Once bitten twice shy: Speeding lesson

When I first came to America, I was blown over by how friendly and warm people are. Ok I should narrow it down geographically and say when I came to California, not America, because America is huge. 

Smiles and greetings are exchanged every time you make eye contact with someone on the street, in a shop or at the checkout counter. 

When crossing the road, if a driver stops a little ahead of the stop sign, he would reverse his car so I would have adequate space to cross. Such a sweet gesture! And how utterly considerate! This simple act used to amaze me because from where I came from (Singapore and Malaysia), we don’t see any of that thoughtfulness. Humans are more likely to be injured than cars so we have to look out for vehicles that could crush us - we’re talking man versus steel and survival of the fittest. Who do you suppose is stronger? Man or steel? The weaker party has to acknowledge his limitations and recognize his frailty and look out for the stronger opponent (object) which could crush him. 

Well, not in America. A pedestrian is treated with utmost respect. So much so that I’ve noticed a lot of Americans taking their rights as pedestrians for granted. Say in an open space parking area where there are no designated pedestrian crossing, particularly in a shopping center - it is not uncommon to see pedestrians walk as if they own the road, as if they have all the time in the world and with total disregard to cars that are trailing slowly behind them. Drivers will not hurry these self-absorbed pedestrians, because in America, pedestrians are king. Pedestrians always have the right of way, even though he/she is in the wrong and shouldn’t cross a road where there are no pedestrian crossings. There have been several occasions where I crossed the road where there wasn’t a pedestrian crossing, and although I was obviously wrong for doing so, the driver slowed down, stopped, and gestured for me to cross. Often, the driver would even smile at me. I’d feel bad during those times. I had violated a traffic law but because of this country’s respect for pedestrians, I receive a royalty-like treatment. It still feels strange to me now to be a recipient of such kindness when I don’t deserve it.

Over time, I have learnt to offer similar respect to pedestrians as a driver. I wasn’t always like this. I’ve been indoctrinated into the local culture - driving slowly in parking lots, watching out for oblivious, slow walkers, and letting them take their time as they sashay from their cars to the grocery store or shops. 

Having lived in California now for eight years, I’m proud to confess I have had only one speeding ticket thus far, and would you know it, not on the freeway where drivers are likely to speed, but in a residential and school area where the speed limit is 25 mph. I saw the traffic police, mind you, but I thought I should drive as naturally as possible and not go out of my way to please him or to get in his good books. In other words, I thought I shouldn’t be a hypocrite and step on the brake, and instead, let my car cruise along. Unfortunately for me, I was at a downhill descend and in the absence of the application of brakes, my car gained natural momentum and the speedometer read 46 mph. The traffic police trailing behind me signaled for me to pull over to the side of the road. In my naive mind, I hadn’t done anything wrong except to drive carefully and not do anything out of the ordinary, so I was surprised that he pulled me over at all. 

He asked if I knew what the speed limit was. 

Yes, 25 mph. 

Do you know how fast you were traveling? 

Yes, below 30 mph - I was trying hard to keep it low despite the downhill.

Well, you went over 46 mph. 

Oh I had no idea.

Please produce your driver's license and car registration. 

I did as I was asked. I asked for permission to step out of my car to retrieve my driver’s license from my jacket which I’ve left in the trunk of the car. I was visibly upset and angry because up to that point I was adamant (in my mind - I didn’t say it to the police officer) that I had done the right thing. How misled and misguided we often are by our own beliefs, I realized. I learnt an important lesson that day - our perspective is limited by our knowledge and experience - our concept of right and wrong is narrow to the extent of our knowledge and experience - so instead of insisting on being right all the time, be open and receptive to others’ perspectives and viewpoints, because in doing so, we expand our knowledge on different subject matters and consequently, we acquire understanding and wisdom.  

I went home that evening crying and kicking myself in the foot. I had had a bad day to begin with - I was creatively dry and couldn’t write. Not exactly a writer’s block; I was dully uninspired. The speeding ticket absolutely crushed me, especially when I found out the penalty for speeding in a school zone amounted to a hefty $460.

In the thick of the moment I was entirely entrenched in the situation and emotionally unpersuaded. I pleaded with God to take over reins of my unruly emotions. 

He finally calmed me down. When I did, I began to think rationally about what I had just experienced. I learnt that in the face of the law, it doesn’t matter if I try to do what a reasonable person in a normal circumstance would do. If the law states something, I have to comply, even if that meant I have to bend my way backwards to obey the law. In this case, if the speed limit stated 25 mph, even if I had to do the extraordinary, which is to step on the brakes so my car doesn’t speed up with gravitational force as it travels downhill, then I have to keep my foot on the brakes (although in normal circumstances I wouldn’t have done that at all - I would have just coasted downhill and enjoyed the thrill). So I have to pretend to be ‘good’ in the presence of authorities. To me, it is a strange concept of forced obedience (and I’m not usually the compliant sort). I learnt my lesson that day.

That lesson learnt would serve me well two months later when I went on a road trip with a friend to the Red Rocks in Nevada from Joshua Tree National Park. I had been driving at 80 mph in a 70 mph zone (I usually allow myself to go 10 mph above the speed limit; nothing more), and at one point, got carried away in our conversation and unknowingly raised my speed to 93 mph. Thankfully I caught a glimpse of a traffic police up ahead, parked at the divider between two-directional lanes. I immediately pushed my foot on the brake pedal. The traffic police saw my speeding car and gave chase. He tailed my car, which at that point, had slowed down to the acceptable speed limit of 60 mph. I kept that speed for a while. He tailed me for five minutes and decided that I wasn’t going to speed up, so he gave up and turned around. Of course, I didn’t get a speeding ticket. You see, I had learnt my lesson from the other time. After I was issued a $460 speeding penalty, I read up on speeding violations in California and learnt that traffic police typically capture a vehicle’s speed using a speed radar. In the event that the police did not turn his radar on, he would tail the offending vehicle, an act that is known as pacing, so he could register the speed of the vehicle, and if the speed of the suspected offending vehicle did exceed the designated limit, the police would pull the driver over. 

One speeding ticket saved me from future ones. 

We live and learn.  

Photo by Alessio Lin on Unsplash