It's not worth it to speed.

My friend got pulled over the other day for speeding. Luckily for him, he got out of getting a ticket because he recalled my giving advice on how to get out of speeding ticket and followed it closely. Man, I'm surprised how many people have no idea how to get out of a speeding ticket. The funny thing was that, a few weeks before he got pulled over, I was talking to him about how useless it is to speed. Luckily for him, I happened to mention how to get out of a speeding ticket during that rambling should he get caught speeding and it worked in his favor. He owes me a few drinks for the amount of time I just saved him.

If you're driving and have me in the car, and you speed, don't be surprised that I may remind you of your current speed and suggest that you slow down. To me, speeding is when you're going at least fifteen miles per hour above the speed limit. Anything less I don't really consider speeding. I know, driving even one mile above the speed limit is considered speeding, but to me, speeding is when you're going A LOT faster than you should be.

Also, keep in mind I'm not suggesting you drive the speed limit. From my point of view, speeding is driving an excessive amount of miles per hour beyond the posted limit. Generally, if you drive close to but under 10 miles above the speed limit, it's fairly unlikely you'll be pulled over. Speeding to me is driving at a speed fast enough that a cop more than likely pull you over. Sure, cops can pull a person over for doing 1 mile per hour above the speed limit if he wanted to but the chances of that happening very negligible. To me, not speeding means driving at a speed where it's highly unlikely you will get pulled over should a cop spot you.

I don't drive that much. I don't like to drive. I don't like to have people in my car either because it makes it all the more likely for you to be sued should you get in an accident and your passenger gets seriously injured. Also, most of my friends don't like me driving because I drive slowly (ie: I rarely drive significantly more than ten miles per hour above the speed limit)

There's a reason why I drive the way I do. One day, I sat down and did the numbers and came to the conclusion that it's not worth it to speed. It's kinda funny how little people seem to be aware of just how ineffective it is to speed. Not only is it dangerous, it's also a potential and highly probably money-sink in your life.

If you get a ticket for speeding, that generally comes out to around, say, $150-200. Let's just assume you got busted for going slightly over the speed limit and the cop was having a nice, a good case scenario, (A best case scenario would be you being let go with a warning), and your speeding ticket fine comes out to around $100.

Now, let's assume you have a very good job and make around twenty bucks an hour. If you do the math, that basically equates to 5 hours of your life now lost to work off paying that hundred dollar speeding ticket you just got. 5 hours of your life, gone, just like that. While five hours of your life might not seem that much time, from my point of view, I'd rather be spending those 5 hours of my life doing something else, like wasting it away playing video games. Which would you rather do, spend your time working to pay off something or spending it doing something else because you don't hafta pay off something? I assume you'd choose the latter over the former.

Speeding tickets suck because it could cost you in insurance costs. Let's use this scenario. Let's say you're an experienced driver with a good driving record and paying probably around $800 a year for liability, collision and comprehensive coverage. Let's make it even better and pretend you have Prudential and have a 25% good-driver discount, meaning you're only paying $600 a year. That's a pretty good rate if you ask me.

Now, let's say you got a ticket. Your base premium would increase to around $600 dollars extra for your insurance over the course of three years since surcharges usually lasts for three years. Get a second ticket and you lose your good-driver discount and another increase in your insurance, bumping your insurance rates to around $1100 per year. Get a third ticket and you'll be paying around $1300 a year now. Do you realize that that comes out to around $2100 in raised insurance costs over three years?

To pay something like that off, that means you'll be wasting over 50 hours of your working life paying off the increased insurance costs. I dunno about you, but I don't like the thought of losing 50 hours of my life, even if that time lost is to be spread out over 3 years.

Every time you speed, it can save you a few minutes getting from one point to another. Generally, speeding helps you pass those one or two green lights that would've turned red had you not been speeding. That's where you generally save time.

Here's the question I ask you. Over the course of three years, can you speed on a consistent basis and not get caught so that all the time saved speeding eventually adds up to over 50 hours? I highly doubt it. When was the last time you got a speeding ticket? There's a good chance it's been less than three years.

Now, I'm sure you are ready to argue my point. After all, the calculations is assuming that you've received three speeding tickets already. Well, keep in mind that the calculations also assumes you're a good driver paying around $600 a year in insurance and have a $20 per hour job. Hm, do you think that's a good scenario? Probably not. Maybe I should use a more mundane scenario that strikes more closely to home. Right off the bat, there's a good chance you're not making that much money at your job nor paying that little for insurance.

Now, let's assume that the people that read my site are young. Well, young people're most likely paying well over or very closely to $2000 per year in insurance and making around $7 per hour working at some job they could give a rat's ass about. While that might not necessarily be you that I'm talking about, it's probably what the average young person pays and makes. And because they are young, if they get caught speeding once, much less twice, their insurance will dramatically increase, sometimes doubling or tripling. If you're a teenager, and you get just one speeding ticket, expect to pay close to around $2000 over the course of three years in insurance costs. Also, I highly doubt you'd get away with a hundred dollar fine either. As a teenager, cops are most likely to give you hell and slap you with a nasty fine, like a $200-250 ticket.

Now, do the math. If you're young, which you most likely are, it'll cost around 350 hours of your working life over the course of the next three years to pay off a single speeding ticket. I know it's not the exact numbers but I'm just throwing nice round numbers to make things easy for you and for me.

Now, ask yourself this, over the next three years, can you speed consistently enough so that you save over 350 cumulative hours without getting caught? I highly doubt it. Actually, I'm downright positive you won't succeed. Sure, three years is a long time. However, if you spread out the time, that's around 19 minutes per day. Hm, if that's the case, do you think you can speed consistently and save 19 minutes a day, doing so every single day, for the next three years, without getting caught? Considering people don't drive every single day in their life, the amount of time needed to be saved daily will be even higher. Heck, when the hell was the last time you saved around 19 minutes on a driving trip? When was the last time you got to a destination 19 minutes ahead of schedule in one day? I can probably make a good guess. It was probably during a 4+ hour car ride, a lengthy car ride I doubt you would ever do on a daily basis for three years.

Now, keep in mind there are things like radar detectors out there that dramatically decrease your chances of getting caught and the fact that you can fight against the ticket and perhaps get it thrown out and even go to defensive driving school to lower insurance costs. But if you look at the picture from a long-term point of view, do you think it's worth speeding? All those things you mention allow you to get away costs you your time. After all, it costs you time to work for the money to afford that radar detector, to go to defensive driving school, and to show up in court to attempt to get the ticket thrown out or keep it from raising insurance costs.

From my point of view, time is the most important commodity in my life. I would much rather waste my time doing something I like than spend it doing something I have to do to pay something off. From a purely pragmatic point of view, it's not worth it, time-wise, to speed.

I'm not in the same boat as a young person. I'm older than an insurance company's 'high-risk' age range. I pay only around $600 for car insurance and I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in several years, during the days I was a teenager. I have a radar detector (I don't use it since I don't speed anymore). Money isn't really an issue in my life. I have no college tuition bills that still needs to be paid off. I've never been in an accident. I don't drive a sports car. Heck, I have friends that are cops that would be more than happy to make a few phone call to get rid of a speeding ticket for me should I ever get one. If anything, if I get caught speeding, it would affect me a lot less than it would a young person. For me to not recommend speeding even though I won't be affected by it nearly as badly as a youngperson should mean something.

It isn't worth it to speed.

Whether or not you care to take my advice is up to you.

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