Rants Against Humanity #1

There are plenty of topics I could rant against humanity on, but I'm just going to choose one at a time. This is kind of a more angry post for me, instead of my regular sharing something cool or stating an idea, but these Rants Against Humanity are not just for whenever I'm randomly feeling mad at the world. These are rants dealing with serious issues that the majority of people possess. I'm not just writing this because I had a bad day (I didn't), I'm writing it because I hope to be able to change some opinions, or at least make a few people think.

Today's Rant is about tailgaters. Every time I set foot in my vehicle, I pick up a tailgater within minutes. I can't even drive down the street in my suburban town (which lacks any commercial buildings at all, it's solely residential) without having someone right behind me down the hill. Even at 6:30 in the morning, when I leave for school (a mere four miles away), I am tailgated all the way to school. Why is this? It's because I actually drive the speed limit. A shocking revelation, no? I've had instances where people turn their brights on right behind me, thinking that somehow that will make me drive faster or something (and when you drive a '98 Volkswagen Jetta, the brights from almost any vehicle get you right in the eyes). I've had people so close on me that if I were to tap the brakes at all, they would plow straight through my car before even having time to react (on the freeway, no less!). I've had people so antsy to pass me, that by the time I pull into the turn lane, they've already accelerated twenty miles per hour and are blazing straight past me. All this, just because I drive the speed limit.

Why must the law-abiding citizens be the ones to suffer? Technically, you have no right to get ticked off at me for going the speed limit. After all, that's the law, and any higher than that and you are liable to get a ticket (even if it's only two miles per hour over, you can technically still get a ticket). People should be thanking me for preventing them from having to pay a speed tax, not flashing their brights in my eyes. Tailgating is not only extremely annoying, it's incredibly dangerous. If there were to be a deer in the middle of the road one day as I'm driving to school, I would be the person likely to incur the most damage, because I would have to jam on my brakes to avoid hitting the deer, but I would then be hit from behind by the moron who was in such a hurry that he had to be six inches away from my back bumper.

If you can't follow the speed limit, people, I don't think you should be on the road. Deliberately driving faster than the speed limit is a blatant disregard of national law, and is akin to embezzling funds or lying on your tax returns or cheating on your time sheet. If you consider yourself above such mundane things as a speed limit, who knows? Maybe the next thing you'll be doing is stealing money from your employers. The rewards of law-breaking (a few seconds' worth less of travel time, a few extra dollars, a few more dollars not withheld by the government, et cetera) are far outweighed by the consequences (which can include hefty fines and prison time). Most people wouldn't steal money from their company, so why would they break other laws and drive too fast?

The benefits of driving fast aren't even all that great, anyway. On a sixty-mile trip, if you drive sixty miles an hour, it takes you one hour, no? Driving seventy miles an hour results in a trip time of fifty-one minutes and twenty-five seconds. Thus, ten miles per hour over the speed limit saves you eight minutes off of an hour-long trip. When you're going less than sixty miles (say, down the road to piano lessons, or to the grocery store to pick up some milk, or whatever), the time benefits get even slimmer. The penalties for being caught remain just as heavy, though. Think about it. Anyone with half a brain should know better than to exceed the speed limit.

My experience with being tailgated is such that I've begun to avoid major roads in favor of other, lesser-traveled routes. I haven't even had my driver's license for six months yet (I got it on November 23, 2007), and already I hate driving through town, just because there's always a line of people behind me who are in such a hurry, and have no patience for this young fool who actually drives the speed limit. There's also a prevailing mindset of people around where I live, in which they believe that police officers are not allowed to pull you over unless you're going ten miles an hour over the speed limit and above. This is a lie. Police officers can pull you over for going as little as one mile per hour over the limit (that's not saying they will, because discrepancies in speedometers can be fairly large sometimes, but it's legal nonetheless).

Plenty of people drive thirty-four miles per hour down residential roads, just because "I won't get pulled over, because a cop isn't going to waste his time on me when there are other, more serious crimes being committed. Besides, I'm not even going ten miles an hour over the limit!". True, you might be able to drive like that for many years without having an encounter with the law, but it's the principle behind the idea. It goes back to the embezzling funds analogy. You wouldn't do that, would you? Why should you be exceeding the speed limit, then? Speeding is every bit as illegal as money laundering. Yes, people might argue that they have been driving nine miles over the limit for years and they have never been pulled over, but the odds are stacked against you. I plan on never getting pulled over for going too fast. If you are careful about following speed limits, that goal is most certainly reachable.

I have hardly ever had an opportunity to tailgate people. Even on the rare occasion that I'm stuck behind someone slow, I am always respectful and maintain a two-car length distance, no matter how slowly Grandma and Grandpa are crawling down the hill. I'll admit, I'm not perfect, and sometimes I catch myself driving too fast in a residential zone or on the freeway, but for the most part I'm pretty good about it, and at least I try.

On a tangent, some of the best fun you can ever have is when you're on a single-lane road with a low speed limit, and there's someone behind you who is obviously in a BIG hurry. Try driving exactly the speed limit down the road, and pay special attention to the car behind you. It's hilarious to watch the driver get all angry and mad at you, but by far the best part is the knowledge that he is not legally allowed to do anything about it. After all, you're driving the speed limit, and he is supposed to be driving the speed limit, so there's nothing for him to complain about. Road rage? That's a possibility, but not a probability. Humans are mostly civilized nowadays, even if many of them are stupid.

On a final note, please use some common sense and drive the speed limit. Okay, that might be too much to ask. Some people are just so busy and their time is so valuable that they feel they have to save as much time as possible while on the road, even if it's only eight minutes per every sixty miles. If you hate it when people ahead of you are going slower than you are, please at least maintain a safe two-car length distance.