On Driving

Driving is what do to get from point A to point B. I am a fast driver - usually 10 miles over the speed limit. I try very hard not to drive too close to the person in front of me but I'll admit my antsy, hyperactivity sometimes gets the best of me and I find myself following too close and so I back off.

Here is my pet peeve about the issue:
I belong to many facebook groups where I've seen posted so many times that I count count how some "speed limit" driver is angry at a "fast driver" for passing them and they always then spend the next 15 minutes tracking that fast driver to see how much sooner they got to a certain place which isn't much. So for example, I'll read, "To that black truck that couldn't wait to speed past me on Mulino hill...haha we got to the city at the same time, I'm 3 cars behind you".

The speed-limit driver is always coming from the perspective that the reason fast-drivers drive fast is to get somewhere sooner or to beat other cars as if it's a competition. I guess it's a fair assumption but there is at least one other reason that fast-drivers drive fast and it's the reason that I drive fast. I just like to drive fast! My body does not know how to just mosey along at the speed limit. Try this sometime, you talk at the speed in which you talk, you don't decide that that's how fast you are going to talk, you just talk that way. Try to slow your rate of speech down by 1/3. See how uncomfortable that is? I'm not saying that it's not possible. I'm not saying that we have no control over ourselves and so what we do is what we do and oh well. I'm just saying that there are things we do for comfort that we like and it's the way we are and we want to be that way. I'm a fast-driver, I like it. I'm a fast-talker, a fast-walker, and a fast-task-doer as well. I don't move or think slowly.

So to all you speed-limit drivers who you think you've figured out the motive of the fast-drivers...you haven't figured out all the motives. Some people just like to drive fast! (*Note: the last time I was in a car accident and it wasn't attributed to speed at all -  it was a situation where the traffic signals weren't working and I thought it was my turn to go and apparently it wasn't? And a car that hadn't stopped first just made the left turn into me. It was my fault because I was supposed to give him the right of way which still confuses me - that was about 12 years ago? And I've never gotten a speeding ticket. I also have my own internal cop radar which comes nicely with my desire to drive fast).

I heard a statistic once and I'll probably screw up the numbers but you'll get the gist...85% of drivers will always go the posted speed limit or slower no matter what the speed limit is and 15% will always go faster no matter what the speed limit is. Well, I'm in that 15% or whatever that small percentage of drivers who always speed is. I live in the country, I take back roads, I avoid traffic, I avoid the city, I try to take the fastest and most direct way to somewhere that I can. I don't get mad at the large percentage of speed-limit drivers, I'm not mad that you are in front of me, I'm not mad that you are going slower, I simply want to get in front of you. I'm not trying to win, I'm not of the belief that if I drive 10 miles/hr faster that I'll get to my destination so much sooner, I simply want to move fast.