Wow! $2,100 to speed in VA, anybody live there???

[Jeff Murphy]

Can someone explain why 20 mph over is the magic number regardless of the posted speed limit? I've never understood the way the fines are set. Why don't they do it based on % of the posted limit? At least that would be scientifically consistent.

If you are 20 over in a 30 zone, you are going 2/3rds too fast. You are also likely to kill a pedestrian vs just hurting them badly if you hit someone. If you are going 20 over in a 65 zone, you are going less than 30% too fast and your differential to the rest of the traffic shouldn't be as big a deal, although everything will happen faster.