The speed limit: Everyone’s favorite law to break

A very recent “encounter” with another driver caused me to think about speed limits and road rage. This week we’ll discuss speed limits and next week, [gulp], road rage.

The Bible instructs Christians that they should be good citizens and adhere to the (godly) laws of the land.

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” – Romans 13:1-2

Speed limits are mandated on public highways to promote travel safety. In 1974, President Richard Nixon signed a bill which made 55 MPH the speed limit national standard. However, big improvements have been made in highway and automobile design since then, so what was deemed the safe limit of automobile speed 48 years ago is not necessarily valid anymore.

Here in the Greater Rochester area, just about all of the expressways have a posted 55 MPH speed limit (except for designated stretches of I-390 and I-490 where the limit is 65 MPH). However, the reality is that extremely few drivers obey the 55 MPH limit. From my own observations, I would say most cars travel around 60-62 MPH on 55 MPH posted stretches.* The consensus is traffic police will allow 5-7 mph over the limit without pulling a driver over. Obviously, traffic/transportation officials are aware that most drivers exceed the speed limit, but they won’t raise the limit to the demonstrated travel speed because drivers would see that as leeway to go even faster.

How does this relate to the Christian driving a car on a posted 55 MPH speed limit highway? Is it a sin to defy the government mandated speed limit? I remember an instructor telling our driving class fifty years ago that drivers should follow the general speed of traffic. In other words, don’t go too slow and don’t go too fast relative to the other cars. A driver strictly adhering to the posted 55 MPH speed limit is going to result in other cars coming up quickly on the slower moving vehicle. There will be frustration, anger, and recklessness as drivers pass the slower car.

Perhaps in the case of the 55 MPH speed limit, breaking the law and driving with the flow of traffic is showing more regard for overall safety than a driver who scrupulously adheres to the posted (but largely ignored) speed limit.

What are your thoughts? Is it a sin to exceed the traffic speed limit?

Next week: Road rager on my bumper!

*In the course of writing this post, I asked my wife what she thought the average speed of traffic was on the area’s 55 MPH-posted interstates and she said 70 MPH and insisted she was correct. That number is not even close to being accurate and is an example of how some drivers do not monitor their speedometer.