Shame(s) on you: Florida Speed Limits

Shame(s) on you, South Florida.

Your blatant disregard for common sense has left me raging mad on this my 24th birthday! That's because I just received a speeding ticket for going 65 mph in a 40 mph zone. Now I can't deny that I was speeding because technically I was. But what I can do is argue that what I was doing (65 mph down a major three lane road with no other traffic around me) shouldn't be considered speeding.

It's not like I was weaving in and out of traffic, putting myself and other drivers at risk by driving recklessly. Quite the contrary. All I was doing was driving in a straight line down a wide open stretch of real estate. It wasn't raining, the road wasn't curving, and I wasn't impaired. I was driving at a speed I was comfortable with in order to get home in a timely fashion. There was absolutely no reason to pull me over. At yet there I was, on the side of the road, like some kind of common criminal, getting in trouble for breaking the law.

And that to me is inexcusable. I'm not a bad driver. There's no reason why I should now have points on my license. My name is not Rob Roll. I'm a safe driver. Not only have I never been in an accident I've never even come close to one. I don't tailgate, I don't speed unnecessarily, and I don't participate in road rage. I should not have to dip into my savings account to pay a fine for doing something that didn't endanger anybody.

Truth be told, 40 mph is way too slow of a speed limit. That should really be the speed minimum. Honestly, if I had to do 40 mph every where I went I would never get anywhere. Doing a speed that slow would add about half an hour each way to my commute every day. And I sure as hell don't want to spend anymore time stuck in traffic than I have to.

Now, I know that speed limits are there for my own protection. To save me from getting into accidents or from getting hurt by other drivers who aren't as good as I am. But there is such a thing as driving too slow. And I believe that 40 mph is way too slow. No wonder that there's a perception out there that no one knows how to drive in Florida. It's not that they don't know but rather that they've all received speeding tickets before and now follow the speed limit as if their life depended on it.

And yet in spite of the strict enforcement of the speed limit or probably because of it there are still hundreds if not thousands of accidents each year in South Florida. Seemingly everday at 5 pm on I95 as a matter of fact.

So, all in all I'm here to say that there is life beyond 40 mph. And I'm not going to change the way I drive because of one speeding ticket that I didn't deserve. I live life in the fast lane and there's no slowing me down!