Obey the speed limit, or just go with the flow?

I am a staunch supporter of obeying the law. If you are willing to break a little law like the speed limit, then what other laws are you willing to break? Over the years it has become more and more scary to obey the speed limit. Cars pull up behind me and tailgate me for miles, endangering my life as well as theirs; even though there may be a totally empty lane on either side of me! I fear that one day I will stop for some reason and the tailgater will inevitably hit me.

For those of you who do not, or wish not to remember, the minimum safe traveling distance is either one car length for every 10 miles per hour of speed (6.5 car lengths at 65mph) or 2 seconds behind the car you are following. No amount of wishing otherwise, can change these basic rules of the road. Not even you absolutely perfect specimens of humanity, who are so much better and quicker than the rest of us, can avoid hitting the car in front of you if you are travelling too close!

Travelling at the speed limit is a wonderful idea until you become the exception to the rule and cars are having to change lanes in order to go faster than you. As much as I would like to continue obeying the speed limit law, I believe that the time has come to literally “just go with the flow”. I have been pushed to this conclusion due to several factors. However, this change in travel speed only applies to driving on the freeway! I find no compelling reason for speeding on city streets. The number one reason for not obeying the literal “speed limit” (which means the MAXIMUM speed allowed in this area), is the fear of being killed by another motorist who either hits me from behind (been there before when I was rear-ended by a drunk on the freeway at 60 mph) or shoots me because I had the bad luck of being in front of them when they wanted to break the law. Several police officers and highway patrolmen I have talked to about this issue cringe when they hear that I am obeying the law. They say that there are too many people out there who will shoot you for just being in their way. Especially here in Arizona where any adult is permitted to strap on a gun and go nearly anywhere without needing a permit.

The second reason is that in the enlightened state I live in, it is possible for me to be given a ticket for “impeding the flow of traffic” which causes others to have to go around me. This even applies if I am obeying the speed limit, and the other drivers are speeding and not obeying the limit!

I mentioned earlier that over the years it has become more and more scary to obey the speed limit, because of the speeders and tailgaters. This is the third factor in my decision. The added awareness needed to ensure that some driver is not parked on my back bumper is draining and stressful. Especially when even the drivers of those 18 wheeled behemoths do not seem to understand that their vehicle cannot stop as quickly as my car. I am pretty sure that when all I can see in my rear view mirror is the grill from your truck (big or small), then you are probably too close!

A fourth reason is that my enlightened state legislature has now raised the trigger point on speed enforcement cameras to 11 mph over the speed limit. They are in-effect saying: “go ahead and do 65 in a 55 zone, but do not do 66, because you might get a ticket! People who break the law are not know for their brialliance, but even the dummies know how to add 10 mph to the speed limit.

So, I am now forced to choose between obeying the speed limit on the freeway, or risking a ticket, or maybe being killed by some idiot speeder and/or tailgater, or being shot by a driver that feels inconvenienced by my obeying the law. I now set my cruise control at the speed limit and judge how fast the cars are flying by me. I bump up the speed by a few miles per hour until I am pretty much equal to the average speed. I am, of course, careful to not reach that magic 11 mph trigger point, because I am smarter than those speed cameras, by golly. I must admit that the ride home is a lot less stressful, but the extra 2-5 minutes I saved on the trip time has not resulted in enough time to solve world hunger.

What a shame that other drivers have now forced me to break the law to save my own life. It is also a shame that society in general has sunk to the point where obedient citizens must fear for their lives. My final question to you is the following: “are you one of those who have sunk to the point of moral decay where obeying the law has become too inconvenient for you?” I hope not, but from where I sit driving in my car, it appears that yes, most of the other drivers have indeed sunk into a low pit of moral standing. This country has such great promise, if we will only obey the laws upon which it was founded.