Thought of the Day 03.13.09

Every time I pass a highway speed camera, I notice other drivers putting on their brakes. Whether they were speeding, not paying attention, or just unaware of the actual limit, I still hold them in contempt for their driving incompetence.

But about once a day, I’ll be coming up behind cars who are driving well below the limit and have to put on my own brakes to avoid running into them. The infuriating thing is that this seems to happen in those enforcement zones. So even though I’m braking for a proper reason, I know that it’ll look like I’m braking because of the cameras. And it kills me to think that a stranger in another car is going to mistake me for one of those idiots.

To prevent that, I’ll actually wait to hit the brakes until I’m past the cameras, even if doing so means that I’ve gotten unsafely close to the car in front of me. Some part of me would rather risk rear-ending the slow driver than be thought of as a guy who brakes for speed cameras.

See why it’s such a healthy thing to judge other people?