By Raw Fisherfrom Marc Fisher's Blog
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Columnist and blogger Marc Fisher is away, so his colleague and pal Valerie Strauss steps in for a day.

I was driving on Virginia's busiest road yesterday, Interstate 95, trying my best to stay within the speed limit. It wasn't easy. Despite the heavy new fines that can be imposed on Virginia drivers caught going more than 20 mph above the posted limit, I found myself in the way of many of them who zipped around me to speed. Two honked, even though I was going 55 mph, the (supposed) speed limit on that stretch of road. My unscientific experiment judged that many speeders were 10 or 15 mph above the limit, but enough were going fast enough to give state troopers plenty to do.

I began wondering about people who knew they could be slapped with thousands of dollars in fines if they were caught. They couldn't all be rushing to the hospital to deliver a baby. For those who don't know: Virginia has imposed new fees that can be assessed on felony and misdemeanor traffic offenses and can reach $3,000 -- but only for Virginia drivers. Those offenses include driving more than 20 mph over the limit. The money is to be spent improving Virginia's road system. Some people see the fees as a regressive tax that hits hardest those least able to pay -- and think that if Virginia needs money to improve its roads, then all Virginians should pay. Makes sense.

Others say that if aggressive Virginia drivers have to pay, so should drivers from out of state who are breaking the same law. They are using Virginia roads, so what's fair is fair. In fact, that's why the District has long wanted to impose a commuter tax on out-of-city drivers who use the roads. Makes sense -- except that states have long had difficulty forcing out-of-state drivers to pay fines. And then others, such as the Virginia governor, think that people who don't want to pay the fines simply shouldn't speed. Makes sense, too, except that who hasn't, on occasion, found themselves going well over the speed limit for just a minute, only to quickly step on the brake? Does a momentary lapse make you an aggressive driver?

Yesterday a circuit court judge in Richmond reversed a lower court decision that found the fees violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. The decision saying that the fees are, in fact, constitutional is expected to be quickly appealed.

What would you do if you were on the appellate court making the decision?

-- Valerie Strauss, staff writer