For the record I am a delivery driver. I am driving on the roads of Memphis at least seven hours a day. I obey all the rules of the road. Not because I have to, but because it is proper. The speed limit is the speed limit for a reason. It is a safety procedure. If you want to race your car then take it to the track and get off of the street.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal recently wrote an article on how many tickets the Memphis Police are giving out on the interstates. The Commercial Appeal quoted one enraged citizen saying police resources should not be used for pulling people over for speeding. Coming from someone who is driving all day for a living, this is exactly what the Memphis Police should be pulling people over for.
The speed limit is a law that should be followed regardless of your personal life or situation. Surprisingly nine out of ten people will not go the speed limit. I travel down two lane roads with a posted speed limit of 35MPH all day long. Every day someone makes an illegal dash around me on these roads because they are too important to go the speed limit and have no concern for the laws of the road. Laws of the road are not rules you can bend or break whenever you want. Like I said before, "If you want to race, take it to the track and get off of the street".
You may think you have a fast car and can go 5 or 10 miles over the speed limit since you are so cool in your fast car. News flash - you still have to go the speed limit. I have a 2011 Nissan Versa with under 10 thousand miles. I go the speed limit. I also have a 1999 Pontiac Sunfire GT 2.4L DOHC that I have turned into a racing beast that smokes every Mustang GT in it's path. I go the speed limit. The Memphis International Raceway offers you a chance to take your car as fast as you can get it in a safe environment. So stop speeding and obey the laws of the road.
If you get pulled over for speeding than you can only blame yourself. You should thank the officer that pulled you over for making the streets a safer place to drive. I have always believed this. I have seen some stupid drivers in my 10 years of driving in Memphis and those stupid drivers don't seem to care about anyone other than themselves. These are the people that I have trained myself to spot and to avoid on the road.
How do you avoid the drunks, texting idiots, and late for work "rushers", on Germantown Parkway going 50MPH? Skill. Within two seconds of looking at a person and how they are driving I can determine their whole driving style and know to stay clear of their death machine on wheels or stay near them.
Speed limits, blinkers, smooth braking, proper trailing distance - These laws have become rather guidelines to modern drivers who seem to be unimpressed with their importance. They are laws for a reason. We as citizens follow laws to uphold a decent society. Police enforce laws to uphold a decent society. We all work together. Idiots break the law and continue to break the law everyday.
I agree that Police should not waste their time pulling people over for traffic violations because there should be no violations in the first place if people would just follow the laws. I wish there were traffic cops driving around all day catching people doing illegal things on the road. Maybe that would stop the speeders on Walnut Grove who seem to go 20 miles over the speed limit and don't care.
All types of people speed in their cars. I say "Boys race on the street, Men race on the track". However there is one stereotype that I have come to conclude in my everyday observations. Fat people speed the most. My theory for this is that fat people cannot walk fast, run fast, or do anything fast, so they feel the need to speed in their vehicles because it's the only way they can be fast. It's just a theory but I will leave it to you to decide.
However you look at it, speeding is speeding. One or two miles an hour over the speed limit could be an accident. As soon as you hit five miles an hour over the speed limit then it is premeditated and intentional speeding. Most people say they always drive five miles over the speed limit on a normal street and ten miles over the speed limit on the highways. My question to those people is "Who the hell do you think you are?". You are not above the law. Follow the rules or take it to the track. You can argue but I'm right and you know it. If you don't think I'm right than your perspective on right and wrong is skewed and you should enroll in a local elementary school for summer classes to learn basic principles of morals.
There are two sides to this story you can choose to support. You can support the police and the laws of the road or you can support the speeder. All of this blog article is because of an article I read from the Memphis Commercial Appeal, "Memphis police crackdown on interstate speeders draws anger, relief from drivers". The article chose to lean on the side of the speeders in stead of supporting the local Police in this controversial issue. This is an outrage when I would see the day the local newspaper did not support the Police upholding the law. That's how routine the average person makes speeding. This must change.
To all the speeders out there I say this one more time, "take it to the track and get off of the street". To all the police giving speeding tickets I say "thank you and could you please post up on Walnut Grove, Dexter, and Macon by Houston Levee". Follow the laws of the road and you have no issues getting pulled over.
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