The first and perhaps most surprising thing I learned in my examination of speeding is how seldom it provides any real benefits. Have you ever sat at a stop light next to someone who, as soon as the light changed, shot out like a drag racer, just for the privilege of waiting a few extra seconds before you pull up next to him at the next light? If not, then perhaps you were the one who was doing the drag racing.
You may have been in either situation before and not seen the irony. But the fact is that in most cases, speeding provides no advantages. If you don’t believe me, do the math. You’ll find that (for example) in a typical trip of less than ten miles, going five or even ten miles per hour over the speed limit will only gain you one or two minutes.
If you’re late enough that two minutes would make a difference in your schedule, then you’re probably already too late for two minutes to matter.
Also note that the estimate of up to two minutes is based on a situation where there are no lights, no stop signs, or no other traffic on the road. When you take those obstacles into account, you can probably eliminate most of those two minutes as well.
Of course, I’m only talking about driving short distances in a urban-type area with fairly modest speed increases; for long-distance driving on interstate highways at extremely high speeds, speeding can make a more significant difference. However, you might be surprised, if you do the math, at how little real time you gain in even those optimum situations.
The real point of course is that if you think about how you drive, you will realize that when you speed, you risk traffic tickets, additional wear and tear on your automobile, additional stress, and a shortening of available reaction time — all of which might be reasonable tradeoffs, if you received any benefit from the act of speeding.
Which you don’t.
Knowing this, however, you will probably still be inclined to speed — because speeding is a psychological reaction, and not based on logical thought. Understanding that reaction is our next step.
