How To: Drive Slower

Some of us owned a Geo Metro in high school and college, so we never had to worry much about this issue, but for those of you who have the ability to drive too quickly, this post is for you.

Leo at ZenHabits teaches us that driving more slowly has benefits.The most obvious one is fuel economy. The most interesting one?

Save Time: While you think you’re saving time by driving faster, it’s not a lot of time. And that small amount of time you’re saving isn’t worth it, considering the other factors on this list. Better yet, start out a few minutes early and you’ll arrive at the same time as someone who drove faster but started later, and you’ll arrive much happier than that person to boot.

We can agree with this statement. When we were learning to drive out in the rural country roads of Illinois, a huge caddy came speeding up behind us, and, squealing its tires, roared past.

“Dad,” we asked, “Can we please go faster and speed?” He told us that we could, but bet us that if we stayed at our current speed (which was already a few miles over the limit, to be honest), he bet us $10 that we’d catch up to the asshole in the Caddy. “Uh, whatever,” we said.

The caddy was sitting at a stoplight 2 miles up the road. We lost $10. We took this bet 3 more times on 3 separate occasions before realizing that it was always a losing one. After a certain point, speeding and driving like a fool just doesn’t help that much. It’s best to just go with the flow.—MEGHANN MARCO

5 Powerful Reasons to Drive Slower, and How to Do It [ZenHabits]
(Photo: HAM guy)

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