How fast is fast enough?

I commuted long distances by car, back and forth to work, for many years on the crowded and inadequate 1950’s Eisenhower highways of the Northeast. Our home was in Milford, NH for twenty five years and in that time I worked an hour or two north or south of home. Certain times of day were clearly more dangerous on the road than others. I'm sure a review of highway accident reports would show that to be true.

Some drivers became especially determined at certain times in the morning. A few minutes before 7:30 or 8 am, 8:30 or 9, some cars would pass you at tremendous speeds, more so than at other times. Their drivers would frantically weave in and out of traffic passing all and sundry. I concluded that they were about to be late for work for, perhaps, the third time that week and they knew the boss would be furious. So let’s endanger all of us on the road, but get to work close to on-time.

I’m still amazed by drivers, usually very young ones, who come right up to your rear bumper in the passing lane of the highway and then when you shift into the right hand travel lane they follow you, still within inches of your bumper. The reason, in about half the cases, appears to be that they are going off the very next exit at 100 miles an hour! Might they be late in picking up their dry cleaning? The other half simply drive continuously on someone’s bumper apparently for miles and miles. They must live in fear of any open road in front of them.

Some people still insist on blinking the high beams when they wish to pass at 85 miles per hour. What that means is, “I am speeding more than you are speeding so get out of my way, you idiot!” Sometime later, when you come upon them driving sedately in the travel lane you wonder if it might have been some kind of temporary insanity. Or perhaps someone in the car screwed up their courage to say, “What are you, nuts?”

Glory Vanderbilt, I was told, said that you can never be too thin or too rich. Well, we know that one of those isn’t true. Likewise, you can never go fast enough on the highway. Someone will always be going faster!