Is the use of a radar detector morally justifiable?

[Charles_22]

It took you 45 minutes to travel 3 miles, at 7 miles over the speed limit?

Construction zones in my city usually have well-marked detour routes; it should not be necessary to use “evasive thinking” - you just follow the signs that get you back on to the road you want. They are usually also announced well in advance on all the radio stations, so that you can plan ahead and take a different route, if necessary.

Do you use a city map when you’re planning your driving trips?

Most cities are designed so that, if you follow a map, you can get from anywhere in the city, to anywhere, in under half an hour, unless it’s rush hour (in which case, all bets are off. I try to make it a practice not to drive during rush hour).

By the way, I have been out of school for a good long time (I work with college kids who weren’t even born yet when I graduated from college) and I’m actually more of a follower of speed limits and other laws now, than when I was young.

He’s pretty right about this age thing, in general, because I was thinking of asking him if he thought at least being rigid to speed laws had to be because they were actually probably more than 20 years our junior.

 

[Charles_22]

Yeah, Mapquest is a joke.
I have 1 red light on my commute, that I forgot about until now because I don’t actually have to obey the red light. I’m making a right turn, there’s no “No Right Turn On Red” law here. If there’s no sign, feel free to make the right turn on red. So, it’s treated more as a stop sign for people making a right turn. Stop, look for it to be safe, and continue on your way.
The rest is highways and back country roads in unincorporated areas (which rarely have traffic lights, but they exist here and there, just not on my commute). Mapquest doesn’t register the highways as even existing, because they were built recently. Except that I moved here 4 years ago, and the highways were already there.
Google Maps is better. But even they would have me make a left turn onto a highway because they show it as an intersection. The highway goes over a road, no interchange.

Oh man. I usually use google for any unknown areas but the highways are always a problem, as I usually can’t figure out whether there’s an exit at every road, or an entrance to the highway either. They’re pretty good with directional arrows, showing right-of-way, so I can’t help but think that there’s just something in my lack of knowledge of their mapping at fault here. The real dumb thing to do is to get it to tell you how to get from point A to point B. I just scroll the map as I trace my expected path instead. I probably haven’t bought a Mapsco in 25 years.

 

[jmcrae]

This isn’t a matter, at least in my own case, of ANYTHING being wrong in what I’m doing, but my end of the speeding debate involves my mother thrusting me into a position I would rather not be in and there’s little or nothing she can do about it.

If her health or her mental state make it physically impossible for her to be ready to go when you arrive to pick her up, then she probably doesn’t even have an obligation to go to Mass on Sundays, anyway - talk to her priest about this.

 

[jmcrae]

Oh man. I usually use google for any unknown areas but the highways are always a problem, as I usually can’t figure out whether there’s an exit at every road, or an entrance to the highway either. They’re pretty good with directional arrows, showing right-of-way, so I can’t help but think that there’s just something in my lack of knowledge of their mapping at fault here. The real dumb thing to do is to get it to tell you how to get from point A to point B. I just scroll the map as I trace my expected path instead. I probably haven’t bought a Mapsco in 25 years.

If it’s some place I’ve never been before, I click on the satellite image, to get a read on the local landmarks.

 

[Nick_in_MB]

If it’s some place I’ve never been before, I click on the satellite image, to get a read on the local landmarks.

And their street view feature is good for that too.

 

[Charles_22]

If her health or her mental state make it physically impossible for her to be ready to go when you arrive to pick her up, then she probably doesn’t even have an obligation to go to Mass on Sundays, anyway - talk to her priest about this.

That I would have no problem with. The problem is her getting ready can be very erratic. It seems there’s no such thing as her starting early enough and due to her gastro problems, among others, there is such a thing as her getting ready too early to make it all through the service. Elsewise she’s completely capable. She just can’t tell necessarily, whether the getting ready process will go very south or not. She was as bad as any woman before, but with her complications it’s even worse. At least a fully able woman can predict pretty accurately how long things will take, even if she does have a lazy habit; not so with my Mom.

I guess things would be better, as far as me possibly speeding for her is concerned, if she would either be on-time or so late I can’t possibly get her there in time for the Gospel. I have drove her maybe 10 times so far, and she’s never been so late that I knew she couldn’t possibly make the Gospel even with me speeding. So far I’m kind of 50/50 on whether I speed with her or not, because usually the Gospel factor doesn’t enter into it, but I don’t want her to think I’m unwilling to speed, but I also want her to think that there are times where I will not make up for her tardiness. It’s a difficult balance, and I’m pretty sure neither option will affect how she gets ready. I’m just glad my observance of the sunday obligation isn’t being threatened by her lateness, as I’m usually just dropping her off.

 

[Charles_22]

If it’s some place I’ve never been before, I click on the satellite image, to get a read on the local landmarks.

Have you seen the google street level view? That’s the most helpful, but it would take forever to do street level view the whole way, even if google had every street photographed, which they don’t.

 

[jmcrae]

That I would have no problem with. The problem is her getting ready can be very erratic. It seems there’s no such thing as her starting early enough and due to her gastro problems, among others, there is such a thing as her getting ready too early to make it all through the service. Elsewise she’s completely capable. She just can’t tell necessarily, whether the getting ready process will go very south or not. She was as bad as any woman before, but with her complications it’s even worse. At least a fully able woman can predict pretty accurately how long things will take, even if she does have a lazy habit; not so with my Mom.

This sounds like a health issue that would free her from any obligation to go to Mass on Sundays. Mention it to her priest; he can advise you more accurately, and he also might have ideas for ways to compensate that don’t include speeding.

I guess things would be better, as far as me possibly speeding for her is concerned, if she would either be on-time or so late I can’t possibly get her there in time for the Gospel. I have drove her maybe 10 times so far, and she’s never been so late that I knew she couldn’t possibly make the Gospel even with me speeding. So far I’m kind of 50/50 on whether I speed with her or not, because usually the Gospel factor doesn’t enter into it, but I don’t want her to think I’m unwilling to speed,

Does she feel safe in the car when you’re speeding? I know that if I were driving recklessly with my mother in the car, I’d never hear the end of it.

 

[jmcrae]

Have you seen the google street level view? That’s the most helpful, but it would take forever to do street level view the whole way, even if google had every street photographed, which they don’t.

No, I don’t think they have street-level view for my city. The view from above is usually good enough for my purposes. If it’s “mission critical” and I’m going to have passengers, I do a practice drive of the route ahead of time, so that I know what to expect.

 

[Charles_22]

This sounds like a health issue that would free her from any obligation to go to Mass on Sundays. Mention it to her priest; he can advise you more accurately, and he also might have ideas for ways to compensate that don’t include speeding.

She dont’ really have a priest for a start, unless we can find the pastor that baptized my Dad. But all her journeying about often takes longer because of her condition, but it’s not like it keeps her from going. It would sort of be like my not going because sometimes my condition is bad enough not to go (like being sick). If she has so much trouble on any given sunday, well she’s automatically dispensated anyway, but most days don’t end up that bad; at least not yet

Does she feel safe in the car when you’re speeding? I know that if I were driving recklessly with my mother in the car, I’d never hear the end of it.

She has this keen sense of making this sort of hissing noise when something alarms her. I think what happens is she thinks for some reason I hadn’t noticed what she notices, which is of course nothing. So all she achieves is to make me nervous when she does it and she doesn’t do it just when I’m speeding. This speeding doesn’t equate to reckless driving necessarily. The funny thing is, if things get a little squirmy, she don’t seem too nervous about that. It’s like she’s trying to find trouble that she tinks I dont’ notice, and so when I hear that noise I take my eye ‘off’ the road, and am doing something dumb like checking my rear, because it’s the only area I may be relatively unaware of, and naturally there’s nothing there. She hasn’t drove in like 30 years either, so that doesn’t help much. We may get her back behind the wheel though, while my Dad was living he wouldn’t let her drive again due to her having one lousy accident (a small dent in the left front) back in '78.

 

[jmcrae]

She dont’ really have a priest for a start, unless we can find the pastor that baptized my Dad.

The Pastor of her territorial parish (the parish within whose boundaries she lives) is her priest. Everyone has a priest.

 

[Julian_Peters]

Thank you to all who participated. This thread is now closed.