Ever since Finland adopted the Argentine tango as its' official dance,I have tried to keep up with current events in Finland.

Here we have a heretofore mild mannered rich guy who
"was recently fined 54,024 euros (about $58,000) for traveling a modest, if illegal, 64 miles per hour in a 50 m.p.h. zone. And no, the 54,024 euros did not turn out to be a typo, or a mistake of any kind."

"Mr. Kuisla is a millionaire, and in Finland the fines for more serious speeding infractions are calculated according to income. The thinking here is that if it stings for the little guy, it should sting for the big guy, too."

New York Times article found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/wo...pgtype=article

Eat, Drink and go slow in Finland

xfiltate

He is a slow learner though. Reported that this is the second time he has had huge fines.

Actually a fair system.

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

I actually agree with fines being related to income. Why should the penalised more heavilly than the rich!

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014

Have to agree there too Moggy, however it is a surprisingly unpopular proposition. Rather like suggesting that billion dollar corporations should pay tax instead of 20k employees.......

I agree, the rich should pay more than the less rich, is anyone really poor in Finland?

If there are poor in Finland, perhaps instead of a paying a fine for speeding, the poor could share in the spoils separated from the speeding rich and soon there would less poor, thus creating a larger population of those who could be fined for speeding.

Seems like we are not alone..... others are also interested in Finland. The Wall Street Journal reports that "Finland Chases Off Suspected Submarine"

I wonder what the fine would be if the suspected submarine was caught speeding? Looks like the Finnish Navy gave quite a chase.

Finland Chases Off Suspected Submarine - WSJ

Eat, Drink and pay your fair share

xfiltrate

yes and I think we also need some areas of road tha have no limit at all, so if we want to we can have a blast without breaking the law.... with having to hire a race track (ok for millionaires)

Every one will know when the area's are and then can be well out of the way of residential areas.

I do not want to live in a risk free sanitised world but conversely I want to choose if and when I take a risk too.

and I don't do not mean about getting caught.....

Given that the speeding fine is calculated as a percentage of 'your' income it can never cost 'you' a fortune.

A fortune to somebody else maybe, but never to yourself.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

The fines I think makes sense. If it's bad the punishment has to sting. I was once fined 2 Guilders on a train for accidentally buying the wrong ticket. We laughed about it with guy who had to collect it, then worked out how often you could get caught and still be in profit. £100 UK fines sting, but the ban for getting a 5th one is the real deterrent.

The whole concept of speed limits seems wrong though.

On a UK motorway I can do 70 mph. As all the traffic should be in the same direction, worst case short of utter silliness should be hitting a bridge at 70.

On a single carriageway I can do 60 but so can the bloke coming the other way. Possible collision speed 120. Logically then, if I can see far enough to confirm I am alone why can't I be trusted to do 120? In the old days I was, plod counted as the other vehicle, so if he saw you at over 60 when doing 60 himself there was risk you hit him with a combined speed of 120. The cameras they now use are no more mobile than the bridges I am allowed to risk hitting at 70.

While I am not trusted to avoid collisions at 120 mph in clear weather, I am trusted to decide that 60 is too fast in bad weather. I was also trusted to break any speed limit I liked while with a previous employer, but would be sent to prison were I to remove the speed limiter, fit blue lights and prove my red lorry driving skills are still up to scratch (Yes I used to fix post office vans!). My brain it seems was removed when I quit.

The Germans have no such worries despite the fact they have not the slightest idea where I trained and what else I've done. The French will let me do 83.

I am trusted not to try and do 70 in a 1940's car with narrow tyres and rubbish brakes. I cannot be trusted to ever go over 70 no matter how many safety systems I fit to my modern vehicle.

People break bad laws.

Andy

largely agree with you Andy. The 70mph speed limit came in at a time when most cars could barely do 70 and is totally meaningless today. Actually, so is the national speed limit. It means legally you could do 60mph on a single track rural lane, but it's probably not a good idea, wheras a good quality trunk road with little traffic doing 70mph may be perfectly safe. It's all about context, and speed cameras see no context.

where you are wrong though is in your suggestion that hitting another car head on doubles the impact speed. I used to think that as well, but apparently it doesn't. Because each vehicle has energy absorbing capability, assuming they are a similar size and construction, each vehicle would still only have an effective impact speed of 60mph. Of course, things get more messy if it's a 40 ton truck you hit coming the other way!! That's why the safety ratings of modern vehicles is a bit of a nonsense. I couldn't work out how my Toyota IQ could possibly have the same rating as my hilux invincible, I know which I would rather be in in an accident, but apparently it's because for crash testing they measure them against a vehicle of similar size and weight.

That's ridiculous, because if your in an IQ there is little chance your going to hit something equally small!! It means the standard is not consistent. what they should do is measure impact protection against a 'EN standard car' so it was consistent across the board.

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014

I had no idea Moggy1968, threewheelbonnie et al were such deep thinkers.

This thread reminds me of when I returned to the United States to attend university after 3 years of prep in Tokyo, Japan and then graduating high school in Ankara, Turkey.

When the other school boys began to speak of the shinny silver discs that covered the wheels of their 4 barrel carburetor enhanced vehicles, I really thought that I needed to break the linguistic code for my peers could not possibly be spending so much time and effort speaking to the advantages/ disadvantages of hub caps and carburetors. I honestly thought they were engaged in a deeper communication that certainly entailed concepts of a utopian or dystopian nature - probably related to the civil rights movement of the time, with which I was very involved.

After a few fights, one in particular I will never forget and will share here
had to do with my manner of dress. I arrived from Ankara with less than acceptably fashionable Turkish garb, and was hauled out of my dorm room one dark night and dragged me to a nearby field where three of the Richard Petty wanabees decided to teach me a lesson for being different.

Thanks to my 3 years in Japan, black belt training in JKA karate, I beat the three to the ground, breaking one's arm, and hurting the other two. Now I knew for sure there was no code to break - only bones. After that night I had a new found respect and I learned to respect hubcaps and carburetors for what they were, hubcaps and carburetors.

There is meaning enough in this thread to satisfy any starving intellectual, I appreciate each of you who have shared opinions here.

Thank you, Arigatou gozaimasu, ありがとう ございます
Teşekkürler

Eat, Drink and visit Finland regularly
xfiltrate

Thank you for your contribution, WTF your on about I have no idea, I'm sure with more pharmaceutical input it would make more sense, but if it makes you feel better about yourself, crack on

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014

Thanks Moggy1968,

I was not familiar with the Toyota IQ , I am now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_iQ

And, after due diligence research , it is obvious I misinterpreted your previous post discussing the "hitting" etc which triggered my memories, hub caps and carburetors and clothing and Japan, Turkey and all the rest.

It was not Jaredd Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel

but perhaps entertaining to some.

You see clothing and vehicles are similar in that, generally speaking, both
do protect the body.

You have a great point, try two or more glasses of wine then read it all again, or not.

Eat, Drink and be spot on more often
xfiltrate

So what happens if like some people on this forum you have no income, no house and just the bike between your legs and some money in the bank to your name, how do they calculate your fine?

Mark Manley, as stated in my post #5 here is one possibility....

"If there are poor in Finland, perhaps instead of a paying a fine for speeding, the poor could share in the spoils separated from the speeding rich and soon there would less poor, thus creating a larger population of those who could be fined for speeding."

Perhaps we could take this one step further and pay the "poor," poverty level income or below, who have a motorcycle registered in Finland , pay them a reward for not being caught speeding each month.

This monthly stipend given to the poor who have Finland legally registered motorcycles for not being caught speeding would, of course, be paid for out of the funds collected from the speeding rich.

Eat, Drink and buy a motorcycle in Finland and just park it
xfiltrate

by how much you have in the bank I guess, same as most means tested things
there may well be a minimum amount as well.

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1990 Landcruiser H60. Full rebuild completed 2014