That was my quote of the day the other day. My student was driving at 29 MPH in a 30 MPH zone, and she said, “I feel so badly for the people stuck behind us right now.” I won’t lie, this kind of made me upset.
How can it be wrong to go the speed limit? There is no reason to feel badly for people who have to go the speed limit. They are supposed to be going the speed limit too. The fact that cars get stacked up behind us going the speed limit means that they were clearly speeding, or they would not have caught up to us. Every one of them had to have been speeding.
The fact that this student has this thought, makes me think that in her car at home she routinely hears comments that make her think it is a mistake or a bad thing to hold up the people behind you, and that if you are going the speed limit you will annoy people. That it is somehow something to apologize for.
Why have we, as a society, decided that this is the one law that does not matter? That it is not just OK to speed, but that everyone does it, and therefore we should too? Why do people think that being behind a student driver who is going one MPH below the speed limit is doing so just to annoy them? My favorite is when people want to yell in our direction, “Learn how to drive!” I hate to tell you, but that’s what we are doing.
So please think about what we are teaching your kiddos. How impatient are you when other cars are driving slowly, and what is your definition of going slowly? The speed limit is there for the safety of everyone. You may disagree, but maybe you should take it up with the people who actually make the speed limits. The decisions are actually a factor of many things including how far you can see down the road, the average speed of 70% of traffic on that stretch of road, pavement grip, and previous accidents in that location. You may think you know what you would make the speed limit, but you do not have all the facts.
Try to be patient and grant a little grace to the kids trying to be rule followers and just get comfortable out on the roads. Let it be OK to go the speed limit. Try it yourself once in a while! Thanks.