“A Meditation On the Speed Limit” is a short 2006 student film submitted to Georgia State University’s Campus Movie Fest. The small film crew humorously documented what would happen if they decided to actually drive at the speed limit in every single lane on Atlanta’s 62-mile Perimeter highway.
This movie, which you can stream in YouTube, is definitely worth a look and a laugh, though part of its premise may have been flawed.
“I thought we were just going to block off the whole thing,” filmmaker Kit said in the movie. Then when he started driving slowly on I-285, he said he remembered thinking, “‘What have I gotten myself into?’”
The students, each with a passenger filming them driving, set off to create a speed limit barge. They would then document how motorists reacted. The filmmakers also called news stations, pretending to be the angered commuters complaining about these horrible people daring to drive 55 mph.
The students unsurprisingly noticed people getting increasingly angry around them. Patience is a virtue that many passersby did not hold, as some passed the students illegally on the shoulder.
Credit: See caption
Credit: See caption
An Oldsmobile, and not a sporty one either, cut by on the right hand side. One 1980s, crusty, old GM work van, too, started to pass the filmmakers in the right emergency lane. The van clipped off its mirror, while foolishly trying to squeeze between the speed limit-film-flotilla and an abandoned car on that shoulder.
As horns beeped and middle fingers flipped, the filmmakers acted as if they did not understand the problem. “All I could do was pretend to be busy with my cellphone, so people couldn’t be too angry with me, right?” Kit said in the film. Kit was wrong.
Given the proliferation of smartphones and distracted driving since this 18-year-old traffic experiment, Kit’s statement is out of touch with current practices.
As the tongue-in-cheek law abiders trudged up I-285/northbound (Outer Loop) near Church Street (Exit 40) in Clarkston, one of the camera people captured the perforation in traffic, as if the freeway was shut down. Then, cresting the hill, came the horizontal procession that defied Sammy Hagar and continued to drive 55, with the post-production crew adding in some R&B music and reverse-repeat editing effects to make the arrival of the unofficial traffic-pace appear chic.
“I am just really glad that no one got hurt, because that was really dangerous,” filmmaker Andy said near the end of the five-minute flick. And Andy said that was the entire point: obeying the law was dangerous and maybe it should be changed.
Or maybe not. While some speed limits do seem ridiculously low, their rule is not the danger. Speed limits are not dangerous, reckless behavior whilst breaking them is.
Georgia’s “Slow Poke Law” states, “No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation.”
The students in “A Meditation…” would have been breaking that law, had it been on the books in 2006.
But the other drivers’ overreactions were the most dangerous parts of the film.
If these same collegiate drivers had blocked all lanes of I-285 and had driven 70 mph, not 55, they would have gotten similar reactions from those wanting to drive 80 or 90.
Of course, real-life drivers should act with more common sense when driving the speed limit on freeways. They should, as the law says, leave the left lanes open as passing lanes. That is true at any speed. Stubbornly choosing to ride at 55 in the fast lane is just asking for conflict.
GDOT has since raised the I-285 speed limits, during nonpeak traffic times, to 65 mph.
The short film ends with a black screen and the phrase “Be nice” at the bottom. That simple axiom applies to both the impatient speedsters and the aloof law abiders in the fast lane.
Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. Download the Triple Team Traffic Alerts App to hear reports from the WSB Traffic Team automatically when you drive near trouble spots. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.
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