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Speeding vs. law enforcement discussion

The interstate highways I drive on do not have sharp curves. For the ones that do, it would not be that difficult to put up BIG ORANGE WARNING SIGNS indicating that drivers MUST slow down.

The problem is they put up these lame warning signs for such minor bullshit all the time that drivers routinely ignore because they aren’t actually important.

The speed limits are an absolute joke.

I just drive home from a night out at 630 AM. I was not sober enough to drive at 4 o’clock so I waited until 630.

The roads at 630 AM on Sunday were DESERTED. I was driving on a 3 land highway with no sharp turns.

There was absolutely nothing dangerous about the way I was driving. As I passed the speed limit sign saying 55 MPH while I was going 90 MPH I cursed the ridiculousness of it all. I mean, seriously, 55 fucking MPH? Really? You have got to be kidding me. If we cannot trust cars to go faster than 55 MPH on a 3 lane well lit straight highway, why don’t we just ban driving altogether? NO ONE WOULD EVER DIE IN A CAR CRASH THAT WAY!
Yeah, everyone keeps saying, “Oh , but of you have a crash, you will die or be severely hurt.” What no one is acknowledging is, there is NO REASON why there would be a crash. NONE. I am cursing along at a speed that my car is more than capable of handling. I could have been going 110 MPH easily. What he fuck is the problem? Seriously, is it that difficult to operate a car? Why do accidents even happen on highways? I don’t get it. You have to be retarded to not be able to drive your car on a highway without crashing.


Also, I cannot help but chuckle at what two people said recently, that I seemed to be pissed off because I got a ticket.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. That is hilarious.

A ticket. A ticket !?????

I am not pissed off because I have gottan a ticket. I am pissed off because I have gotten TWENTY SIX OF THEM. And I have driven 200,000 miles. If this is dangerous, then fucking lock me up already and stop letting me drive! Otherwise, leave me the fuck alone and start focusing on real crimes that actually hurt people!

I wish people on this thread could drive along with me on a highway to see how amazingly NOT dangerous it is the way I drive. There is no time at which an accident is impending at all. It is just not that difficult to drive a car fast when no cars are around you.
 
I lived in Finland for year. You make 1 billion EUR a year then your ticket's going to be high. One advertising exec got a 75k EUR for speeding. People drive orderly and defensively, and you can look down at the highway and see people in evenly-spaced, perfectly defensive and speed-limit abiding formations. Yes, they are sacrificing that precious 1 minute they could have been there earlier.

The point is, if you speed you get fucked by the state. If you drive like an asshole you get fucked like an asshole. No matter what your financial situation is. And cops don't need to pull over Mercedes or BMW cars because it's like half and half, and the cops don't have quotas because... surprise: people follow the laws. And you can drink until six in the morning and barf on people while cops laugh and smoke cigarettes in case you were worried that this is some kind of totalitarian fantasy.

In America, people with money collect speeding tickets like it makes their dicks bigger. Funny thing is, I drive the speed limit and my life is fine. I stay away from lane switching, futile morons in heavy traffic because they don't realize that no matter how easy it is to use that feather-weight power steering that their cars are just chunks of metal which can accidentally murder multiple people at once in horrific ways while trying to get to a place 4 minutes faster than I did. I notice a lot of people have this philosophy in traffic. They back away from people who have lost grips with reality, that perhaps there is a nail in the road that can not be seen at 60 mph. I could go on, but that is my stance, and because of it I have never been in an accident and liability insurance for my car for six months costs as much as my cell phone bill does for one month. True story.
 
You must make a lot of phone calls.

Seriously though, I hear you. I used to drive like an asshole. I took every chance possible, driving with reckless disregard for other cars or people. I drove like this for 120,000 miles without so much as touching another car or obstacle.

Why? Because I can. Because I have sharp vision and keen reflexes. I can estimate the speed and distance of others cars easily. Because I wanted to get where I was going faster. I'd rather do something else with those 4 minutes of my life. But it was more than 4 minutes. I got where I was going fast. When you drive from Detroit to NYC going 95 MPH most of the time, you save a whole lot more than 4 minutes.

But around 6 years ago, I changed my ways. I stopped doing EVERYTHING wrong, EXCEPT for seeding. I would into the fast lane, and DRIVE. If I approached a car, I would slow down until I could pass him or he moved over. Then I would speed again, and repeat. I was violating no other traffic laws. I was doing nothing dangerous. For a few years I got no ticket. Then my radar detector was stolen. Pissed off about it and broke, I did not replace it. I since got 7 tickets in the last couple years, despite the fact that I Was no longer driving dangerously. It’s frustrating.
 
No, I have three phones and an internet connection which comes out to $180, less than a dollar more than my six month insurance premium. I hope you really stopped driving like that, because it costs you more money than is necessary and it risks the lives of you and others. I can also do a lot of things, but I don't. I hope you keep up the good judgment. I'm sorry about your tickets. I have never even received a warning, although I do not know what to attribute that to other than extremely defensive and safe driving with an eye out for every vehicle that I can see in every mirror and another eye on my speedometer. I drive a 2001 car that looks like it came off the showroom floor, and have had to spend very little in repairs over the years as well.
 
Also.... a nail? a NAIL??? What the hell? If your car loses control because you drive over a nail, you've got the wrong tires. People keep coming up with these riduclous scenarios... Car tires are designed to be able to drive over a nail.
 
captainballs said:
No, I have three phones and an internet connection which comes out to $180, less than a dollar more than my six month insurance premium. I hope you really stopped driving like that, because it costs you more money than is necessary and it risks the lives of you and others. I can also do a lot of things, but I don't. I hope you keep up the good judgment.
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I do, but it doesn't mater. They still ticket me. It's all about the money.

Also, you have some awesomely cheap car insurance over there in finland. Even when I had a flawless driving rcord, the minumum insuirance was $591 for 6 months. Of course, that is with maximum coverage across the board, collision, comp, etc.

But still... $180? Wow.
 
I never had a car over there. Personally, I don't like cars and would like to get rid of mine. I am living in the United States and I use Geico. I realize that they will drop me at the first sign of trouble, but there will never be any trouble. You'd have to see how I drive to understand what I'm talking about.

And $180 is a very good deal for what I am getting phone and internet-wise but that's off topic. And I need all three - if I was a huge materialist I wouldn't be driving a 2001 economy car. :)
 
I guess I would have to see it... I can see it from your point of view though. Unfortunately, I am cursed with an extremely low level of patience. When someone asted 30 seconds of my time in a line or on the phone or whatever, I feel like I am going to lose it.

I think my car could best be described as a 2002 economy car, but it has exceptional handling. I am not materialistic at all, I just want to get where I am going fast.

I don't like crsuise control. It takes me mentally out of the task of driving and increases inattentiveness and boredom. I am afraid though that on a clear stretch of highway my speed will creep up towards 85 MPgh without realizing it and I will get a ticket. I cannot afford another one. Fuck it, if they do ticket me and suspend my license, I will go to court and tell the judge and trooper exactly what I think of their bogus money grabbing racket.
 
I am extremely impatient as well, but I let it out by calling people "cunts" and such under my breath when they are entering a freeway going 35 mph instead of tail-gating them. Right now, during this recession, you have to be especially careful. Cops in our country have quotas to meet. It's a "there are speeders out there, why aren't you giving them tickets?" mentality. It always has been, but even more now. I live on the major street in my city and it is not uncommon to see three or four people pulled over in parking lots at the same time within three blocks. It's a minefield out there, and there was a recent news story on the local news where a local traffic cop came out and said that traffic police are definitely not putting on their caps in the morning to make public areas safer - they are there to collect your money, and whatever happens to you afterward with your license is your problem from their perspective.
 
Fjones said:
ugh! I disagree with and/or object to everything in your list, but after typing a long reply, I lost the post when I accidentally hit the backspace button (or something, not sure what exactly).

I'll recreate it later.
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epic fail =D=D=D=D=D=D
 
Fjones said:
I am not pissed off because I have gottan a ticket. I am pissed off because I have gotten TWENTY SIX OF THEM. And I have driven 200,000 miles. If this is dangerous, then fucking lock me up already and stop letting me drive! Otherwise, leave me the fuck alone and start focusing on real crimes that actually hurt people!

I wish people on this thread could drive along with me on a highway to see how amazingly NOT dangerous it is the way I drive. There is no time at which an accident is impending at all. It is just not that difficult to drive a car fast when no cars are around you.
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We don't give drivers the discretion to determine the maximum safe speed under ideal conditions in this country.

And comments like the above are why you're getting flak. You knew the law; you broke the law; you were punished and fine for it. If you don't like getting tickets, then stop speeding.

Even if you've yet to lose your license or have it suspended, I suspect you're on the brink. In any event, 26 tickets equates to a huge sum of money in increased insurance costs and fines. Slow down. If you would prefer spending your extra time in the car doing something useful, buy an audio book or lecture. Practice a foreign language.
 
Heuristic said:
We don't give drivers the discretion to determine the maximum safe speed under ideal conditions in this country.

And comments like the above are why you're getting flak. You knew the law; you broke the law; you were punished and fine for it. If you don't like getting tickets, then stop speeding.
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I am aware that I can avoid speeding tickets by not speeding. What is the point of making such an obvious and irrelevant statement?

You seem to have managed to again miss my point entirely, which I find odd considering the post I made in post number 276.

Whether I get zero speeding tickets from here on out, or twenty speeding tickets, is not relevant to the discussion and analysis of the existing laws.

Seriously man, I don't get your response at all. If someone is debating the merits of abortion law, would you say, "Well, if you don't like the anti-abortion laws, don't have an abortion?"

"If you don't like the war on drugs, don't get busted using drugs?"

"If you don't like capital punishment, don't commit a capital crime?"

What the hell?
 
Fjones said:
I am aware that I can avoid speeding tickets by not speeding. What is the point of making such an obvious and irrelevant statement?

You seem to have managed to again miss my point entirely, which I find odd considering the post I made in post number 276.

Whether I get zero speeding tickets from here on out, or twenty speeding tickets, is not relevant to the discussion and analysis of the existing laws.

Seriously man, I don't get your response at all. If someone is debating the merits of abortion law, would you say, "Well, if you don't like the anti-abortion laws, don't have an abortion?"

"If you don't like the war on drugs, don't get busted using drugs?"

"If you don't like capital punishment, don't commit a capital crime?"

What the hell?
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Ah, you introduced the particular autobiographical fact I referenced, and you yourself stated the motivation for the thread. So crying foul when another picks up on those facts and motivation is a touch hypocritical.

At times you seem to elide the distinction between the issue of "should you get a ticket if you're driving 85-90mph given current speed limits" and "should we raise speed limits." This is why you're getting a range of responses, some addressing the latter question, and some addressing the former question.

Now, I think we've made some progress on the second issue. We all agree that as speed increases, the severity of accidents will increase as well. You argue that the benefits of raising the speed limit are worth the costs. But I haven't seen any statement of what those costs are, and what those benefits are.
 
I really don't understand why some people are in here just to be rude to Fjones. And I don't mean that everyone who has a different opinion from him is being rude. Debating is the whole point of the thread in the first place, thats not the issue... i'm talking about those who just want to drop rude comments. Idk, it's probably pointless to even bring this up, because I doubt these people even care, but seriously... just go the lounge or something.
 
Please stick to the topic and do not resort to childish insults and taunting other members, otherwise this thread will be closed (which would be a shame because there has been some interesting discussion within it).

Please don't ruin it for everyone else.

Thanks.
 
Fjones said:
12 years, 200,000 miles. So that is approximately one every six month and one every 8000 miles. Big deal.
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that seems like a lot, doesn't it?

I know people with 300+k miles and they have just 1 or 2 tickets.. personally I've never been pulled over but I drive very little (20k miles over the past 4 years).
 
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