Something Thoughtful

  Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.

                                                 SPEED AND IMBECILITY

            My wife and I are driving on a highway north of Auckland. I am at the wheel. We are enjoying the clear sky, the scenery and the cool jazz we’ve chosen to listen. A perfect ride. I am driving on the left lane at 80 per k. To our right on the inner lane there are cars buzzing past us at about 100 per k. This is now legal, so good luck to them, though I prefer 80 per k. and a slightly more leisurely pace. Suddenly my rear-vision mirror shows a car rushing up to us and then placing itself all of about two metres behind us. He obviously wants us to speed up. I say a few choice words to myself, wonder why somebody wants to sniff my bum like this, and I continue at the speed I am already driving. After some cars on our right have left open a gap, the road hog moves over, joining the 100 per k. group, and goes on his way… but in the distance ahead, we see him dodging and weaving between lanes, trying to get ahead of any car on the highway… and obviously going over 100 per k. Is it an emergency? Is his house burning down? Is his wife giving birth? Does he have to be on time for an important appointment? I suppose this is possible, but I doubt it. About five kilometres later the traffic has to slow down because of some event ahead of us. We find the road hog all of one car ahead of us. So what price all the speed anyway?

            I’m not a saint when it comes to driving. I have been known to use out-loud un-printable words when I’m trapped in a traffic-jam. But I do wonder why some people feel compelled to go as fast as they can when they don’t have to. At best, it appears to be a mania for teenaged boys… and teenaged boys [and some immature men in their twenties] are always way ahead in the statistics of death-by-car.

            Which brings me to a phenomenon that I have dealt with before on this blog. There is a prejudice claiming that “truckies” [drivers of large heavy-weight trucks] are boorish, thoughtless and careless about other traffic on the road. Quite the opposite is true. See a skilled truck-driver on the road, and you see somebody who knows how to load and handle goods without breaking them; who knows how to slow down when the road is twisty; who knows how to let cars pass when there is a slow-down lane; and who knows how to manoeuvre when having to reverse. See if you can back-up a large truck through a narrow gate. I have often seen this and I know it takes great skill. Of course trucks sometimes crash – usually on difficult roads far from the motorways – and when they do, they make headlines in newspapers and on the evening news. But every year, far more crashes are the result of thoughtless car-driving idiots who think their only purpose in driving is to go fast as possible, often to show-off with their mates or girlfriends. It happens on both motorways and rural back-roads.

            As for the legal 100 per k. speed on motorways and rural roads, as has often been said, 100 per k. is an option, not a target. Yes, you can be charged for deliberately going too slow and holding up the traffic; but the fact is there is no law compelling you to go at top legal speed.