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Next: Lower Limits
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I live in Australia though.
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Yeah right
No the police are against it because a $25 pass is less than the $100+ ticket they would give to speeders. (Or am I just a bit too cynical?)
But I think ultimately I would be against it myself. As others have said the first time someone is injured/killed by a driver that had one of these passes lawyers would descend on that state like a flock of flesh eating crows. I just think that giving these passes is too risky.
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On most highways, the difference in speed between vehicles is generally +/-5km/h around the specified limit. By allowing some cars to optionally travel up to 25 miles, or 40km/h, faster, you suddenly have a situation where you'll either have cars rapidly and unexpectedly approaching from behind and either slamming on their breaks to avoid hitting you, or whizzing around. That does not create a safe driving environment.
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Hell I go 100 on my way out to Vegas as it is.
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special transponder installed
No thanks, ill wait until it becomes mandatory, and then refuse to have one.
Nuts on the road I take to work already do 80, and ive been in packs that blow by state troopers at 75. No need here in Western PA.
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For all the nay sayers
Free Limit Plan: demystified!
http://ginoforgovernor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=84:f ree-limit-plan-demystified&catid=34:press-releases&Itemid=55
2) If you had spend some time you would have found that the National Highway data supports the Free Limit Plan:
http://ginoforgovernor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86:national -highway-data-supports-free-limit-plan&catid=34:press-releases&Itemid=55
3) Cost structures go down based on a VOLUNTEER usage of the Free Limit Plan!
http://ginoforgovernor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Item id=29
Please know your facts before nay saying a credible and brilliant plan for Nevada.
Thank you
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