At Home Mechanic

No stoning? Just as I thought, you are all equally guilty. We all drive faster than the posted limit SOMETIMES. Some of us do it more often; some of us exercise better judgment than others when making the decision to speed down a street, road or highway. But we all do it. Some of us (me in particular) will ridicule a driver for slavishly adhering to the speed limit when the speed of traffic would logically suggest that a driving a bit faster may be courteous to the driver's stacked behind the good citizen poking along at the legal speed.

"But Scott, you are such a pain in the ass about street racing. Isn't it hypocritical of you to be so vehemently against all forms of street racing, including the "safe" forms of street racing, and then admit that you are common speeder yourself?"

Any kind of driving is inherently dangerous, even when you are driving down a quiet suburban side street there is a chance that injury can occur when you least expect it. Racing raises the danger quotient by several factors. With as many safety precautions as we take in organized racing, there still is no form of completely "safe" racing. When you race on the street, even on a "completely deserted road with no other traffic," you are endangering yourself plus innocent bystanders. Frankly, there is no justification for racing on the street and I have no problem with Prosecutors who pursue the harshest punishment for convicted street racers.

Going a little faster than the posted limit is not racing; racing involves more than one vehicle. Making a choice to exceed the posted limit, the limit that has been deemed to be the safest maximum for that road, is a choice to violate the law. The degree of how incorrect that choice is can be rated by the amount that you exceed the posted speed limit. The faster you go, the more wrong you are.

But if loving my car by driving a bit too fast is wrong, then I never want to be right.