A Good Year for the Outlaw

Let me preface by saying I’m all for safety, and again, let me state that speeding alone is NOT unsafe, it’s when there is a combination of poor driving habits involved that speeding CAN be unsafe.

Here is what I’ve said to the Legislators I’ve called this week.

I’m okay with the stings and speed traps, IF they’re performed with the following stipulations:

1) Any ticket written for between 0-10 miles over the limit would be a $25 fine. Period.

2) The ticket would NOT be reported to your insurance.

3) Would NOT be added to your permanent driving record.

4) The State would ADMIT publicly that it is a pure revenue-building speed trap.

5) There be a formula in place that would NOT allow the speed traps to be even be set up and performed until a required percentage of tickets were written in a given time period for the truly unsafe offenses. In that category would be: excessive speed IN EXCESS of 15 MPH over the posted speed limit; excessive speed of ANY kind in posted construction zones; improper lane change; failure to yield; failure to come to a complete stop; failure to properly signal;  driving while under the influence; improper and unsafe equipment; failure to have complete control of the vehicle (including reckless driving, unnecessary show of power, inattentiveness due to distraction, etc.).

Call it new fine an “energy waster fine” (as they do in Montana), or whatever you want to, but DON’T cause a guy’s insurance rates to go up, or cause him to have to go to court and waste a day of work just because you “caught” him doing 69 in the flow of traffic around him ALSO going 69. 

Plus, as I’ve talked to the Legislators, I’ve asked them to question the intelligence of lumping all cruisers that are supposed to be protecting a large geographical area into one small area. I’ve asked them to have the ISP explain fully how this can be a “safe” practice, or even an attempt at increasing safety. I’ve asked them to have the ISP explain fully how, if it is indeed unsafe for a trooper to exit his cruiser with traffic coming up behind him at highway speeds, how safe is it to have five of them doing it simultaneously in the same stretch of highway.

I will continue to work for sensical legislation in this regard, and for an admission that it’s simply a revenue stream for the state, nothing less. And that, again, I have NO PROBLEM with. Fine, you caught me going 71. Take my money, and put it to good use. You win. but  DON’T affect MY life and MY insurance rates because I was simply staying with the flow of traffic.

The things that are unsafe in this life, but people allow anyway, like smoking, drinking, drugs, guns, or whatever else, amaze me, yet these same people “cheer” when “one of us” gets pulled over. I’ve driven race cars up to 180 MPH. I’ve driven in dirt track races, I’ve driven school buses, tractors, small cars, big cars, pickups, snowmobiles, motorcycles, and boats. I’ve driven at high speed in close quarters, I’ve driven 20 in a school zone all by my lonesome.  I can HANDLE a freakin’ vehicle. I KNOW what is safe and unsafe. And me doing 71, 73, or even 75 MPH is NOT unsafe by ANY means.

But, unlike a lot of the cheerleaders against speeding, I DO use my turn signals, I DO come to a complete stop, I DO check my blind spots, I DO NOT delay oncoming traffic to suit my own needs and desires to drive exactly 65 while passing a guy doing exactly 64, I DO turn into the proper lanes when turning from one street to another, I DO enter the proper lanes when I merge into highway traffic, and I DO pay attention to what’s going on around me.

So catch me, write me my “energy waster” fine, I’ve got no problem with that. But DON’T tell me it’s for “safety”. Ever.