It doesn’t matter who you are at one time or another in your life you have made the decision to drive over the speed limit to get there a little bit quicker. I have seemingly noticed too many people who are in too much of a hurry to get wherever they are going. I wanted to present the facts of why you shouldn’t speed as they were reported to me by my Grandfather many years ago. I think about them every time I see a young person commit crazy maneuvers in traffic because their destination is seemingly more important than the safety of all of the other people on the road. I would like to talk to them like my Grandfather talked to me and simply say, if you are speeding you are an idiot.

“Everybody’s going somewhere, Riding just as fast as they can ride
I guess they’ve got a lot to do, Before they can rest assured
Their lives are justified, Pray to God for me baby
He can let me slide.” – Jackson Browne

It’s Not Everybody else’s Fault you are late

Many people feel that because they are late then their radical driving is justified and everyone else on the road should have to endure the tailgating, angry gestures and potential accidents provided by the perennially late travelers.  Now if you have to be somewhere, like work, before a certain time and it is really important to you, like important enough to drive 90 MPH or cut people off or just drive like a maniac in general. Then perhaps you should just, well I don’t know, plan on giving yourself plenty of time to get where you are going. You can’t use oversleeping as an excuse, because either you didn’t get enough sleep or didn’t plan on enough time to get ready in the morning.  You do not have the right to get into an accident because you are simply in a hurry. Your accident could cost you your life, or even worse the life of someone else that didn’t have anything to do with the fact that you were late. Plan ahead, and if you are going to be late, accept that fact and do better planning tomorrow.

How Much Time Do You Really Save?

Now comes the common sense part that always seems to escape people’s comprehension. If you are driving eighty instead of fifty, how much actual time are you saving yourself. Remember this is driving 80 not just 70, which is more likely and much more common. When you are passing six cars in a row on a two lane road because you just have to get going you should keep this in mind.  This involves a little algebra so I am sure that many of the people I have seen in the last few days will have trouble comprehending this, but please take a little time and you may just learn something and not be so much of an idiot.

Let’s say that you have a 20 minute commute to work which is pretty reasonable in this area. Just for arguments sake, there are no stop signs it is just a straight shot to work and you will be able to drive as fast and crazy as you want. If you figure it out mathematically, if you can maintain a constant speed of 80 MPH then the trip would take you fifteen minutes. If you traveled at a much safer speed of 60 MPH then the same trip is going to take you 20 minutes. So by driving like a loser and endangering your life and those of everyone around you you are at the most saving five minutes. If you get in an accident or more likely get stopped for speeding all of that time you saved is gone.

Now add in all of the other factors, like stop lights and areas where the speed limit is much lower, and you will decrease this difference, so it is likely in the end that by the time you get where you are going you have driven like a total moron and you have saved yourself a grand total of two minutes if your are lucky. I hope you think about this the next time you pull some NASCAR move on the road or shake your fist with road rage.

Physics of it all makes you an Idiot as well

When you are traveling at a higher rate of speed you are removing much of your ability to stop, turn or react to any emergency situation, like having a tire blow out or an animal run into the road or another driver is perhaps a bigger idiot than you are and is driving even more recklessly than you. the slower you go the more opportunity you will have to compensate for the unexpected. It is simple physics so it should be easily understood that moving at a slower rate of speed is safer.

As you grow older and get a little more life experience you will start to understand that the world does not revolve around you and your schedule. Hopefully you will just realize this fact in the normal flow of life, and not because something tragic has happened to you. Or you haven’t driven your car off the road or cause the death of someone else because you were just in a hurry. So please stop being an idiot and drive under control.