Informal Poll to take your mind off your troubles

[constance]

In my old city -- actually, this was true all over the state -- school zone speed limits were taken Very Seriously Indeed. This was, I'm sure, more because the high fines for speeding came in mighty handy as income for an impoverished city/state, and less because we were on our Let's-Look-Out-for-the-Kids moral high ground, but the fact remains that it was pretty rare to have a school zone which encroached on a major street which did not feature at least one police car, and often more than one, during the hours school zones were in effect. And almost every New Orleanian car-owner I know has gotten a ticket for speeding in a school zone because they just didn't notice the signs. They are vigilant, in Louisiana, is what I'm saying.

Here, though, it's very different. People driving here seem to take school zone speed limits as suggestions rather than legal speed limits. Very often I'm the only person in any given crowd who slows down for them at all, and several times I've actually seen people pass patrol cars without slowing down even a little. Not only that, but trust me, if you do slow down, you're the recipient of some very filthy looks, whether or not there's a patrol car present. I can't help it, though. I was trained from an early age; I see the sign and hit my brake pedal reflexively.

What about where you live? Do you slow down for school zone signs? Does anyone? Do the police stake out schoool zones? I am curious to know which is the norm, you see, my erstwhile state or my not-so-new-by-now one.

:::

Also, I am rereading Georgette Heyer lately, which is something I do every now and then. I tend to revisit some novels -- my faves, of course -- more than others, but I reread one of what I consider to be my second-tier favorites (Arabella) and was agreeably surprised by its excellence. It was, in fact, better than I remembered, with its stellar supporting cast of adopted miscreants.

Don't you love it when that happens?

:::

Also also, my fingers smell like home-dried oregano. Yummmm.

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I was trained from an early age; I see the sign and hit my brake petal reflexively.

What a pretty typo!

I, too, slow down in school zones. Also when I'm on a rural highway that has a high speed limit that decreases as one approaches a town. Admittedly it's more out of fear of getting ticketed than a sense of moral righteousness.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Ha! As the Queen of Typos, I'm bound by the law of averages to produce one pretty one -- or, you know, a really embarrassing, or a hilarious, one -- every now and then. That one's fixed, though!

And agreed, about the fear being the motivating factor in the decrease. It is right to fear the NO police, man. :/

[gmth.livejournal.com]

I always slow down in school zones, mostly because I'm a mom and if someone else didn't slow down when my kid was around I'd be furious. Golden Rule and all that.

There's usually a cop parked out in front of my son's school in the morning, but not so much in the afternoon (I drive him to and from school everyday). A lot of people seem to blow right through the school zone without slowing down, though. The crossing guards are always blowing their whistles in the afternoon.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

And I haven't even seen crossing guards here! I suppose they must have them, but I've yet to notice one. It seems to be very much a city where kids go elsewhere for school, and are either carpooled or bussed to get there.

I wonder if this at least partly accounts for the difference in attitides between cities, though. NO was very much a pedestrian city; lots of kids walked to and from school, and often, it was difficult to ramp up your speed past 10 mph, much less actually break the speed limit. :-?

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Most of the careless driving I see around school zones are the parents themselves, but as far as people just driving by, most seem pretty respectful of the school zone.

One zone around here that got NO respect, though, was the 25-mph senior center area. It was situated right near the corner of a really busy intersection, and lots of people would just blow through the slow zone to make the green light. Six solid months of swarming speed-trappin' motorcycle cops solved that, and now it's really heartwarming to see people slow to a crawl blocks before this area, and at all times of day and night.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Oh, snap! It's always nice to see people wavering in the face of The Law. It's something that doesn't seem to happen so much here -- I'm not just talking about traffic, either -- and it never fails to surprise me when it doesn't happen.

[luthien.livejournal.com]

I haven't reread Arabella in a long time, I think because Arabella herself annoys me a lot, so I've forgotten a lot of the details. Isn't that the one with the chimneysweep? Maybe I should reread it myself! *g* Actually, maybe I should reread it. I'm going to need pretty much all of Heyer in my head when I get back to work on number 5 on my list of WIPs (http://luthien.livejournal.com/465196.html#cutid1)...

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, it makes me wish I knew anything about SGA canon, just so I can read it. We Heyer fans should follow our stuff wherever it takes us; it's not like there's any new canon coming out, after all.

It was actually a ficlet which put me onto this particular reread. I've been making a private writing exercise out of some of the unfulflled yuletide requests from last year, and one of the things I wrote was a Gilly/Gideon from The Foundling; I started refamiliarizing myself with the book and manage to get all swept up. :D

[saekokato.livejournal.com]

The town I hail from doesn't really have school speed zones for two reasons. One, Canjo is a ricky-dink town in who's only two claims to fame are the Beechnut Baby Food Factory and being exit 29 on the NY State Thruway/I-90. Two, both the elementary/middle school and the high school are off on their own side streets and there are cross walk people every where. If you don't slow down, you're libal for vanhicular manslaughter, not speeding.

But personally, I don't tend to drive the speed limit in town anyway. I don't know why, but if the town speed limit is 30, I tend to be going 20-25 instead. Annoys the heck out of people, but I feel more comfortable driving that way.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I always have more patience in small towns than I do in cities. I used to think that it was because I was a visitor in those places, and needed a lower speed to orient myself, and I guess that really is true, to a certain extent; but it's also true that things feel closer, or maybe I mean more intimate, in a small town. What I mean is that the physical geography of small towns makes it hard for me to speed, and probably would no matter how familiar I was with the town.

Which is to say. That I would probably be poking along behind you.

[saekokato.livejournal.com]

Which is to say. That I would probably be poking along behind you.

^^ Glad to hear that I'm not alone.