I think most people have heard of Richardson’s Law, probably not by name but surely by sentiment as there are other ways of stating the same idea. The problem is that the law is easy to break, intentionally or not. In need of a continuing reminder, I had it printed on a small plastic sign that I attached to the sun visor of my daily driver. When I’m traveling and the driving gets stressful, I glance at it for some relief.
Jim Richardson is a columnist for the magazine Hemmings Classic Car. In a column published in the August 2018 issue, he posted the following law:
As your speed goes up, your enjoyment of the journey goes down.
The column, “Going Places,” is so well written that naming the law after himself seems appropriate.
Richardson is a car guy. He’s owned numerous older collector cars over the years, and he’s done all of the wrenching on them himself. He drives them a lot. Luckily he’s also a writer.
In the column he is talking about how driving an older car helps you “savor the process of going places.” As a former collector car owner, I agree. While these cars are meant to be driven, many have trouble keeping up with modern traffic, so when you drive one, you are more apt to take secondary roads, drive slower, and stop more often to enjoy your surroundings. It’s a lot easier, and safer, to pull over whenever you want to on a blue highway than a crowded interstate with its (mostly) speed-obsessed drivers. The clock in my old Chevy didn’t work, and I didn’t care.
But you don’t need to own a collector car to obey Richardson’s Law. A new SUV works about as well. Slow down, take alternate routes, stop to see things you would normally skip, and don’t try to compete with the “travel time” estimated by Google maps. Chances are you will reach the destination more relaxed than when you left home. If you don’t do anything else, stay off the interstates as much as you can.
In 2007 my brother, my nephew, and I drove from Austin, Texas, to his son’s new home in Los Altos Hills, California. The 1700-mile trip was interstate highway-free except for the last 50 miles as we got near the Bay Area. Even without photos, I can still remember details from that trip. As an example of a “normally skip” item, we toured the International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico.
Richardson’s Law extends beyond driving or any travel mode for that matter. When it does, the wording varies and the ownership can get murky. A former boss, years ago, had a poster in his office that showed a photo of a tortoise and the wording: “There’s more to life than increasing its speed.” While Mahatma Gandhi generally gets the credit for that one, I don’t know the origin of a maxim my Dad tried to drill into us: “Life is short so be sure to stop and smell the roses.”
Without being too competitive, how many versions of Richardson’s Law do you know? One rule: They only count if you follow them.
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