Re: I Hate Lasers
I love to annoy cops and drive exactly the speed limit or slower when they are behind me. :eg:
You realize of course that in doing so, you're basically FORCING the cop behind you to plug your license plate into his computer... and once he sees that the flashy vehicle in front of him is registered to a 17 year old kid, and without a clean driving record....
Even if you're doing NOTHING wrong, and the cop is annoyed enough, he WILL pull you over. Believe me, he will always find a reason for why he pulled you over after the fact. For example unsafe driving. He can say you were weaving within the lane... his word against yours, you have an expensive ticket. Or even a spec of dust anywhere on your car or windshield... all of a sudden again, he spent 10 minutes of his life writing a ticket, you'll spend hours of your life dealing with and the consequences.
Don't annoy cops. You'll be happier that way, and so will they.
Yeah, I've seen my share of cops breaking the laws for their own purposes. It eventually catches up with them.
And I wasn't only directing my questions to you Haloid as others have stated that they also speed. Rather, I was placing the questions out there for everyone to consider. How much time savings is worth an innocent life ?
I use the same sorts of observations and knowledge of the areas involved to dictate if I will meet or exceed posted speeds as well, like you, but not in the school or playground zones.
I have always been aware that the world is far bigger than children can ever know and they don't always remember that there are others out there that can hurt them, even if unintentionally. Sometimes all it takes is wanting to share a new song they learned on the week-end or a neat thing they just saw or they have gym class that day and they really like gym class and suddenly they are in the roadway...
Nope !
Not worth the risk.
I will always be happy to be late and say "I didn't hurt anybody on my way here today."
And I have been driving with that in mind for 25+ years now.
But enough of my preaching...geez. It's like I have nothing better to do today here at work.
The question of speed, reaction time and stopping distance is a bit more complicated than simply saying that if you drive 25mph you are driving in a safe manner.
The reality is if a kid or anything else pops out 10 feet in front of you it will not make the slightest bit of difference whether you're going 25mph or 40mph. You still won't have time to even hit the breaks. It is an unfortunate and sad bit of human limitation. If the end result is the same, does it really matter what speed you get to it?
When I got my last speeding ticket, many years ago, (when I was beating up a rental car for a bit of fun
) the cop gave me a lecture saying that I was going too fast, and what if a mother with a child in a stroller was crossing the road as I was driving. I wouldn't have time to stop.
Just one small problem... I was on am empty five lane 35mph road, with no traffic lights, intersections, or cross walks in any direction for quite a distance, so what exactly would anyone be doing crossing there? Or to what? He got really pissed when I asked that, ticket was already written though, so it's not like I had anything to lose, but cops really hate it when you use common sense
Now that said, school zones are a special case, and I generally never speed in them. In many cases what defines a school zone is somewhat ridiculous though. One of the four tickets I've gotten in my ten years of driving was in a 25mph school zone. The school itself was actually half a mile away, across from, and sitting right next to a four lane road where the speed limit is 35mph though. Made no sense whatsoever:can:
Ultimately to my way of thinking, the driver should be more responsible and aware of the road conditions, and how to drive safely, than signs posted over twenty years ago. Present road conditions, visibility, type of car, and car load, all of that is something I take into account when driving. Does that mean I'm speeding? Most of the time yes it does. Does that mean I'm driving in an unsafe manner. Absolutely not.
