It’s the same or higher here in the US based on my personal experience.
If you’re out there, need to be in a car and for whatever reason find it hard to keep the car at 20mph - do what I do and use the speed limiter function (if you have one). Works a charm.
With or without the tech aid though, there’s no excuse.
Exactly why we need LTNs etc. Existing restrictions don’t work!
I believe it 100%.
I started riding with a Garmin bike radar and installed an app that tells me exactly how fast a car is going when it passes, and the majority are over the speed limit.
Just the other day, in a 60 km/h zone, I clocked two cars going 125 km/h.
If I thought for a second that police would charge these drivers using photo/video evidence, I’d fork over the $500 to get the radar with a camera built-in and report each and every speeding driver that passes me.
In Denmark we have the lovely new law that if you drive more than 100% over the speed limit and over 100 kmh or drive over 200 kmh at all or drunk driving with over 2‰ they confiscate the car and you are not getting it back at all. They confiscate the car regadles of who owns the car (with very few exceptions) and that is also if it is leased. So far since when the law started they have confiscated over 2000 cars in two years. It’s my favourite law of all laws right now. The fine for driving crazy is also nicely proportional to your income and it removes the car so the person cannot just drive without license afterwards.
I can’t get behind property seizure without compensation, but I can understand everything else.
Even if they said “you can’t have this car any more, but can sell it from our facility” that’d be better I think
Normally me neither, bit in this context where you are driving so recklessly you are endangering everyone else and we are talking over double the speed limit I’ll allow it. Noone has any rights left when you are doing that kind of stuff deliberately.
In effect, is it really that different to a fine? It seems to have a couple of advantages, though: it’s easier to collect, and it’s proportional, so a person who can afford a fancy luxury car pays more than someone in an old banger, without the complexity of having to evaluate their income and savings.
@GBU_28 play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Driving a car is not a right. Especially in Denmark where public transport is an perfectly viable alternative for most of the population.
@GBU_28 @TDCN this is basically an income adjusted fine for breaking the law in egregious ways. Are you also opposed to fines for other bad behavior?
I also appreciate that it gets more people thinking about ways to move without a car. that is more doable in Denmark then in the US, but cars are dangerous, and if you put other at risk so casually I have little sympathy.
@GBU_28 @TDCN Think of the car as a “dual use” item - i.e. you can use it as transport or to (potentially) get other people injured or killed.
The law aims at the second (mis)use. Even though I’m a car-loving German I really second that part of the Danish law and I honestly wish we would have something similar.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 I think you mean blood/alcohol level of .2% - at 2% you would be long dead. And .2% is not driving drunk, that’s driving practically passed out. To be that drunk a 50kg dude would need to have 7 drinks in an hour. That person needs detox, not a car.
https://www.healthline.com/health/alcohol/blood-alcohol-level-chart
@Z_Zed_Zed @TDCN @Showroom7561 2‰ = 0.2%. The per-thousand sign isn’t used often in informal English, but if someone took the effort to select the character, they probably meant it. 🙂
@TDCN @Showroom7561 During my holiday in DK I already noticed speeding is not really a thing.
It is already super expensive for a normal speeding ticket so yes people are really careful. Still people speed everywhere it’s just only a little over
@TDCN @Showroom7561 the best law ever, and soooo sweet that this sucker got his new car confiscated: https://www.nrk.no/rogaland/shakhwan-ameen-ble-tatt-i-fartskontroll-i-danmark-_-far-ikke-tilbake-sin-splitter-nye-lamborghini-1.16446941
@TDCN @Showroom7561 What would happen to Carsharing Organisations? Forcing them to drop these customers would be fine but confiscating their cars would be a very bad idea IMO.
They probably have to go after the person who lost the car for compensation.
I’m in a car sharing co-op in Germany and if I loose the vehicle because of recklessness I’d need to pay up for that.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 Sounds like a good idea indeed. Only one remark: what if the car is shared by 2 persons?
@alternative_be @TDCN @Showroom7561 then it’s gone for both, I guess, as it’s even confiscated from car sharing companies.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 it’s very nice as an idea, but I doubt it’s constitutional, I fear that a good lawyer would be able to get back your car. You would need the money to hire a good lawyer though.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 So if it is leased, do they sell the car and pay off the lease? Or do you have to pay for insurance that covers the lease holder if this happens? I guarantee you the banks that finance leases are not just eating that.
Here in the USA it is almost routine for the drunk who finally causes a fatal accident to have six DUIs, a .15 BAC, and a revoked license at the time of the mishap.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 Personally, I think banning.someone from driving hurts them harder than loosing a vehicle, as one can’t just get a new driving license - the loophole that allowed one to just make a new license in another EU member state has been closed for those barred from (re)issue of a license.
Trust me they are still banned from driving for a year or more if this law triggeres
@TDCN @Showroom7561 I really like this law in principle, but without *free* rehab, or really any other drug recovery assistance, and without a good social safety net, it does inordinately punish poor people. Yes, if the person is a rich asshole, 300% take *all* their cars. But sometimes the person is poor and using alcohol to just feel less shitty about their life and need the car to be able to have a job. Not that that’s good, but it *is* a reason to not take their car…
@neonregent @TDCN @Showroom7561 It’s Denmark. Country with functional public transport system. Country, where you really don’t need to own a car to have a job…
@TDCN @Showroom7561 oooh! what happens in case of theft? Is it still confiscated from the owner?
@TDCN @Showroom7561 I’ll be honest I think it’s an an odd stance to take to say confiscation is wrong. The 100 kmh limit is about 60 mph, to be over 100% that means the limit is 30 mph. This limit is normally through a town, village or urban area. So if someone drives at 60 mph down the high street, that’s not just a “little bit of speeding”, that’s completely reckless
@TDCN @Showroom7561 it obviously shouldn’t be proportional to your income, it should be set to the actual negative externality cost. this is a failure to understand basic economics. If we can save more statistical lives with the money from the tax then the statistical expected loss, then we want these people speeding and paying for it.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 onfeel they should drop the driving to 50% over the speed limit … Very generous with 100%
Hugz & xXx
@melissabeartrix @TDCN @Showroom7561
Counterpoint: some roads switch between 70km/h or 80km/h and 40km/h based on time of day; so you’re on a road engineered for 70-80km/h, there are no children anywhere because school won’t be out for another half an hour, but it’s already 75% or 100% over the speed limit if you mistake the time
@TDCN @Showroom7561 In my hometown its kind of a hobby to rent fancy sports cars for the weekend and this is as stupid as it sounds. I would love this law for Germany as well.
@TDCN Sounds interesting. Does the law work - in the sense that it deters people from driving recklessly, or is it too early to tell?
I just tried looking uh up and it’s still too early to say. Of course the car lobby ar criticising the law and asking why they are not year concluding anything yet but to be fair it has just been covid and 2 years is just so short to see any impact to the statistics. In my own opinion I think it must work. It’s a specific type of people who drive wreklessly and often in groups of “cool guys”. If you start to remove cars from those groups they will be more hesitant to lend each other cars. If they get impacted the story will carry more impact than a massive fine. A car is very a physical object and is more visible than a debt. If a dad find his son drove wreklessly and got the car confiscated it wil be a stronger lesson for both the father and the son. I can be unfair but we have tried fines for so long and it has not worked. We already have the some of the biggest fines for traffic violations in the world.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 it’s a pity they don’t have the same law for cyclists 😂 they’re everywhere in Denmark. I was dodging them more than cars to be fair 🙈
@TDCN @Showroom7561 do you know why they put the 100kmh limit on? Driving double the limit in an urban area is more likely to kill someone than a deserted rural road.
If you have a 20kmh zone it sounds unreasonable to get your car taken if you drive only 40 kmh. 40 is still quite slow
@TDCN @Showroom7561 :ablobaww:
@TDCN sounds great and would definitely be useful in #australia where there is continual news of unlicensed or habitually reckless drivers causing havoc. Maybe making owners responsible would start a shift in society where parents and friends need to their own role in this continuing drama.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 Impossible in Germany 😄 But it sounds very good - and easy to understand
@TDCN @Showroom7561
Two examples from Australian states:
https://www.police.vic.gov.au/hoon-laws
https://www.police.wa.gov.au/Traffic/Cameras/Speed/Hoon-driving
Just a few days ago the news carries pictures of a vintage Holden muscle car being crushed because the owner had been driving at 250 Kph in a 110 Kph zone.
Yes! More of this. ESPECIALLY taking BMWs and Mercedes away from rich douchenozzles.
We need this in the US so badly.
A Norwegian rich man went to Germany and bought a brand new supercar for millions and got stoped for driving 228 kmh on the highway in Denmark on the way home so the confiscated his car and he didn’t get it back. Fucking love that story. Article below but in Norwegian. Thanks to @atlefren@snabelen.no for the link https://www.nrk.no/rogaland/shakhwan-ameen-ble-tatt-i-fartskontroll-i-danmark-_-far-ikke-tilbake-sin-splitter-nye-lamborghini-1.16446941
@TDCN @Showroom7561 do you have breathalyzer tests that actually work in normal use here? because if not this is just stealing cars, lol
I don’t understand what you mean, of course they work and then if its high they verify with a blod sample to verify and to give you the benefit of the doubt
@TDCN @Showroom7561 This sounds terrific. Do you have a link to that law please. (In Danish is fine). I want to use it as an example for discussion leading up to my city’s elections next year. It will upset the many car brains who run my city. 😀
It’s not a single law to say but changes to the existing law so the actual writing is spread out over a few paragraphs. Here’s a link for the entire traffic law LINK Start at §119 about confiscation and §133 about offences that causes you to loose your licens. The details can be a bit difficult to sift out. It’s law stuff I guess.
@TDCN @Showroom7561 Rich person drives 240kmh drunk out of their mind, loses expensive car, gets another the next day because it’s still just pocket change to them.
Boyfriend “borrows” the old-but-working car of his abused girlfriend who’s barely making it paycheck to paycheck, drives 110kph, her car gets seized and she now has no hope of escape.
An extreme comparison? Yes. But it illustrates that nice simple one-size-fits-all laws often have abhorrent results.
I forgot to also add that they obviously don’t just take the car from the owner as the only thing with this kind of offence (obviously, otherwise it’ll be a dumb law). On top there’s a huge fine for the driver and they take your lisence and you are banned from driving for X amount of years. You have to pay for a completely new drivers license which is really expensive but mire importantly really time-consuming in Denmark we are talking weeks of training and mandatory tests, first aid exam and hours of theory and practical lessons. There are payments to a fond that raises money for traffic victims and possibly jail time if you drove exceptionally wreklessly or drunk. Even if you are rich this is not just “pocket money” there’s more context than you think.
@TDCN Did you know a screenshot of your post is on Reddit (saw a bot post it here on Mastodon) https://redd.it/163foqd
@TDCN @Showroom7561 like most fines, this just makes it legal for rich folk and potentially life-destroying for poor folk.
If this happens to a taxi driver, they might end up homeless. If it happens to a rich playboy they’ll just go buy a new car and carry on speeding.
The taxi driver could also… Just hear me out… Drive the speed limit and not drive like a maniac. Then he’s fine and noone takes his car.
@nicklockwood @TDCN @Showroom7561 you’re right. Mandatory speed limiters are a much better option. They’re cheap, easy and avoid having to fine people.
@Showroom7561 @TDCN all the “but they need a car” people in the comments should also take a look at the amazing public transit options in Denmark and think about how that could make their life great (especially us USians)
The radar tells me when cars are approaching from behind and how far. It’s been a massive gamechanger for safety by enhancing my spacial awareness.
There’s an app for my bike computer that also captures speed and car counts using the radar.
I would imagine that aggregating this data from thousands of users could help cities to plan better cycling infrastructure and build traffic speed/flow mechanisms to enhance cyclist safety.
@Showroom7561 @mondoman712 what’s the name of the app and for which platform is it? Having the info about how fast someone overtakes one sounds very interesting.
@Showroom7561 thanks! Sorry for the late reply, somehow I had notifications disabled.
@Showroom7561 @mondoman712 the UK also has new amendments to the highway code about safe passing distances for bikes, horses, etc; my brother has front and rear cameras for his bike and the police are actually following up on his reports of drivers passing dangerously close, even at lower speeds. Sometimes things do change for the better
Way too many people are speeding where I live too and I partly blame the road design as well. I’ve seen many places in Denmark where I live that they at some point reduced the limit from 60 to 50 or from 50 to 40 kmh with no modifications to the road design or obvious reasons like schools or crossroads. Or similarly you are driving along at 80 and then the limit changes to 60 but the road looks the same. I know it’s usually because of safety or more commonly noise pollution or hidden sideroads. This doesn’t make sense intuitively while driving because the road design signals higher speed than allowed. It’s still no real excuse for driving too fast but I think it could solve a lot of the issue with better road design like “not just bikes” are also preaching in his videos