SAXTONS RIVER — I had always been an incidental driver, limiting my excursions to local errands and avoiding more miles than necessary.
But recently I had taken on driving a 130-mile round trip twice every week - a major change of lifestyle for me.
Although my route was along what must be one of the country's prettiest interstate highways, the time spent in my car cut into my domestic routines.
Eager to get to my destination and back home again, I began speeding - discreetly, I hoped.
The weather this summer had been near perfect, the traffic generally light, and I could see no reason not to let my speedometer hover just above 70 mph, faster when passing, except for the possibility of getting a speeding ticket. I judiciously scouted state police posts for a while.
I was able to avert an expensive encounter, but one day, nearing home on a local road that was little used either by pedestrians or commuters when I would pass through, I caught a glimpse of flashing blue lights behind me.
It had been a near perfect day so far, all my stops having gone smoothly. The sun was sparkling, a fresh breeze stirred the air.
Surprised as I was by that stop, I had a feeling that this was Fate's balancing act. I honed my stoicism against the blow.
The sheriff was polite but a little ruthless, I thought. The road, a mere 2{1/2} miles in length, has several speed postings that don't correspond to my perception of safe driving. It's easy to overlook those changes when preoccupied and there's no activity on or near the road.
The sheriff had been hidden just beyond the point where the limit of 45 mph dipped into a 35mph zone - an act of entrapment, I felt.
According to the police radar, I had been driving at 54 mph, a not-unrealistic scenario, especially as the road's hilliness promoted variable speeds. My fine was a whopping $179.
I suspected he would have nabbed me just the same if I had been continuing the previously legal 45 mph speed. I bet the main reason he was posted there was to generate revenue, rather than to protect an invisible population from reckless drivers.
* * *
I realized that I would have to protect my dignity and wallet by changing my driving habits. On my next outing, my resolve to avoid apprehension having stiffened, I kept my eyes out for changes of speed limits.
But it was another enticingly gorgeous Saturday, and as soon as I merged onto the interstate, I became part of a general migration northward.
Suddenly, my herd instinct kicked in. Animals herd or flock for protection to reduce the helplessness of lone feeders. I knew as well that the outliers in any group tend to be the ones who will be picked off. Safety comes in being surrounded by one's kind.
As long as I keep up with the traffic - blissfully moving along at the standard over-the-speed-limit pace - I will be safe, I reasoned. An enemy is afoot. Straying far from the herd might endanger me!
My eyes turned from the landscape to the individual vehicles that comprised the herd. Though I could not see the drivers within the multicolored shells of variable size and make, I acknowledged them as kin and wished them all well, even the outliers.
Suddenly, the herd slowed to a speed a few miles below the posted limit. Sure enough, the first in line had spotted a green-and-yellow state trooper's cruiser in the meridian!
Safely out of his range, we all resumed speeding, and I could almost hear a collective cry of joy!
I had always been a loner, but I was now part of a community of drivers - a perfect community that maintained a speed to my liking while warding off attack!
* * *
I paid my fine promptly and put that episode behind me. But something in me had changed.
I had begun regarding driving in a way I had never done before.
And I was beginning to consider the advent of driverless vehicles.
These self-driving cars will not allow their owners or passengers to indulge in the joy of whizzing, hair flying, ascertaining the safety of passing another driver intuitively, along a scenic road on a summer's day.
And as technology advances, it will unintentionally promote the loss of an exemplary mode of cooperative human effort - one that, as with societies at large, it had taken a menace to bring forth.