I don't know how new these tickets really are. It's the first time I've had one.
I also don't know how many states are part of this reciprocal ticketing deal.
But I like it.
Talladega Co., AL, after driving for miles and miles in one of those "Work Zones" where the only sign of work is the sign that says it is a work zone, speed limit 55, I gave up and slipped the speed back to 75 mph. (This kind of construction zone creates dangers for workers wherever they might actually be present, a different rant for a different time.)
Miles later, I get popped for 75 in a 55. Where I'm clocked, I still haven't passed a single sign of work being done. Not even someone leaning on a shovel. But I get popped.
Cop's a state man. Professional. Polite. Suspect he will agree with my rant on zones like this if he ever sees it. But he says 20 over is too fast to give me a break. Then he very carefully makes sure I understand the law has a break built in I might be able to take advantage of.
Here's the deal, and it's pretty universal as near as I can tell:
If this is your first moving violation in over 3 years,
Get permission from the judge, that information comes with your official court date notification, to take a state approved traffic ticket class. Your state, you don't have to go back to the scene of the crime.
The class must be 4 hours and meet a few other requirements. Cost about $40 here.
Ship the diploma off to the applicable court along with your fine.
The ticket never shows up on public records. Your insurance company will not know.
Your insurance company will not know. Where was that option when I was 16 or even 25? If I could have saved just the difference in insurance premiums from those years, I could have retired at 45.
Whoever came up with this, wherever you are, my wallet thanks you, my mortgage company thanks you (but Ditech's second mortgage dept may not like you), and I thank you.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
A Good Time Was Had By All
I spent the July 7-8 weekend with the Peachtree chapter of the BMW Car Club of America (BMWCCA) at Road Atlanta..
Kiddies, I gotta tell you I haven’t had as good a time by myself since I was teenager.
I don’t think I can tell you about it without some show and tell. Here’s a youtube video lapping the track.
You can also follow along on the track map.
If you can stand it, I’ll talk us through a lap. My experience and description may vary from what you see for two reasons. I think this driver is far more experienced than I am and I had a lot more horsepower. More HP is not necessarily a good thing.
The video starts at the Start/Finish line on the front straight. By the time you get to the end of the straight and turn one, you had better have the basic lesson down pat. Break, Turn in, Apex, Go.
If you survive turn 1, get back towards the center of the road for turn 2. Two is almost a giveaway at the speeds I could get. You better do it right because of three.
Oh three, I don’t know how to tell you but the map has to be just plain wrong. Has to be. Check it out at 0:27 into the video. If 3 isn’t nearly a 90 degree right hander, I’ll, I’ll, I don’t know what but I’m not going to give this up. Way too much fun.
Back towards the center of the road for turn 4. The hard part of 4 is getting there at the right place after 3. Hope you do because it is the set-up for the Esses.
Not a clue why but the Esses are the part I do best. Run hard coming out of 4, drive them as a straightaway, brake a bit into the last Ess to set up for 5.
Five, left at good speed and keep turning left after the turn is over to get ready for 6. (Oh yeah, and to get out of the way of those who did 5 better or have even more speed.)
Six and Seven look identical on the map. Not a chance. Six has banking, 7 is flat. It makes a ton of difference.
After 7 is the back straight. Check the video starting about 1:15 into it. Ignore turns 8 and 9. At my kind of speeds, they’re not worth mentioning.
This is the part of the track where I learned the most about myself. My car, a BMW 550i, will do 130 mph and more down the straight. I can’t make myself drop over the edge of the hill, 1:40 into the video, at more than 130 and 120 is far more comfortable. That’s even knowing I can come to a complete stop before the turn if I want.
That’s turn 10A at the bottom of the hill. Take it a bit slower than flat out so you can hit 10B optimally. Gotta do B right so you can get up the hill on the gas and into 11.
Oh 11, Anybody else have a gut check moment or three with a blind drop into an off camber high-speed turn? You can see how blind it is at about 1:55 in the video.
How drop away is it? That little shack on the left is a flag person building and pit road is right there. But you can’t see the lane even that close to it.
Down the hill accelerating. Get so far left you’re in the paint stripes for the runoff (2:01 in the vid) before turning even more to the right for
Turn 12. Turn into the apex, hit the gas and go, go, go past the start/finish and under the Pirelli bridge as fast as you can for the front straight and another lap.
I’m sure others with more or less horsepower and more (there can’t be many with less) driving skill had a different view of the track. I’d love to read your experiences. Please comment with a link.
A final thought. If you’ve got a kid who thinks they’re a hot shoe, enroll them in a course like this at a track near you. They may come away still thinking they’re F1 material but now they’ll know how little they really do know. It will make them safer even if it doesn’t slow them down.
Kiddies, I gotta tell you I haven’t had as good a time by myself since I was teenager.
I don’t think I can tell you about it without some show and tell. Here’s a youtube video lapping the track.
You can also follow along on the track map.
If you can stand it, I’ll talk us through a lap. My experience and description may vary from what you see for two reasons. I think this driver is far more experienced than I am and I had a lot more horsepower. More HP is not necessarily a good thing.
The video starts at the Start/Finish line on the front straight. By the time you get to the end of the straight and turn one, you had better have the basic lesson down pat. Break, Turn in, Apex, Go.
If you survive turn 1, get back towards the center of the road for turn 2. Two is almost a giveaway at the speeds I could get. You better do it right because of three.
Oh three, I don’t know how to tell you but the map has to be just plain wrong. Has to be. Check it out at 0:27 into the video. If 3 isn’t nearly a 90 degree right hander, I’ll, I’ll, I don’t know what but I’m not going to give this up. Way too much fun.
Back towards the center of the road for turn 4. The hard part of 4 is getting there at the right place after 3. Hope you do because it is the set-up for the Esses.
Not a clue why but the Esses are the part I do best. Run hard coming out of 4, drive them as a straightaway, brake a bit into the last Ess to set up for 5.
Five, left at good speed and keep turning left after the turn is over to get ready for 6. (Oh yeah, and to get out of the way of those who did 5 better or have even more speed.)
Six and Seven look identical on the map. Not a chance. Six has banking, 7 is flat. It makes a ton of difference.
After 7 is the back straight. Check the video starting about 1:15 into it. Ignore turns 8 and 9. At my kind of speeds, they’re not worth mentioning.
This is the part of the track where I learned the most about myself. My car, a BMW 550i, will do 130 mph and more down the straight. I can’t make myself drop over the edge of the hill, 1:40 into the video, at more than 130 and 120 is far more comfortable. That’s even knowing I can come to a complete stop before the turn if I want.
That’s turn 10A at the bottom of the hill. Take it a bit slower than flat out so you can hit 10B optimally. Gotta do B right so you can get up the hill on the gas and into 11.
Oh 11, Anybody else have a gut check moment or three with a blind drop into an off camber high-speed turn? You can see how blind it is at about 1:55 in the video.
How drop away is it? That little shack on the left is a flag person building and pit road is right there. But you can’t see the lane even that close to it.
Down the hill accelerating. Get so far left you’re in the paint stripes for the runoff (2:01 in the vid) before turning even more to the right for
Turn 12. Turn into the apex, hit the gas and go, go, go past the start/finish and under the Pirelli bridge as fast as you can for the front straight and another lap.
I’m sure others with more or less horsepower and more (there can’t be many with less) driving skill had a different view of the track. I’d love to read your experiences. Please comment with a link.
A final thought. If you’ve got a kid who thinks they’re a hot shoe, enroll them in a course like this at a track near you. They may come away still thinking they’re F1 material but now they’ll know how little they really do know. It will make them safer even if it doesn’t slow them down.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Life: the Origins
According to the best estimates available today, Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago.
Not long after that, in universal time scales, a big something slammed into earth heating things up. Really heating things up. The temperature was about 10,000 K(elvin) or about 17,500 F. This collision gave us the moon.
Earth melted. Then it cooled. Most evidence of pre-strike earth was destroyed.
Skip forward a second in galactic time. It is now a mere 3.2, maybe 3.7 billions years ago. Maybe a billion and a half years after the big crash. Here we find the first signs of life on earth.
Ignoring any biblical explanations for life, that seems to leave us here:
A) Life is easy to start. It sprang (back?) up immediately after earth was massively rearranged.
B) Life came from elsewhere shortly after the collision.
C) Estimates of when life began on earth put it way too far back.
D) The moon theory is wrong.
The moon formation theory has withstood 25 years of assault. D doesn't seem likely.
Life beginning has also withstood much testing. C doesn't seem likely either.
That means we're left with A or B and I think B implies A.
Not long after that, in universal time scales, a big something slammed into earth heating things up. Really heating things up. The temperature was about 10,000 K(elvin) or about 17,500 F. This collision gave us the moon.
Earth melted. Then it cooled. Most evidence of pre-strike earth was destroyed.
Skip forward a second in galactic time. It is now a mere 3.2, maybe 3.7 billions years ago. Maybe a billion and a half years after the big crash. Here we find the first signs of life on earth.
Ignoring any biblical explanations for life, that seems to leave us here:
A) Life is easy to start. It sprang (back?) up immediately after earth was massively rearranged.
B) Life came from elsewhere shortly after the collision.
C) Estimates of when life began on earth put it way too far back.
D) The moon theory is wrong.
The moon formation theory has withstood 25 years of assault. D doesn't seem likely.
Life beginning has also withstood much testing. C doesn't seem likely either.
That means we're left with A or B and I think B implies A.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Virginia’s Unconstitutional Traffic Fines
Virginia has instituted a new set of confiscatory traffic fines. For a change, they have admitted these fines are taxes, even writing it into the law with "The purpose of the civil remedial fees imposed in this section is to generate revenue." They didn’t have to tell us that when they imposed fines of up to $3000 immediately and annual taxes on the points connected to the fine of up to $700 a year. That’s $700 for every year the points stay in the driver’s record. Some points are stuck to your record for as long as 11 years.
Leave it to lawyers to argue the constitutionality of taxing this way. Hope the Legislature and State Bar seriously question the ethics of a traffic court lawyer introducing this bill.
Be sure your traffic lawyer knows there is a very good chance this law, as it applies to speeding, violates state responsibility to provide for the welfare of its citizens. That is, it is probably unconstitutional.
“What,” you ask. “It reduces speeding and everybody knows speed kills.”
Well, in a sense speed kills. Hitting a tree at 100 mph is more likely to kill you than the same accident at 50 mph.
Realistically, too much speed kills. Too little speed causes accidents. The clearest way to see that is with the International Road Traffic and Accident database (IRTAD). Compare the land of unlimited speed, Germany, with the USA.
*2004 figure. 2006 not available.
The federal government, and one would hope people who make their living defending traffic cases, have been aware of this effect since a 1992 report titled Effects of Raising and Lowering Speed Limits, DOT Report No. FHWA-RD-92-084
Virginia may argue this is a tax law, not a speed limit law. How they might do that eludes me since doing so indicates lying. No lawyer or legislature can deny with any credibility knowledge of the words de facto.
There is no intelligent argument that the fines imposed by this law are not a de facto speed law and, therefore, an unconstitutional endangerment to the citizens.
Leave it to lawyers to argue the constitutionality of taxing this way. Hope the Legislature and State Bar seriously question the ethics of a traffic court lawyer introducing this bill.
Be sure your traffic lawyer knows there is a very good chance this law, as it applies to speeding, violates state responsibility to provide for the welfare of its citizens. That is, it is probably unconstitutional.
“What,” you ask. “It reduces speeding and everybody knows speed kills.”
Well, in a sense speed kills. Hitting a tree at 100 mph is more likely to kill you than the same accident at 50 mph.
Realistically, too much speed kills. Too little speed causes accidents. The clearest way to see that is with the International Road Traffic and Accident database (IRTAD). Compare the land of unlimited speed, Germany, with the USA.
| 2006 Numbers | Total-deaths | Injury-accidents-per-100,000-population | Deaths-per-billion-km |
| Germany | 6.5 | 408 | 7.8 |
| USA | 14.7 | 647* | 9.4 |
*2004 figure. 2006 not available.
The federal government, and one would hope people who make their living defending traffic cases, have been aware of this effect since a 1992 report titled Effects of Raising and Lowering Speed Limits, DOT Report No. FHWA-RD-92-084
Virginia may argue this is a tax law, not a speed limit law. How they might do that eludes me since doing so indicates lying. No lawyer or legislature can deny with any credibility knowledge of the words de facto.
There is no intelligent argument that the fines imposed by this law are not a de facto speed law and, therefore, an unconstitutional endangerment to the citizens.
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