Is the use of a radar detector morally justifiable?

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I’ll tell you what. You live your life in the slow lane getting nothing done, worrieing about minor things like speed. I’ll be promt and punctual everytime because I don’t waste time being a slow poke. In the end I’ll have more accomplishments along with more free time , because I won’t be taking all my time getting from point a to point b. Not to mention I’ll never loose a job for tardyness.
It is surprising how many times you use the words “I”, “me”, and “my”. I have never been fired from a job. Accomplishments in this life mean nothing. In fact we should be willing to become nothing for Him. Free time? Why is that so important. All sin wounds Christ, whether we deem it minor or not. Perhaps if you would spend more time worrying about others instead of yourself, your outlook might change.
 
It is surprising how many times you use the words “I”, “me”, and “my”. I have never been fired from a job. Accomplishments in this life mean nothing. In fact we should be willing to become nothing for Him. Free time? Why is that so important. All sin wounds Christ, whether we deem it minor or not. Perhaps if you would spend more time worrying about others instead of yourself, your outlook might change.
Most of my worry is about my disabled wife! Remember faith alone doesn’t get one into heaven, but good works are also required, not optional. So being nothing is a waste.
 
Most of my worry is about my disabled wife! Remember faith alone doesn’t get one into heaven, but good works are also required, not optional. So being nothing is a waste.
Having a flippant attitude towards legitimate authority is not what one would consider a “good work”. I meant having an attitude of humility, which every single one of us need to work on. Anyone who thinks laws do not apply to them needs to reconsider thair views. I have an easy solution to your problem: LEAVE EARLIER! It isn’t that hard. I can’t remember the last time I was late for an appointment because I give myself plenty of time to get where I am going. If you slow down, you just might actually enjoy life, instead of being concerned about how much you accomplish. Quality, not quantity, is the important thing.
 
So sports racing events, the V8, the red bull challenge, nascar… Should be avoided?
I doubt this qualifies as “endangering others on the road for drunkeness or love of speed”.
 
It sounds like you have time management problems.

I’m prompt and punctual because I manage my time well, not because I disregard the safety of myself and others by speeding.
Part of the problem, if person A were a habitual speeder, is knowing how to get somewhere ontime because they know how to get somewhere at only the present speed. As well, there’s also more complications to these sort fo things. In my own DIRECT responsibility, my only speeding comes in order to make things either safer or more convenient.

Convenience comes from not have to stop at almost every blasted light, which in most cases doesn’t even require speeding, but instead, maybe a jack rabbit start, because they often time the lights to catch people who are actually obeying the law, so that all that fuel is wasted. So how moral is it to waste fuel when you don’t have to (assuming it doesn’t use speeding as a means)?

There also is a matter of safety, but I’m not sure an officer of the law would care, or believe such a story either. Some people, like myself, are capable of seeing developing patterns. You have instances where vehicles do a virtual surrounding of you, or you can see that safety in general is much more assured if you step on the peddle a bit to make sure that slower 18 wheeler doesn’t get stuck in front of you, etc.(again, assuming you are going the speed limit already), but obstacles make your safety margin go down, so you might need to make sure and put them behind you. Also, my mom and dad was shot at while driving on the highway. I’m not sure how they reacted, but I certainly would consider even excessive speed to rid myself of that situation. Whether an officer fo the law understands any of these sort of things is largely immaterial, because we are talking about moral considerations here, not that God always sides with somebody who may or may not take everything into consideration. It’s certainly not moral to endanger your life due to gunfore, etc. because you won’t break a speeding law. As well, at one time in this area, we had a highway which posted speeds of 55mph “mimimum” and 60mph maximum. The ridiculousness of that didn’t last too long, as it’s not there anymore. While I admire the idea of getting people off the highway for thinking they can drive any speed they want under a maximum speed, if you’re a stickler for being within the limits, you have a real problem with such a small gap of alloted speed.

We also had a recent event in the Dallas area, for those who might have ideas that God thinks as the officer does (should we have anybody like that), because they’re the law, where somebody was rushing a relative to the hospital in his own vehicle, in which I think he ran a red light. I think he had his emergency lights on too. Yes, you guessed it, in the hospital parking lot, the officer would not let this guy take care of this affair for quite a long time and wouldn’t believe this man was in an emergency situation. It seems part of the deal was that he was suspecting this man was a terrorist, so bad was his judgement.
 
Having a flippant attitude towards legitimate authority is not what one would consider a “good work”. I meant having an attitude of humility, which every single one of us need to work on. Anyone who thinks laws do not apply to them needs to reconsider thair views. I have an easy solution to your problem: LEAVE EARLIER! It isn’t that hard. I can’t remember the last time I was late for an appointment because I give myself plenty of time to get where I am going. If you slow down, you just might actually enjoy life, instead of being concerned about how much you accomplish. Quality, not quantity, is the important thing.
About appointments, it depends. It depends on the condition of the patient. I didn’t have to speed, and did not, when I was driving my dad to radiation treatment, but he was teetering so close to having problems at any given time, it could certainly be unpredictable. I don’t speed, except for the instances I described above, and I was known as an attendance fanatic myself. My ability to get places on time didn’t change for the worst when I opened up my interpretation of how to treat speed limits either.

There is another bug bear to throw in the works now, but say you’re transporting somebody like to church, and they CONSTANTLY run late, and always have, and yet you want to get them there on time if possible? I tend more towards her (my mom) just suffering for her lateness and therefore driving within the limits, but I can’t help not trying to make up for it at times either, but at least under the present conditions, I have already taken care of my church obligation for the day, but had I not, it would be another situation. In my mom’s case, part of it is bad planning, but part of it too is that she has some bad conditions which can be very unpredictable at times. In some rare instances, especially since my mom always goes to the last Mass available, and if I had not fulfilled my obligation, you could see there could be instances where I could not attend Mass in time to qualify (before the Gospel is read), if I did not speed. That doesn’t excuse the other times, but how moral is it to not fulfill you church obligation because you wouldn’t speed, because somebody else made you and them very late?
 
About appointments, it depends. It depends on the condition of the patient. I didn’t have to speed, and did not, when I was driving my dad to radiation treatment, but he was teetering so close to having problems at any given time, it could certainly be unpredictable. I don’t speed, except for the instances I described above, and I was known as an attendance fanatic myself. My ability to get places on time didn’t change for the worst when I opened up my interpretation of how to treat speed limits either.

There is another bug bear to throw in the works now, but say you’re transporting somebody like to church, and they CONSTANTLY run late, and always have, and yet you want to get them there on time if possible? I tend more towards her (my mom) just suffering for her lateness and therefore driving within the limits, but I can’t help not trying to make up for it at times either, but at least under the present conditions, I have already taken care of my church obligation for the day, but had I not, it would be another situation. In my mom’s case, part of it is bad planning, but part of it too is that she has some bad conditions which can be very unpredictable at times. In some rare instances, especially since my mom always goes to the last Mass available, and if I had not fulfilled my obligation, you could see there could be instances where I could not attend Mass in time to qualify (before the Gospel is read), if I did not speed. That doesn’t excuse the other times, but how moral is it to not fulfill you church obligation because you wouldn’t speed, because somebody else made you and them very late?
Remember me from another thread? I think we have something here where we agree! Even getting to work throws too many variables at me. Maybe my planning skills could be better. But I have never really been good at handling things that happen spontaniously which is likely why I dont care for spontanaity. 90% of the time Im with 7 mph of the speedlimit. But if something goes ary I will makeup for it to be ontime. If I ever told my dad better late than never I got belted good. I think after reading this thread more people needed that growing up.
 
Remember me from another thread? I think we have something here where we agree! Even getting to work throws too many variables at me. Maybe my planning skills could be better. But I have never really been good at handling things that happen spontaniously which is likely why I dont care for spontanaity. 90% of the time Im with 7 mph of the speedlimit. But if something goes ary I will makeup for it to be ontime. If I ever told my dad better late than never I got belted good. I think after reading this thread more people needed that growing up.
How could I forget a logonid like that? Well part of it, of course, is that you actually leave anticipating problems. When I was working, I was almost always getting there 10 minutes early, or more, every day. So if traffic jams came up, with my pretty good knowledge of the sidestreets, it was still enough time to make work on time in the vast majority of cases. If I still couldn’t make it on time, well then tough for my employer, because it’s unreasonable to expect people to be on shift any earlier than that because it would cover absolutely anything that would go wrong, apart from the car not starting at all.

Needless to say, if you’re consistently speeding, then you aren’t doing so for reasons of safety, because steady speeds are often what can get you in trouble. You have to speed up, or slow down, in order to avoid a lot of problems. Sometimes, I just know, even if somebody isn’t drunken, that I shouldn’t be around them, for they already displayed one or more areas of their driving where I know they just don’t jibe with me. Somebody who drives 5mph under the speed limit and then waits for a mile long clearing before they cross an intersection, is a primary example. I just know when somebody’s method is a stark enough contradiction to my own, and the public’s in general, that I’m far better off putting a lot of space between us.
 
Remember me from another thread? I think we have something here where we agree! Even getting to work throws too many variables at me. Maybe my planning skills could be better. But I have never really been good at handling things that happen spontaniously which is likely why I dont care for spontanaity. 90% of the time Im with 7 mph of the speedlimit. But if something goes ary I will makeup for it to be ontime. If I ever told my dad better late than never I got belted good. I think after reading this thread more people needed that growing up.
Apparently you assume I am consistently late because I drive responsibly. As I have said, I cannot remeber the last time I was late to an appointment. I take that back. I have been late to work once in the last four years…and that was because of a flat tire on the way there. You seem to have an obsession with punctuality. Of course friends have said the same about me…but that is usually because Ileave so early it is almost impossible for me to be late. See how that works? Leave arlier, get there earlier. No big deal.
 
There is another bug bear to throw in the works now, but say you’re transporting somebody like to church, and they CONSTANTLY run late, and always have, and yet you want to get them there on time if possible? I tend more towards her (my mom) just suffering for her lateness and therefore driving within the limits, but I can’t help not trying to make up for it at times either, but at least under the present conditions, I have already taken care of my church obligation for the day, but had I not, it would be another situation. In my mom’s case, part of it is bad planning, but part of it too is that she has some bad conditions which can be very unpredictable at times. In some rare instances, especially since my mom always goes to the last Mass available, and if I had not fulfilled my obligation, you could see there could be instances where I could not attend Mass in time to qualify (before the Gospel is read), if I did not speed. That doesn’t excuse the other times, but how moral is it to not fulfill you church obligation because you wouldn’t speed, because somebody else made you and them very late?
Worst rationalization ever.
 
jmcrae: Now a question just for you. You said this occured in the evening and you mentioned the school zone as though it were pertinent to the story. But you said it was ‘evening’. We don’t have active school zones in Dallas that could be classified as evening ones. So is it possible you were doing the usual 20MPH school zone speed at a time when the school zone was not in effect? Ah, I now notice you didn’t say school zone, but playground zone. Maybe that’s the same thing, but I have never heard of one of those. What’s it like?
A playground zone has a speed limit of 30kph (which is just a bit below 20 mph) from 8:00 am until one hour after sunset (that is to say, when it is absolutely dark, with no blue remaining in the sky at all) - it was still light out at the time. (Sunset at this time of the year occurs just before 9:30 pm, which means that playground zones are in effect until 10:30 pm.) A playground zone is marked with signs at either end, about the distance you can travel for one second at 30kph outside of each edge of the playground, thus:

[sign]-------[field-field-field-playground equipment-field-baseball diamond-field]------[sign]

You have to slow down as you are approaching the first sign, and you can’t speed up again until after you have passed the second sign.

The fine for speeding through a playground zone is quite stiff. I’ve never done it, so I don’t know how much, but I know it’s a lot more than the regular fine for speeding.
 
A playground zone has a speed limit of 30kph (which is just a bit below 20 mph) from 8:00 am until one hour after sunset (that is to say, when it is absolutely dark, with no blue remaining in the sky at all) - it was still light out at the time. (Sunset at this time of the year occurs just before 9:30 pm, which means that playground zones are in effect until 10:30 pm.) A playground zone is marked with signs at either end, about the distance you can travel for one second at 30kph outside of each edge of the playground, thus:

[sign]-------[field-field-field-playground equipment-field-baseball diamond-field]------[sign]

You have to slow down as you are approaching the first sign, and you can’t speed up again until after you have passed the second sign.

The fine for speeding through a playground zone is quite stiff. I’ve never done it, so I don’t know how much, but I know it’s a lot more than the regular fine for speeding.
Wow, I think I would go nuts if all the schools around here had something that extensive.
 
A playground zone has a speed limit of 30kph (which is just a bit below 20 mph) from 8:00 am until one hour after sunset (that is to say, when it is absolutely dark, with no blue remaining in the sky at all) - it was still light out at the time. (Sunset at this time of the year occurs just before 9:30 pm, which means that playground zones are in effect until 10:30 pm.) A playground zone is marked with signs at either end, about the distance you can travel for one second at 30kph outside of each edge of the playground, thus:

[sign]-------[field-field-field-playground equipment-field-baseball diamond-field]------[sign]

You have to slow down as you are approaching the first sign, and you can’t speed up again until after you have passed the second sign.

The fine for speeding through a playground zone is quite stiff. I’ve never done it, so I don’t know how much, but I know it’s a lot more than the regular fine for speeding.
We don’t have “playground zones” but the speed limit in the closest park to my house is 20 mph 24/7
 
Apparently you assume I am consistently late because I drive responsibly. As I have said, I cannot remeber the last time I was late to an appointment. I take that back. I have been late to work once in the last four years…and that was because of a flat tire on the way there. You seem to have an obsession with punctuality. Of course friends have said the same about me…but that is usually because Ileave so early it is almost impossible for me to be late. See how that works? Leave arlier, get there earlier. No big deal.
I have a friend that thinks that way, and has time for nothing but work and sleep because he is too busy being safe. I’d rather be dead than live that way.
 
You keep speeding, you may get your wish.
I’m not as worried about his death as the unintended deaths he may cause during an accident b/c he’s speeding &/or obsessing about getting somewhere on time regardless of his own or any one else’s safety. **Your rights stop when they infringe on someone else’s rights. Therefore, your right to speed ends when it puts someone else in danger. **

Its also worthwhile to point out again - unless you’re going tremendously over the speed limit and/or a very long distance, speeding doesn’t save you time. Let’s do the math. You say, aspawloski4th, that you typically go 7 mph over the limit. For a typical person on a typical trip (within 30 miles of 60 mph limit driving) that’s only going to get you 0.05 hours - or aout 3 minutes. I seriously don’t think leaving your house (or wherever) 3 minutes later is going to get you much ‘free time’. That’s also a pretty decent trip as far as distance goes. Most people that I know generally live in town & only go w/n 10 miles or so when they go to the doctor, grocery, etc. Also, much of this driving is done w/ stop lights, etc. So maintaining speed is a big issue for keeping that 3 minutes of ‘cushion’ you gain by speeding.

BTW there are exceptions to the speeding is always wrong viewpoint. In a true emergency (I mean life/death) then speeding is more allowable, but again, the time saved is generally minimal, so nothing is really gained even in these instances. For instance, when I was almost bleeding to death b/c of a miscarriage my husband was exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph or so. The circumstances mitigated the true wrong-ness of his action, but in reality, he could only maintain an average speed of about 50 mph w/ all the lower speed limit areas, traffic lights, etc. We live at least 20 miles from the hospital. I think we may have saved 5 minutes by scaring the bejezus out of me (while I was already scared) and endangering our lives as well as other people’s lives. Not really worth it since the increased heartrate on my part was actually increasing my bleeding rate as well.

Also, most police officers will listen when you have an issue like this. Giving the citation of the Dallas cop recently is not indicative of all police officers. Also, the guy that was speeding wasn’t taking his wife to the hospital b/c she was injured or ill. They were trying to make it to the hospital before his mother-in-law died. There is a difference in intention there (of the cop & the driver). Technically and compassionately, the guy speeding/going through the red light(s) was trying to make it in time for a life/death situation. However, technically & compassionately, the officer was trying to uphold the law. He asked the guy to calm down & give him a better attitude, so he was trying to understand the situation. He wasn’t a shining example of compassion, but he also doesn’t deserve to be crucified for doing his job. He exercised bad judgement, but his intention was not to be harsh or cruel.
 
I seriously don’t think leaving your house (or wherever) 3 minutes later is going to get you much ‘free time’. That’s also a pretty decent trip as far as distance goes. Most people that I know generally live in town & only go w/n 10 miles or so when they go to the doctor, grocery, etc. Also, much of this driving is done w/ stop lights, etc. So maintaining speed is a big issue for keeping that 3 minutes of ‘cushion’ you gain by speeding.
Kind of unrelated. But I know for me, I have to leave my house between 7:20 and 7:25 to be at work at 8am. 35-40 minute commute. Doesn’t matter, leaving at 7:20 doesn’t make me arrive 5 minutes earlier than 7:25 does. Now, I can leave at 7:10, and arrive to work at 7:40, which is exactly what the drive should take, 30 minutes. Sometime though, I’m running a few minutes behind. Anytime after 7:25 up to 7:35, and I’ll arrive at work at 8:05, which at 7:35 makes it a 30 minute commute.

The only difference is the number of cars on the roads, those in front of me making left and right turns off the road, or when we’re all stopped at a stop sign (no lights on my commute).
 
Speed doesn’t kil, it’s differential speed that kills if at all. I have never driven a speed that I can’t handle for given conditions. I remind everyone that one of the safest per capita highways in the world is the Autobahn, and that doesn’t have a speedlimit.
 
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