Signed and vetoed
Tuesday, Aug 12, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Signed…
Motorists who are pulled over in Illinois no longer need to hand over their driver’s license in exchange for a citation under a bill signed into law on Saturday.
Senate Bill 2583, sponsored by Sen. Michael Noland, D-Elgin, and State Rep. John D’Amico, D-Chicago, eliminates the requirement that drivers post their license as bail for certain traffic offenses. The new law allows the motorist’s signature on the citation to suffice as a guarantee that they will either appear in court or pay the required fines.
The law goes into effect immediately. As under the old law, the Secretary of State can suspend the driving privileges of motorists who fail to comply with the citation.
Excellent bill. Way past due.
* Vetoed…
Gov. Pat Quinn [yesterday] vetoed a bill that would have let big trucks go faster on interstate highways in the Chicago area, citing recent semitrailer truck crashes that have led to deaths.
The measure would have raised the interstate speed limit from 55 to 60 mph in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties under legislation pushed by Sen. Jim Oberweis, a Sugar Grove Republican running for U.S. Senate against Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.
That isn’t much of a speed increase. From his veto message…
Research has shown a correlation between increased speed limits and increased highway deaths. Higher travel speeds lengthen stopping distances, making it more difficult to react to an emergency in time. Speed also exacerbates the size and weight differences between large trucks and passenger vehicles, leading to more severe crashes.
Um, if increasing speed limits leads to increased highway deaths, why did he sign a bill to raise the limit to 70 mph?
But it is true that higher speeds lengthen stopping distances. I bought a camper this year and I have to always be careful about leaving enough room in front of me when I’m pulling it behind my truck. Pulling that thing can be downright scary sometimes.
Your thoughts?
- Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:37 pm:
Should have signed both.
Good choice in signing the citation signature bill. But the veto is odd in light of his previous actions on a speed limit increase. It opens the door to questions about whether he vetoed it because this is what he suddenly believes or because of campaign dynamics and politics.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:40 pm:
no more staple holes to alert officer that you went to traffic school
- PolPal56 - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:41 pm:
I’d rather be in front of a car going five miles faster than a large truck going five miles faster. That five miles is going to make a lot more difference with the mass of the truck than the car in distance to stopping.
Otherwise, why have any difference in speed limits between cars and vehicles at all? Why not have everyone drive at 70?
PQ did the right thing.
- PolPal56 - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:42 pm:
That should have been “between cars and large vehicles…”
- Southpaw - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:45 pm:
Professional drivers stop and start every day. They know what they’re doing. Weekend warriors with campers maybe need a special license to show they’re capable?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:48 pm:
Trucks have several times the mass of cars, in urban areas there’s often less room to stop. Simple physics and statistics, no conspiracy or inconsistency.
- fed up - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:50 pm:
“The law goes into effect immediately”. Again the Quinn admin could screw up a 1 car parade the law goes into effect 1 Jan 2015.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:55 pm:
OK Governor
Go out there and show voters how you got the police off their backs and help them!
As to trucks - well, Illinois is a winner because it is in the middle of the US. We are the second flattest state in the US, (Florida is #1), and most transcontinental traffic goes through. So we need to take advantage of this geological fact and not harass any interstate traffic.
What if we give intrastate truck traffic a lower licensing fee if they travel at night when car traffic is lighter? This could work, and we already do a lot of transportation regulation now regarding trucks, so it wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel - pun, intended!
- Nonplussed - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:55 pm:
Accidents involving trucks can cause catastrophic damage depending on the cargo carried or simply due to their size. Since the 1920’s trucks have had to stop and look at railroad crossings. Cars don’t. To quote/paraphrase Emerson: Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:57 pm:
I’d rather see a law passed that gave stiff penalties for all of the idiots on the road going 10 or 15 mph under the speed limit. There was almost a multiple car pile up in Springfield this weekend when some dope in the left lane was going 50 mph.
Rant over . . .
- RonOglesby - Now in TX - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 12:59 pm:
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Excellent bill. Way past due.
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Yup, way past time. a hold over from decades ago that took way to long. Your DL is to important these days, getting on a plane, renting cars, heck going to the bank. I had to once show a ticket to a rental car desk, they almost laughed me out of there.
- sal-says - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 1:30 pm:
== That isn’t much of a speed increase. ==
Maybe, but Quinn’s ‘heart’ is in the right place on this one.
5mph won’t make a whit of difference if you’re ‘dead’ stopped on an Interstate & get plowed into by a 50, 60 or 70 mph semi.
- Wondering Woman - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 1:31 pm:
I have read that a large speed difference between cars and trucks can also cause more accidents as people move around the slower trucks. Perhaps letting trucks go a little bit faster so that there’s less of a difference with the new 70 mph limit would have been safer?
- sal-says - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 1:33 pm:
Just saw the Trib Breaking News headline: “Oberweis criticizes Quinn veto of 60 mph trucks bill”
Anything for some publicity? Not the right choice of topics or sides on this one; unless he’s been out to one or more of those crash sites & has personally seen what’s left.
- Stuff happens - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 1:35 pm:
I agree. The 60->0 123-foot stopping distance on my Volvo is way different than a ten ton truck.
- Shemp - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 1:40 pm:
Vehicles traveling at different speeds is also a contributing factor to accidents. I say increase the limits. Nothing worse than cruising at 70ish on I80 and coming up on two semi’s doing 60 and 60.25mph side by side and quickly backing up traffic.
- John A Logan - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 2:09 pm:
I wonder if recreational marijuana use when proposed will also lengthen stopping distances?
- Anon - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 4:00 pm:
== Um, if increasing speed limits leads to increased highway deaths, why did he sign a bill to raise the limit to 70 mph? ==
Allowing big rigs to go 70 in most of the state has far more untoward consequences for safety than the bill he vetoed. Quinn’s arguments for the veto are the same ones that the ISP and IDOT used for years to defend the two-tier speed limit. Quinn disregarded those arguments several years ago. Has he learned something?
- Robert0117 - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 4:58 pm:
At least the preliminary report on the 70MPH speed limit was a reduction in fatalities. There is a fair amount of data suggesting that bringing the posted speed limit closer to the speed most traffic is moving results in safer conditions for everyone. Try driving 55 on any of these roads outside of rush hour and see how quickly someone is riding your tail.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Aug 13, 14 @ 1:27 am:
==- Shemp - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 1:40 pm:==
Have fun with higher insurance rates.
==- Robert0117 - Tuesday, Aug 12, 14 @ 4:58 pm:==
Maybe with enforcement they’d have drive the limit before.