Slow Down San Diego... Driving
The idea for Slow Down while driving in San Diego came to me a few years ago after I was involved in a traffic accident. I realized we needed a San Diego Slow Zone. I had left work around 5pm and was on my way home when I thought I would just squeeze in a couple of errands. After completing my errands I realized that I was now running late. I started driving home a little too fast when I got into a jam and I hit another car from behind. Fortunately, I hadn't been going too fast. No one was hurt and except for having to pay a lot of money for a little damage to the other party’s bumper, no harm was done. Nothing much was unusual except that this was the second such minor bump in a couple of years, the last victim being a much abused stop sign in La Jolla. These incidents I realized were all due to my being in a hurry, not willing to slow down while driving, and trying to do too many things in too little time.
Afterwards, I started looking around and noticing a lot of other people doing the very same thing I had been doing-driving too fast. Everywhere I looked, I saw mom’s in SUV’s speeding to take their kids to school, Important people in BMW’s and Mercedes speeding everywhere to do Very Important Things and generally all sorts of people just driving everywhere too fast. I began to see how pervasive this is. Everyone, including myself, just racing everywhere, racing through life in fact. And I decided for myself to stop this madness and start driving more consciously and slowly before I killed myself or even worse, killed someone else.
I decided I would try to slow down while driving by keeping to the posted SPEED LIMIT. I started looking at speed limit signs all over town and for the most part, they are really spot on as to what would be a good speed to travel on a particular road. There are occasional areas where this is not true but for the most part they are. And so I do the speed limit. This is more of a challenge on the freeway and I confess that I do not always stick to it but when I am driving on the freeway I try to limit my speed to 75mph. And just for the record, I am not one of those people who sit in the fast lane doing 65mph. Driving too slowly in relation to the flow of traffic can also cause accidents! Slow down while driving.
I read the newspaper daily and I often read about traffic accidents around San Diego and a lot of those accidents are due to people driving too fast. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), speeding is a factor in over 30% of traffic fatalities. After my reading about another fatal traffic accident in town, I wanted to do something that would start people thinking about slowing it down. To stop their addiction to speeding.
I would like to challenge San Diegans to SLOW DOWN. To make a pledge to drive the speed limit in neighborhoods and to slow it down on the freeways too. You may save a life but it may have other benefits also. If we slow down our driving speed, we actually improve our gas mileage and use less gas. If we use less gas, not only do we save money, there’s less pollution. Less pollution, less global warming, We save the planet!
And there you have it: create a San Diego Slow Zone and we might just Save the World!
Here is a sample of the SLOW DOWN SAN DIEGO pledge. Feel free to print it and ask your significant other/spouse, best friend, teenager or whoever you know that might have a speeding problem to sign it and TAKE THE PLEDGE!
Printable Version of the Slow Down San Diego Pledge
SLOW DOWN SAN DIEGO pledge
I, _____________________________________________ have thought about my driving habits and the impact they have on the quality of life for myself and others and I do hereby promise to slow down while driving and to obey the posted speed limit wherever I drive.
I, ________________________________________do also hereby promise to plan better and more accurately gauge the proper time I need to get places.
I, ________________________________________ also promise that if I am running late due to bad planning or unforeseen circumstances such as bad traffic, I will refuse to speed to make up time. Instead, I will not overly stress about being late and I will learn from the experience to plan better the next time.
I, _________________________________________ recognize that I have a moral responsibility to drive safely to protect myself and others and I pledge to not use my cell phone or other techno-gadgets in an unsafe manner while driving. This includes checking emails, text messaging or anything else that will distract me from my primary task of paying attention while I'm driving in the San Diego Slow Zone or other slow cities.
I, _________________________________________ will also make a conscious effort to slow down in other aspects of my life. I promise to slow down and look around to appreciate what we have here in San Diego. I promise to get outside and breathe some fresh air. I will stop to smell the roses. I do this for myself and for those who love me. I will pass the San Diego Slow Zone philosophy on to others AND slow down while driving.
Signed,
____________________________Date:______________