Sometimes life is better coasting along on cruise control
- col-teri-stein
- November 26, 2024
- 100
It’s always great to have people caring about you. I recently got an anonymous note in the mail advising me of a little trick to avoid speeding. I am all in on this idea.
Since getting stopped for speeding about a month ago, before I leave the garage, I have been using my aging and feeble brain to visualize my routes through town. I’m projecting what streets I am going to use and conjuring up visions of what the speed limit signs say on those streets.
First, I’m going to go through town on a main road, and that is 35 mph. Then I’m going to go by the hospital, and even though you don’t change roads from a 35 mph zone, that is a 25 mph zone. Then if I want to go over the hill near the park, that is 25 mph. Not going to forget that ever again.
I’ve also been noticing the placement of speed limit signs on streets. Most of the time they are at the beginning of a street. I’m sure the police wish everyone was as concerned about speeding as me. Besides, since I was stopped, I would probably get a ticket next time. I don’t want one.
I once knew a person who wasn’t concerned about speeding. They finally decided to stop this dangerous habit after receiving several tickets over a matter of months that added up to lots of money. After the last one, this person indignantly declared they were no longer going to speed because the police weren’t getting any more of their money. Although it’s usually the local municipality that receives the money, still, stopping speeding is the whole point of tickets.
Anyway, the note advised me I should try using cruise control in town. It was a novel idea. I had never thought of using cruise control in town before. I have always just used cruise control for highway driving. One other person had suggested this idea, so, of course, I had to try it.
Cruise control is great on the highways. You just coast along at the correct speed and don’t have to worry about your lead foot and inadvertent speeding.
Using cruise control in town is a little different. In my car, when you tap the brake, the cruise control shuts off. Then you have to push the resume button to get back up to speed. This is not a problem on the highway when you are not braking that much.
I decided to try using cruise control for most of the streets in town. Problem — I had to brake more in town and the lane-departure warning and lane-keeping assistance control button and heated steering wheel button are right beside the cruise control buttons. I don’t want to take my eyes off the road to look at the buttons.
Yikes, I accidentally turned off the lane departure and assistance button, and that is not good. Accidentally pushing the heated steering wheel button is not a problem. My hands are always cold.
Still, I concluded I’m going to use cruise control on long stretches of 25 mph streets. And I’m using cruise control, set at 25 mph, on that street by the park that got me stopped by the police. Doing a little experiment using cruise control, my car sped up to 28 mph going down the hill one day and 29 mph another.
It’s not just speeding fines you have to worry about. A ticket can raise your insurance rates too. And who wants that? A quick internet search on tickets turned up a bunch of websites advising you how to fight a ticket. Why bother? Just be safe and follow the speed limit in the first place and save yourself.
But wait. If I would get a ticket, would they take a column in lieu of payment? That would be a 10-4 negative.