Limits

Limit. 

Noun. A prescribed maximum or minimum. Websters.

Not a difficult concept.

Except, perhaps, when used as in the photo above.

Well, folks, that's meant as a maximum. Definitely not a minimum.

No matter what a lot of drivers believe.

Okay, the numbers. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2009 there were 10,951 speeding-related traffic fatalities in the U.S. That's roughly comparable to gun-related homicides (CDC reported 11,078 of those in 2010).

We've heard a lot about guns and homicide, but the tragic reality is that speeding is just as deadly. That means trying to get to that next red light a little quicker. Using the gas pedal to express your frustration with the complexities of life. Or your failure to deal sensibly with schedules. Or voicing your contempt for some other driver by leaving them in the dust. Or doing the same thing, to stroke your ego.

Speed kills. It really does. Often. Much too often.

More numbers. Traveling one mile at 45 mph takes 1 minute, 20 seconds. The same distance at 55 takes about 14 seconds less. Fourteen seconds - worth raising the risk of killing someone?

Even over a longer distance, is the difference that important? A hundred miles at 60 mph takes an hour and forty minutes. Seventy saves less than 15 minutes. That's maybe the time spent dawdling over a cup of coffee, knowing the clock is running but pretending it's not. Is the life of that stranger in that Chevy, or maybe your lovely spouse sitting next to you, worth that little time management faux pas?

How much time is your life worth? Your spouse's? Your kids? Somebody else's kids? Believe, me, they're all worth a lot more than the few seconds you're trying to shave.

Driving a school bus, I see it all the time. Drivers rushing to get around me, and up to that red light moments before I do. Racing to get ahead of me before the road narrows to two lanes. Or running up behind me, flashing their lights to speed me up. (Sorry, a single speeding ticket would cost me my job, to say nothing about how speeding might endanger "my" kids.) Even cursing me for going "too slow" (yes, it's happened).

Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last.

That, and the lives of the people you endanger. Including your own.

Oh yeah, and you'll also be saving money, a lot of money -- on the tickets, on your auto insurance, on taking the taxi after your license gets suspended. Maybe on repair costs, medical bills, lawyers' fees and court judgments, too. Speeding can cost you a lot, an awful lot, and I'm not talking just money.

Besides, do the limit and driving becomes so much easier, 'cause all the fools passing you by invariably leave the lane empty in front of you. And you can listen to your music in peace.



P.S. One more set of numbers. In 2010, 197,616 drivers got speeding tickets in Virginia. That's three and a third per cent of all Virginia drivers. Why chance being one of them? Especially when running all the risks won't gain you much?