I am highly frustrated by driving right now.
For many years, I drove the way I wanted to. I would get into the fast lane as soon as possible and drive fast. I would usually avoid a lot of lane changing, but if there was open space in front of me in the lane I was in, I would accelerate until I was around 30 MPH over the limit. The only reason I stopped there was because I feared getting thrown into jail and having my car confiscated if I went any faster.
I paid a hefty price for this manner of driving. The tickets, which were often enormous, and the increased insurance premiums probably cost me close to 20,000 dollars. But I didn’t care. I figured it was a tax I paid for getting where I was going quickly and driving the way I feel highways were meant to be driven on.
Well, they FINALLY GOT ME. They finally hassled me to the point where I have no choice but to follow the rules and obey the speed limits. There was nothing special about this last ticket I got. It was no different from the previous 25 speeding tickets. But, financially, I can no longer afford to pay these fines. I can no longer afford the outrageous insurance premiums. And, if I get one more ticket, no matter how small, I will lose my license for the first time ever. And I do not want that.
So, everyone rejoice, one less maniac on the road, right? Your kids are safer now, right?
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!
See, the thing is, when I drove the way I used to, my eyes were GLUED to the road. I devoted 100% of my mental energy to driving; using my above average eyesight, instincts, and reaction time to make sure that no collision occurred. And you know what? NONE EVER DID. My supposedly dangerous or reckless (as some judges have called it) driving style NEVER RESULTED IN A CRASH OR INJURY.
This is because I concentrated on my DRIVING and on the ROAD. I wouldn’t really engage in conversation. I don’t even like driving with other people in the car. I was focused on what a DRIVER is supposed to be focused on: THE ROAD.
And now?
Now that I have to follow the rules, I am a road hazard. I am CONSTANTLY shifting my gaze from the road to catch the CONSTANTLY changing speed limits. Yeah, that’s right, they constantly change from 55 to 65 to 55 for NO REASON, except to catch drivers who did not notice the new sign and are now going to have to pay a fine for maintaining what was deemed a safe speed a mere 5 minutes ago on the SAME DAMN ROAD!
Furthermore, I am constantly checking my speedometer just to make sure I haven’t accidentally crept up to a speed high enough to get pulled over. Cruise control? No thank you, I like to have my foot on my gas when I drive. I don’t see how cruise control is safe. When people use it, they are concentrating less on their driving. They are further detached from a boring activity that ALREADY lends itself to inattentiveness, boredom, fatigue, and highway hypnosis.
Also, when I have cruise on, I slowly start to creep up to the car in front of me who is going 6 MPH slower than I am. Now what? If I pass him, it will take forever because our speeds are not that different, so I will be in his blind spot or he will; be in mine for along time. That is not safe. But if I accelerate temporarily to pass him, I risk a ticket.
I thought the whole point of cruise control was to not risk a ticket.
Also, my steering wheel blocks the speedometer from my view. There is nothing I can do about this. If I move the wheel up at all, the airbag will be in position to hit me right in the head if it were to engage. So, whenever I check my speedometer, I have to duck way down and angle my neck in order to read it. This is really annoying and also unsafe.
Furthermore, whenever a cop car is spotted, I must do that to check my speedometer, which is really bad because all the other assholes on the road seem to think that when a cop car is seen they must SUDDENLY and ABRUBTLY reduce their speed to 15 BELOW the limit! What is wrong with these people? I have gotten 25 tickets and ZERO of them were for 1 – 112 MPH over the limit. ZERO! They don’t bother. Drivers do not need to go slower than ten over, but if they must, can they at least go the speed limit?
So, we have people slamming on their brakes, abruptly slowing down, and drivers not watching the road because they are checking to see if they are in compliance with a stupid law. That doesn’t sound safe to me.
Furthermore, when these cops catch someone, what do they do? They enter the FAST LANE of the highway from a stopped position, and then accelerate rapidly to well above the speed limit, swerving around cars, until they catch the guy, then they and the speeder pull off the highway and sit alongside it as trucks and cars go flying by at 70 MPH 8 feet away. THAT IS NOT FUCKING SAFE! THAT IS DANGEROUS!
What a crock of bullshit. And then some asshole judge who I am forced to listen to has the audacity to tell me I am a threat to the SAFETY of his children? Well, your honor, here is what I say to that: FUCK you, fuck the driving laws, and fuck your high and mighty arrogance.
Speed limits and speeding tickets are not about safety, they are about MONEY. It always is. They make a fortune off these tickets. My last one was $295.00. That is a lot of money.
IF they REALLY thought speeding was such a big danger, THEY WOULD TAKE STEPS TO ENSURE THAT NO ONE DID IT! If speeding tickets were TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS, how many people do you think would speed!????
They could pretty much END all speeding by simply raising the fines to a level that no one would be willing to risk paying. BUT THEY DON’T. Because they know that speeding actually isn’t that dangerous. My home state’s driving manual EVEN SAYS SO, it says that speeding isn’t really a cause of very many accidents.
No, what causes accidents are tailgating, swerving in and out of lanes, cutting people off, and other similarly dangerous things. AND HOW MANY TICKETS do cops write for those offenses? NEXT TO NONE!
No, they make the speed limits ABSURDLY low because they know traffic will naturally exceed those limits and they can then write tickets. See, if they did what I am suggesting and raised the fines to $2000.00, THEY WOULDN’T catch anyone speeding! And no speeders = no speeding tickets = NO REVENUE!
So, your honor, the next time you want to give me a phony lecture about safety while sitting there on your high horse in your black robe sitting behind that fancy desk, SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS, because you and I both know that you are full of shit!
On a side note, the following people also draw my ire:
People who use their brakes as they approach a green light. HELLO!?? The light is GREEN! The speed limit doesn’t change in an intersection! Why are you applying the brakes!??? Are you trying to cause an accident?
People who ride their brakes through a left turn. What are you doing? Didn’t anyone teach you how to drive?
People who take FOREVER to make a right or left turn. What are you doing!? The longer you take to complete a turn, the greater your chances of getting hit by someone who you did not see before when you started the turn.
People who create a moving roadblock by driving alongside another car in a different lane at exactly the same speed. If you are driving the same speed as the car next to you, WHY MUST YOU WASTE A LANE DOING SO? Get in front of or behind him and do it!
And saving the worst for last:
People who merge onto a highway going HALF THE SPEED LIMIT! What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you really think it is safe to drive 30 MPH when other cars are going 70 MPH? Does that seem safe to you!???? YOU ARE A ROAD HAZARD! I have seen so many near collisions because of this. Cars have to abruptly brake or swerve to avoid these idiotic intrusions into the flow of traffic because they are not expecting people to be driving cars at the speed of a bicycle!
Or, the slow merger cannot enter the highway because of his slowness, so he STOPS on the entrance ramp to the highway, nearly getting rear ended by the guy behind him who is trying to attain highway speed so he can merge safely.
The driving manuals are very clear on this: The entrance ramp to a highway is called an ACCELERATION STRIP! Its purpose is to allow you to ATTAIN HIGHWAY SPEED so you can merge safely!
Just in case this is not abundantly clear, would you consider it safe to drive 70 MPH on a road where other cars are going 30 MPH? Probably not, right? Well why then would someone drive 30 MPH onto a highway where people are going 70 MPH? IT’S the same fucking thing! AAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!
End rant.
For many years, I drove the way I wanted to. I would get into the fast lane as soon as possible and drive fast. I would usually avoid a lot of lane changing, but if there was open space in front of me in the lane I was in, I would accelerate until I was around 30 MPH over the limit. The only reason I stopped there was because I feared getting thrown into jail and having my car confiscated if I went any faster.
I paid a hefty price for this manner of driving. The tickets, which were often enormous, and the increased insurance premiums probably cost me close to 20,000 dollars. But I didn’t care. I figured it was a tax I paid for getting where I was going quickly and driving the way I feel highways were meant to be driven on.
Well, they FINALLY GOT ME. They finally hassled me to the point where I have no choice but to follow the rules and obey the speed limits. There was nothing special about this last ticket I got. It was no different from the previous 25 speeding tickets. But, financially, I can no longer afford to pay these fines. I can no longer afford the outrageous insurance premiums. And, if I get one more ticket, no matter how small, I will lose my license for the first time ever. And I do not want that.
So, everyone rejoice, one less maniac on the road, right? Your kids are safer now, right?
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!
See, the thing is, when I drove the way I used to, my eyes were GLUED to the road. I devoted 100% of my mental energy to driving; using my above average eyesight, instincts, and reaction time to make sure that no collision occurred. And you know what? NONE EVER DID. My supposedly dangerous or reckless (as some judges have called it) driving style NEVER RESULTED IN A CRASH OR INJURY.
This is because I concentrated on my DRIVING and on the ROAD. I wouldn’t really engage in conversation. I don’t even like driving with other people in the car. I was focused on what a DRIVER is supposed to be focused on: THE ROAD.
And now?
Now that I have to follow the rules, I am a road hazard. I am CONSTANTLY shifting my gaze from the road to catch the CONSTANTLY changing speed limits. Yeah, that’s right, they constantly change from 55 to 65 to 55 for NO REASON, except to catch drivers who did not notice the new sign and are now going to have to pay a fine for maintaining what was deemed a safe speed a mere 5 minutes ago on the SAME DAMN ROAD!
Furthermore, I am constantly checking my speedometer just to make sure I haven’t accidentally crept up to a speed high enough to get pulled over. Cruise control? No thank you, I like to have my foot on my gas when I drive. I don’t see how cruise control is safe. When people use it, they are concentrating less on their driving. They are further detached from a boring activity that ALREADY lends itself to inattentiveness, boredom, fatigue, and highway hypnosis.
Also, when I have cruise on, I slowly start to creep up to the car in front of me who is going 6 MPH slower than I am. Now what? If I pass him, it will take forever because our speeds are not that different, so I will be in his blind spot or he will; be in mine for along time. That is not safe. But if I accelerate temporarily to pass him, I risk a ticket.
I thought the whole point of cruise control was to not risk a ticket.
Also, my steering wheel blocks the speedometer from my view. There is nothing I can do about this. If I move the wheel up at all, the airbag will be in position to hit me right in the head if it were to engage. So, whenever I check my speedometer, I have to duck way down and angle my neck in order to read it. This is really annoying and also unsafe.
Furthermore, whenever a cop car is spotted, I must do that to check my speedometer, which is really bad because all the other assholes on the road seem to think that when a cop car is seen they must SUDDENLY and ABRUBTLY reduce their speed to 15 BELOW the limit! What is wrong with these people? I have gotten 25 tickets and ZERO of them were for 1 – 112 MPH over the limit. ZERO! They don’t bother. Drivers do not need to go slower than ten over, but if they must, can they at least go the speed limit?
So, we have people slamming on their brakes, abruptly slowing down, and drivers not watching the road because they are checking to see if they are in compliance with a stupid law. That doesn’t sound safe to me.
Furthermore, when these cops catch someone, what do they do? They enter the FAST LANE of the highway from a stopped position, and then accelerate rapidly to well above the speed limit, swerving around cars, until they catch the guy, then they and the speeder pull off the highway and sit alongside it as trucks and cars go flying by at 70 MPH 8 feet away. THAT IS NOT FUCKING SAFE! THAT IS DANGEROUS!
What a crock of bullshit. And then some asshole judge who I am forced to listen to has the audacity to tell me I am a threat to the SAFETY of his children? Well, your honor, here is what I say to that: FUCK you, fuck the driving laws, and fuck your high and mighty arrogance.
Speed limits and speeding tickets are not about safety, they are about MONEY. It always is. They make a fortune off these tickets. My last one was $295.00. That is a lot of money.
IF they REALLY thought speeding was such a big danger, THEY WOULD TAKE STEPS TO ENSURE THAT NO ONE DID IT! If speeding tickets were TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS, how many people do you think would speed!????
They could pretty much END all speeding by simply raising the fines to a level that no one would be willing to risk paying. BUT THEY DON’T. Because they know that speeding actually isn’t that dangerous. My home state’s driving manual EVEN SAYS SO, it says that speeding isn’t really a cause of very many accidents.
No, what causes accidents are tailgating, swerving in and out of lanes, cutting people off, and other similarly dangerous things. AND HOW MANY TICKETS do cops write for those offenses? NEXT TO NONE!
No, they make the speed limits ABSURDLY low because they know traffic will naturally exceed those limits and they can then write tickets. See, if they did what I am suggesting and raised the fines to $2000.00, THEY WOULDN’T catch anyone speeding! And no speeders = no speeding tickets = NO REVENUE!
So, your honor, the next time you want to give me a phony lecture about safety while sitting there on your high horse in your black robe sitting behind that fancy desk, SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS, because you and I both know that you are full of shit!
On a side note, the following people also draw my ire:
People who use their brakes as they approach a green light. HELLO!?? The light is GREEN! The speed limit doesn’t change in an intersection! Why are you applying the brakes!??? Are you trying to cause an accident?
People who ride their brakes through a left turn. What are you doing? Didn’t anyone teach you how to drive?
People who take FOREVER to make a right or left turn. What are you doing!? The longer you take to complete a turn, the greater your chances of getting hit by someone who you did not see before when you started the turn.
People who create a moving roadblock by driving alongside another car in a different lane at exactly the same speed. If you are driving the same speed as the car next to you, WHY MUST YOU WASTE A LANE DOING SO? Get in front of or behind him and do it!
And saving the worst for last:
People who merge onto a highway going HALF THE SPEED LIMIT! What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you really think it is safe to drive 30 MPH when other cars are going 70 MPH? Does that seem safe to you!???? YOU ARE A ROAD HAZARD! I have seen so many near collisions because of this. Cars have to abruptly brake or swerve to avoid these idiotic intrusions into the flow of traffic because they are not expecting people to be driving cars at the speed of a bicycle!
Or, the slow merger cannot enter the highway because of his slowness, so he STOPS on the entrance ramp to the highway, nearly getting rear ended by the guy behind him who is trying to attain highway speed so he can merge safely.
The driving manuals are very clear on this: The entrance ramp to a highway is called an ACCELERATION STRIP! Its purpose is to allow you to ATTAIN HIGHWAY SPEED so you can merge safely!
Just in case this is not abundantly clear, would you consider it safe to drive 70 MPH on a road where other cars are going 30 MPH? Probably not, right? Well why then would someone drive 30 MPH onto a highway where people are going 70 MPH? IT’S the same fucking thing! AAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!
End rant.
