America Letter:Navigating the National Capital Beltway, the ring of freeways that surrounds Washington, can be hair-raising, as drivers weave at high speed through six lanes, steadfastly ignoring the 55 mph (88 km/h) speed limit.
Virginians who use the beltway, much of which is in their state, now face a new hazard - fines of more than $1,000 for speeding, driving recklessly and even using the wrong turn signal.
The new fines, which are up to seven times the previous level, came into force on July 1st and by yesterday, more than 130,000 people had signed a petition demanding that they be revoked.
Republican state legislators who had voted for the legislation scurried for cover and Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat, convened a press conference this week to explain why he signed the Bill into law.
The new fines, known as "civil remedial fees", are designed to raise up to $65 million for road improvements without raising taxes, an anathema to Virginia voters. Some of the penalties, although severe, are uncontroversial - such as a $3,000 fine for manslaughter committed while driving drunk.
Many Virginians are relaxed about fining drunk drivers $1,000 too, although applying the same fine to anyone who drives more than 20 miles above the speed limit has raised some hackles, not least because the flow of traffic moves so fast on many
roads that obeying the law is to risk an accident.
The new fines, which can be paid in three annual instalments, also target more routine offences, such as driving with under-inflated tyres or with an "obstructed view".
Critics complain that the fees are nothing more than a stealth tax which hits less well-off drivers disproportionately hard. After all, $1,000 may not mean much to the wealthy residents of suburbs like McLean, near Washington, but it is a huge sum to poorer Virginians in the poorer southwest of the state.
Bob Marshall, a Republican in the Virginia House of Delegates who opposed the legislation, said the fines would turn Virginia's traffic cops into "tax collectors with guns".
"If you want to enforce this strictly, you are going to have a lock down in Virginia and turn this state into a speed trap," he said.
To make matters worse, the fines will not apply to drivers from other states who commit offences in Virginia, who will risk no more than a $200 fine as they speed along the fast lane.
Kaine explained this week that he had been unable to reach a deal with other states to enforce the fines but he promised to seek some way of ensuring that everyone faces the same penalties.
The governor has set up a team in his office to monitor how the new fines work.
"Looking at how it works in practice is something we'll do just like in other cases. We need to study it in a deliberate way before we rush into anything. If problems come up and there are concerns, that is what the legislative process is for," he said.
Fear of raising taxes has driven legislators in many states to look at new ways of paying for roads and other transport projects and four other states have introduced enhanced fines to increase revenue, although Michigan is thinking about scrapping its system.
Other states have privatised some highways, selling off stretches of road to private companies which charge tolls or using public-private partnerships to build new roads.
If the new fines are designed to make Virginia's roads safer, they may already be having an effect. Sixteen people died on the state's roads during the July 4th weekend, down from 22 during last year's holiday.
"The dangerous behaviour of unsafe drivers threatens the safety of other drivers and causes accidents that create congestion. Those drivers should be financially accountable for their actions," William Howell, the Republican speaker of the state house of delegates, said this week.
Kaine said he was confident that Virginians would soon embrace the tougher fines and dismissed complaints that they hit the poor too hard.
"It affects poor drivers, not poor people. It is completely within folks' power to drive safe," he said.
