I used to drive fast. Wicked fast. Everywhere. I had the wheels to do it too. My favorite car was a 1987 Lincoln Sport Coupe Mark VII. Ultra luxurious and faster than poop.
Nowadays I drive slow. Speed limit slow. My wife gets on me for driving slow. My kids get on me for driving slow. I was driving my grandmother home last Christmas and she said "could you pick it up a little?"
Here's my reasoning:
I used to get a lot of tickets, now I don't because I drive slow. I drive slow because I thought about it.
If I am traveling 100 miles doing the speed limit of 65 MPH, I'll arrive at my destination in an hour and a half or so. If I go 75 MPH I'll get there about five minutes faster.
If I get pulled over for speeding going 75MPH, I'll get a $100 ticket ($10 for each MPH over the limit) PLUS a $50 surcharge on my insurance for 7 years. That's a total of $450 to save 5 minutes on my trip.
Not even factoring in the time lost while pulled over, I would need to earn $5,400 per hour to justify the ticket cost/time saved quotient.
So when I earn $5,400 per hour, I'll drive as fast as I want.
Until then, grandma will have to be more patient.
Great post. Ain't it the truth? There are exits I avoid because of ticket situtions that are no longer on the books here in Connecticut! Every time some cop would pull me over, I would think, "Why are you stopping me and not the coke dealer who darn near ran me off the road?" The are afraid of the coke dealer, of course. I'm a low risk ticket.
ReplyDeleteBut no more. I don't speed. I'm enough to make an old lady weep.