Obeying traffic laws? How hard is it?

[strategery blunder]

107. For those of us with no or not functioning cruise control

The mere act of "obeying the speed limit" can be an attention hog if we're held to a DWB standard.

My cruise control is out and has been for years. It's not really part of the minimum equipment list to drive; it's a convenience, so I don't bother to spend a couple hundred dollars getting it fixed (especially since I did that once, and it stopped working again only a couple months later). So, while I consciously observe the posted speed limits, I'm human, I'm imperfect, my foot will twitch, sometimes I'll look and see I'm doing 37 in a 35, sometimes someone will be coming up behind me in my rearview mirror and I realize I'm only doing 32 and correct that.

I typically check my speedometer once every few seconds but if I kept my eyes constantly glued to it in an effort to perfectly maintain that 35, I'd become more of a hazard on the road because obsession with maintaining the perfect speed would consume too much of my attention span. It'd be about on par with texting while driving...only I'm going exactly 35! It's possible for a driver to become so legalistic in their driving, avoiding ALL violations, that they actually become more of a safety hazard because they're spending too much attention focusing on avoiding any minor infraction and not enough attention on finding and dealing with traffic hazards. Don't get me started about driving in places where the flow of traffic is literally 30 mph above the posted limit...thankfully where I live drivers are pretty laid back.

Like you, I've never so much as been pulled over, never been in an accident, and actually enjoy the feeling that I don't have to be on the lookout for "the snake in the grass" constantly. But I also recognize that if a cop really had it in for me, they could find some technical violation (such as a very minor speed fluctuation) that they could bust me for, and that it's more likely to happen to minorities. That's also part of the reason why I keep my car clear of bumper stickers--I don't want some racist KKKop hassling me because I have a Black Lives Matter bumper sticker, for example.