Police Pace Car

I take the Toll Road to work every day, and it's pretty crazy sometimes. People are usually travelling 70-75 mph in the left lane, and there's almost always someone who's 10-15 mph faster than that. It was also the sight of my infamous "making a guy mad on the highway" story that I'm pretty sure I've already told everyone.

What's funny, though, is that the speed limit on the Toll Road is, for the most part, 55 mph. People are routinely travelling 15-20 mph over the speed limit. Some people even pass that scary 25 mph barrier on the road. It's one of the reasons why I've seen people get pulled over right in front of me several times.

(By the way, that's one of the better feelings this world has to provide. The sheer terror when you see a policeman's lights come on, and the pure relief you feel when it's some other poor bastard.)

This morning, however, as soon as I pulled onto the Toll Road, I saw a State Trooper's car a few yards behind me. Because of this, I merged onto the road at an appropriate speed, and I stayed at the speed limit in the right lane. And slowly but surely, the trooper passed me.

Behind him were about 300 cars that were forced to go the speed limit. And there was about a mile between the trooper and all the cars ahead of him. Because they were far enough away from the trooper's jurisdiction, I guess, to worry about him. They were still going 70, and we were all going 55.

And that was really funny to me. It's like when you're on the highway, and you see a police car. No matter how fast you were going, you slow down to the speed limit, and everyone around you does the same thing. It's like a parent just walked into the room, and you make a lame attempt to make it look like you're doing something more innocent than you were before.

Because we all speed. We all go as fast as we think we can get away with going. And we all do our own little things to avoid tickets (radar detectors, staying in between cars, knowing speed traps, etc). But as soon as we see that cop car, we slow down to the speed limit, and we put our hands at the appropriate "ten and two" position.

It was pretty funny, though, watching the people trying to make it to the front of the line. It was obviously the guy who usually goes 80-85 on the Toll Road wondering why everyone was going so F-ing slow this morning. Changing from lane to lane, hoping to knock off a second or two from his commute. Once they saw the cop, though, they fell in line too.

So I really think that if the police want to enforce the speed limit, just send a few patrol vehicles to drive around the highways. People drive safely when a cop is around. Heck, just park a few off the side of the highway. People see the car and slow down way before they notice whether or not someone is inside. It's really the best way to make speeders obey the law.

Of course, it isn't a cure-all. I got cut off three different times this morning on the Toll Road. All of them probably happened in the rear view mirror of the trooper so I couldn't help but laugh.

Because you also gotta wonder what he's thinking. Is he annoyed that he can't go 80? Does he think it's funny that everyone slows down on his behalf? Does he enjoy it? Because when he's driving a civilian vehicle, he sees the way people drive. And it's probably nothing like the way they drive when he's in his trooper's vehicle.

Just something funny I noticed this morning. Be safe out there, y'all.