A Meditation on The Geniuses Who Tested The Speed Limit
Atlanta, Georgia.
Home of the Braves.
*chuckle*
That’s funny actually.
Also, home of the most ridiculous speed limit in the history of the United States. Anybody who’s been to Atlanta and driven on I-285 is very familiar with the 55 MPH speed limit and with the total disregard for it by the drivers of the city that Sherman burned.
It’s been affectionately referred to as the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Many Atlantans have fallen victim to the total randomness of being ticketed for doing 80 MPH on I-285 while everybody else is already doing 75 MPH. I myself have received at least 2 tickets that I can remember on I-285 in both the City of Atlanta and Cobb County.
And a ticket in Atlanta is no joke. One of my tickets was a whopping $285. Much like other ticketed drivers who are confused by their tickets when it is a well documented fact that there is NO enforced speed limit on in Atlanta, I’ve often wished I could do something about it…if only to prove a point. I’m all for civil disobedience.
Which is why I proudly stand up, salute, and add to my list of heroes, the group of students from Georgia State University who had enough and decided to do something about it. They were tired of tickets so they took the Georgia Depart of Transportation on.
Check the Atlanta Journal-Constitution article here.
They are my heroes.
These students released a short film they created called “A Meditation On The Speed Limit” and are receiving all the national attention they deserve. What did they do?
In four cars, on all four lanes, the students from Georgia State University and other local colleges paced the entire midmorning flow of Perimeter traffic behind them at 55 mph for half an hour. They call it “an act of civil obedience.”
“I get a lot of tickets,” said Andy Medlin, 20, the Georgia State student who came up with the idea. “The best way to expose the flaws in the system is by following it.”
God bless us everyone.
And also piss off EVERYBODY in the process. Traffic in Atlanta is the absofuckinlutely worst. There is no rush hour. Every hour is rush hour. You are just as likely to sit in traffic at 2am as you are 2pm. Believe you me, nothing pisses you off like sitting in traffic in Atlanta at 2am on a Saturday night…on a highway.
Except…
…being fucking ticketed on a highway when everybody is doing at least 75 and you get busted for doing 80. What kind of gotdamned sense does that make? Of course, I was doing 84 when I got my inaugural ticket but that’s neither here nor there.
It’s especially frustrating when considering statements like these from the spokesman for the state Department of Transportation:
(David) Spear added that the speed limit was lowered to 55 because it saves lives. “In Atlanta, the actual effect of it is we expect the people going 75 to move over so the people going 95 can have the right of way,” he said.
Ironically, you can be killed doing 55 MPH in Atlanta more easily than you can doing 75 since NOBODY drives 55 MPH.
These students took a flawed system’s ridiculousness into their own hands. And it is for this, I salute them.
They…are my heroes.
They are a shining example of how you can buck the system by following its very intent.
Their parents should be proud.
I don’t even know them and I’m proud.
Fuck the system!
(And Starbucks!)
March 3rd, 2006 10:50
Atlanta’s traffic IS bad, Spaghetti highway makes me queasy. However, I thought LA had them beat.
Panama have u listened to Ne-Yo’s album? Its embarrasingly good. lol
March 3rd, 2006 10:57
As a matter of fact, I have heard it. I listened to it once and thought it was cool. To offer a real opinion I must listen to it again.
We must decide if it’s better than Omarion or Ray-J’s album.
March 3rd, 2006 11:36
I love this. THANKFULLY I have YET to get a ticket on 285 and you know the German in me has a lead foot.
The sad thing is, this wont change anything, but I love that it’s out there.
GO GEORGIA STATE!!!!
March 3rd, 2006 13:47
Dude you ain’t nevauh lied but ATL highways are crazy and I drive in NYC and overseas. I remember being on (is 85 also 285?) and driving 65 miles an hour while the speedlimit read 45 because it was a construction zone and everyone around me was zomming and honking because I was going so damm slow. Da hell!?!?!
March 3rd, 2006 14:31
I’m a little confused. All this excess posting is making me suspect my tax dollars are being wasted.
But about tickets, do they put them on your credit report in the ATL? Do they suspend your license? Do they use those gawdamtrafficfuggin cameras in ATL?
Did you know DC tickets can appear on your credit report? But that you can dispute them with the credit bureaus and because DC is so messed up, they will not respond in a timely manner and all of your tickets on your credit report will disappear. Or at least that’s what I heard. I’m just sayin’ knowing is half the battle.
March 3rd, 2006 15:13
you know what the moral to this story is right?…stay yo ass off of 285. atlanta’s like your second home; i was there for 4 yrs. and I know that you only get tickets on 285. 75, 85 and 20 til i die! shawty UWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 3rd, 2006 15:41
Fret not TAP Hostess…I’ve actually been working my ass off…just been inspired…or something.
@JK: you know good and well that’s impossible to do in Atlanta. 285 is like a city street and shit as vital as it is.
@Honest: UNC is going DOWN THIS WEEKEND TO DUKE!!!!! Fucka a Tyler Hansbrough!!! JJ Redick 4 Lyfe!
@Grayse: GSU keeps it gangsta!
March 4th, 2006 20:02
What they need to do is do that junk every week…. at around 5pm at 75/85 just before the split, Stewart Avenue going South and then on 285 right near Cobb Parkway. But I would suggest that they make sure they have bullet proof reinforced doors with matching BP helmets because if they try that again, somebody is going to end up shooting them. That’s the ATL and it’s just as likely that you’ll get shot there as you would in LA. Fo’ real!
………..Come to think about it, those kids were dayum luckly to have gotten away with that!
March 4th, 2006 20:40
That’s freakin’ GREAT that they thought to do that! I’m all for a sequel…
March 6th, 2006 13:42
That movie was the shit. LOL Wow!!! that’s some hot shit right there!!!
You know the speed limit used to be 70 on 285 and they were doing construction on it, so they temporarily lowered it to 55, for the sake of the workers, and when they did, the auto-related deaths declined by like a RIDICULOUSLY HIGH percentage, so they just left it at 55. But please, it kills me, bec. a trooper stopped me once when I was doing 80 - and SAID, in CLEAR English, “If you weren’t doing EIGHTY, I wouldn’t have stopped you… but 80…” Yeah so 75 is like their cut off to mess with you. They just can’t take 80 for whatever reason. And 80 is such a COMFORTABLE speed to me!!! LOL
March 6th, 2006 13:48
LMAO@ spaghetti highway - that’s spaghetti junction and yeah, take it from someone who lives in Gwinnett and used to commute to downtown Atlanta every morning (and you ain’t NEVER lied about every hour being rush hour!!! And please don’t let their be rain, a flake of snow, or someone with a flat tire… OMG - that’s truly cause for their to be backup for miles) I remember once, they CLOSED 285. And people were still on it!!! I lie to you not. They closed it Eastbound… and it was PACKED FOR MILES like you couldn’t even imagine. I was on it for like 10 minutes, and since it was CLOSED (dumbasses) the cars weren’t even MOVING. LOL So I moved into the emergency lane to get off, and people actually tried to BLOCK ME from exiting the highway… like WTF do YOU care??? LOL Those people were such morons - all of them, that stayed on the highway - because… pssst… the reason they call it the “perimeter” is that it’s a circle. So if one side is closed… guess what? You can get on on the other side and get to the same place, it will take longer than usual - yes, but you will get there faster than on a CLOSED highway that’s not even moving at all. ROFLMAO
And why the DEUCE do people try to keep you from getting off the highway that is the dumbest shyt I’ve ever seen, and I didn’t even know people DID that dumb shyt until that day. LOL