A Double Standard on the Freeway

It is a strange phenomena that people are so concerned about the lines painted on the freeway but no about the post speed limits. In driving on the highway the majority of people are very careful when it comes to driving in a diamond lane and only enter or exit the lane where a single dotted line is painted on the highway. The double white lines of the diamond lane are taboo to most drives that wish to enter or exit the lane. Even when one car comes up on the rear bumper of another driver the car following will wait for the right break in the painted double white lines before cutting around the driver ahead of them as they obediently follow the rule of the road that makes it illegal to cross a double painted line on the surface of the freeway.

What is puzzling is that these same people who take the double white so seriously and would never transgress the code of crossing in or out of a lane over the double white lines have no trouble at all putting their foot down and driving fifteen to twenty miles an hour above the posted speed limit without a second thought.

Why is it that some rules of the road are more important to follow than others? Surely the discipline that it takes to patiently wait for the lane openings can be applied to driving at a safe speed limit by the self same drivers that hurl down the freeway well over the posted limits.

Perhaps it is the constant reminder of the double white line that signals the need to be obedient whereas the lone sign post every few thousand yards is not enough of a constant to be noticed and obeyed. It would be an interesting experiment to write the posted speed limit on the center of each lane every thousand yards where a driver could see it to know if they would then obey the speed limit as regularly as they do the double lines of the diamond lane.