The first thing I see today morning is a link to an article that one of my friends forwarded. It was titled "As sure as night follows day, you are going to get a traffic ticket soon". Uh-oh! Not a good start at all... It looked like something B would say! But the mail was not from him. And I digged in. Before we go on, here is some background on my driving. I'm generally a safe but fast driver. I tend to think that if the driver and the car can handle it, then going faster is not wrong as long as you follow all the rules (excepting the speed limit rule of course!). Though I do drive fast, I always always follow the rules (especially the ones that are necessary/important). Never would you see me jumping a red light or do violent/crazy driving. Sure, I sometimes hit the pedal and do some zip zap zooming but all in such a way that the car is under my complete control. Almost all of my friends know it and I get teased for the fast driving now and then.
Ever since one of my friends got his ticket, I've been tagged as "The next person in the group to get a ticket". Its even been predicted that I'll just surpass the officer's expectations and go to jail for speeding instead of getting measly tickets (oh God! no!!). And, as days went by, I kept hearing more and more stories of how someone got a ticket. Just the last weekend (yup! Memorial day weekend), a total of ten people that I knew got tickets (one of it was my friend's brother who was visiting - for not wearing seat belts in the back seat! Heights!!). And most were surprised that I hadn't gotten one.
Now, me, wanting to hold on to non-ticketed state and not wanting the hassles of being ticketed (read: being a lazy bum), started following all the rules religiously (including doing a full stop before turning a right on red, B). Though this has toned down my driving considerably, it has also taken the fun out of driving. I miss the zip zap zooming and am afraid to actually take the highways for long drives for fear of just pressing on (and getting tickets).
According to me, the one thing that differentiates good drivers from great drivers is being able to drive safe AND fast. As far as I know, only a few people go on to become great drivers. Even among my friends, I am not comfortable with everyone's driving. Sure, I trust their driving. But not enough to sleep off in the car! I'm ever on alert mode to make sure things are fine. Sadly, that makes me a very light sleeper during car travels (either very short periods of sleep or longer periods of very very light sleep). So, naturally, I want to be one of the great drivers I know. I know I drive safely (read: don't do anything stupid, take calculated risks, handle situations without any issues, etc) but as for driving fast, I guess I'll have to stop that soon. And be stuck in the good drivers list for some time! Ugh!
PS: I'm seriously considering not doing long drives/not using my car much AND/OR a trip to Germany (just for beloved Autobahn).
PPS: I'm also thinking of getting a GPS with the speed option on and training myself to drive looking at the GPS instead of the speedometer of my car. We should rather have the GPS speed-check in place of the speedometer. Oh bother!
1 comment:
He he.. Firstly, congrats for staying "without ticket" (as yet) :)
And I could totally relate to the confidence you have. I too feel the same about my own driving - fast and safe.
But then, my guess is - all of us think so!! :)
I remember reading about a survey where 80+% of respondents said they were above average in their driving skills. Which is funny, considering the definition of "average" :)
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