When did you receive your first speeding ticket? Was it justified in, say, you were speeding unlawfully and rightly deserved your ticket? Or was it a product of the police trying to fill their quota?

I will be the first to admit I am no innocent victim of my first speeding ticket. Before yesterday, I had been pulled once over years ago while I was still living in Washington. I had a car with two friends in it and naturally that does not bode well for the intelligence factor. Luckily, at the time I got a stern talking to and a warning to watch my speed. 

When I first got my license I moved to Japan for a year and so did not drive at all. Upon my return, it took awhile for me to get back into the swing of driving (especially since I was used to the drivers seat being the passenger seat for a year). As one of my brothers bluntly put it, when I got back it was much like a turtle driving since I went really slow.

As drivers in Phoenix, Arizona will attest, if you’re not doing at least 20 mph over the speed limit down there you will most likely be rammed off the road. Naturally, this led me to pick up some pretty bad speeding habits while I was there since I had to keep with the flow of traffic. (To those who have never lived or been to Phoenix: please see the list “How to Drive in Phoenix” to understand).

It was surprising when we moved to Florida that they’re just as bad as Phoenix drivers but they have another element: they have more older people. Don’t get me wrong, I adore older people but sometimes a few of them don’t help the stereotype that they’re bad drivers. I was expecting, in moving, that I’d have to learn how to tone down my speeding ways. However, I found instead that I fit in perfectly in the area and kept up with traffic around me.

That was, until yesterday morning.

The day started off badly anyway, since, the night before, Mack and I had taken Bucky to the emergency ER. There wasn’t anything dire or life threatening happening with him but he had been throwing up that day so we were worried. After dealing with that, I was up Monday morning trying to get ahold of his vet to see if we should bring him in (more on the whole emergency visit later). This, in turn, meant by the time I left home, I was heavily distracted and kind of late.

Recipe for disaster you say? OH MAYBE.

The freeway entrance near our apartment is pretty bad. The entrance kind of turns into an exit lane to a busy exit and frankly, people are jerks and tend to speed up so that you can’t get out of the lane. That was a factor yesterday: I had a line of cars trying to cut me off. Now, by no means am I passing the buck on this, but at the time I reacted by picking up my speed and merging over two lanes so I would not be tailgated. In retrospect, I think I probably should have just been tailgated so the cop hidden around the bend would have busted them instead of me.

I get pulled over, naturally. The added bonus in this whole equation was it was a “work zone” though the work areas are not for a few miles. The cop asked me if I was aware of the speed limit (yes) and knew my speed when he busted me (unfortunately yes as well). He disappeared into his car to write me a ticket and now I am the proud owner of my first (and hopefully last) speeding ticket. 

I got off pretty light, considering all the factors (construction zone, my speed, etc). I think the part that irritates me the most is not that I got busted but rather afterwards on my trips to and from work, I’ve done nothing but the speed limit and have been passed by everyone (including a cop), tailgated, and flipped off.

Where do you stand on the need for speed? Would you rather do the speed limit and risk being passed and tailgated? Or would you rather speed a little? Common rule is generally keep up with traffic but when traffic is doing the speed I got busted at, what is a girl to do?

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