Speed Limit?
| I suppose I could be considered an old fuddy-duddy with a value system right out of the 50's with an odd perception of what's important and what should be better left alone. Mostly likely this article will become a classic oh-hum, who cares and a "Mind your own business" type of venture,but I just can't leave it alone. | |
OK, so why am I now driving the speed limit? Well, naturally there is a story about this very question. Several years ago I was an agressive and speedy driver. Always in a rush even when there was no purpose or need to be get to my destination any quicker than if I just drove the speed limit, but where's the fun in that? One day, speeding along an interbelt in Columbus my radar detector sounded, "LASER ALERT!" several times. Of course, with lasers, that just informed me that I had been clocked. I watched the officer climb into his drivers seat and so I just started pulling over. Wasn't much point in prolonging this interchange. When he first walked up to the car, he stuck his head a little in my window to take a close look at my detector. Then he grinned, looked at me and said, "Kinda gives you a false sense of security, doesn't it?". What a nice man, I thought.(Right). Anyway, I got the ticket, 84 in a 65 zone and wished me a good day. I was thinking how he should really be after "real" criminals instead of "picking" on me.
One month later, almost to the day, I got ticket #2. The first ticket was a fluke, certainly I wouldn't ever get another and yet, here I go. This officer really didn't care about the radar detector, he had me at 73 in a 55 zone through a construction area(fines are doubled) and I was on the bonus plan. Bonus plan? You bet. If you get subsequent speeding tickets within a few months of your first one, it's an extra $50 on the fine. Bonus plan my....
After paying the $300+ ticket, thinking how the police were out to get me, I decided to whine to a friend of mine about this whole story. I think I was really trying to elicit some sympathy. Poor ole me got caught twice in a month. It's just not right. My friends reaction was not what I had hoped. He looked at me and without an attitude or scolding tone of any kind, simply looked at me and said, "I just drive the speed limit". What? How absurd. Then I started to question what I was doing?
Do I consider myself a law abiding citizen? Why am I always in such a hurry, sometimes to places I don't even want to go? Those guys really are out to get me, we pay them to pull over knuckleheads like me. So I decided to try an experiement and drive the speed limit.
A couple of things occurred immediately. I didn't have to slam on my brakes so the nose of the car dips just because I saw a policeman in the middle of the freeway. I arrived at my destination, particularly on shorter trips in about the same amount of time and I was much more relaxed when I got there.
That was pretty cool and that was a couple of years ago.
So when you come up on some old guy doing the speed limit in the right lane and your ready to drive through his trunk to run him down, try to remember that one of you is a law abiding citizen who is pretty relaxed and will probably live longer.
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