Poodles, Peer Pressure, and Product

Last month, something was amiss in the world of competitive dog shows.  The United Kingdom-based Kennel Club decided it was time to get tough and enforce their ban on the use of performance-enhancing products in dog shows.  They showed their teeth at Crufts, the world’s largest dog show, when they introduced random testing of the canine competitors for these banned products.  But the Kennel Club wasn’t testing for steroids.  No, the performance-enhancing products in question were just that – products, as in hairspray. 

Casually listening to the radio on my drive to work, this story caught my attention.  Sure, I allow my daughters to put an occasional bow or curler in our family dog’s hair, but I draw the line at product.  This hard-hitting issue was sandwiched between a report on the collapse of the Greek economy and the start of the new Supreme Court term.  The radio reporter interviewed Sandra Vincent, Secretary of the Standard Poodle Club of Great Britain.  Ms. Vincent was leading the pack of dog owners who did not consider the use of products to be cheating, “The bottom line is that we've always used hairspray.  We know it is against the rules but everyone has done it and done it very carefully. Whether you like it or not, dog shows are beauty competitions of sorts. [The ban] is like Miss World going in without her make-up on."

I was having a grand time listening to this story.  I was waiting for her to draw the obvious analogy to American baseball when she said something that caught me off guard, “It’s like speeding.  No one follows the speed limit. We know it’s against the rules but everyone does it.”  Drawing an analogy to beauty competitions or American’s favorite pastime was one thing, but Ms. Vincent was comparing breaking the rules at a glorified parade of family pets to an activity that contributed to over 10,000 fatalities last year. 

I don’t have an issue with Ms. Vincent.  I’m sure she is a nice, well-groomed person.  The truth is, she was right.  Speeding is ubiquitous.  Everyone does it.  Police officers charged with enforcement don’t enforce the posted speed limit.  If they did, the driving public would be up in arms, the media would jump all over the subject, and the judges would throw the citations out.  Instead, there is an unspoken threshold at which we consider speeding acceptable.    

On some level, all drivers make a calculation to determine our operating speed when we get in the car.  I think the calculation looks something like this:

                                                S = 1.1P + 3 – 4(W_z) – 7(S_z)

Where

                        S = Operating Speed in MPH

                        P = Posted Speed in MPH

                        W_z=1 if in an active work zone, 0 otherwise

S_z=1 if in an active school zone, 0 otherwise

For teenagers, the equation looks slightly different:

                                                            S = 1.1P + 5T

Where

                        S = Operating Speed in MPH

                        P = Posted Speed in MPH

                        T = The number of their friends in the car

I know my causal readers just glazed over (sorry Mom) when I introduced math to the discussion.  However, unless you are always staying at the speed limit or you are constantly getting tickets, you are doing this math to stay within the “acceptable” limits for speeding.  How did this collective math evolve?  We didn’t learn this calculation in driver’s ed class from the 1950s videos on the Smith System of Driving. 

I discussed this with my company’s president, Bob Brustlin, when he visited Raleigh earlier this week.  He had a similar thought that morning on his way to Logan airport.  Driving the speed of traffic, he passed a state trooper parked on the shoulder of the road.  He checked his speed – 80 MPH.  The trooper didn’t budge.  e waIf Bob had driven slower in the high-speed congestion, he may have caused a crash.  Similarly, if the state trooper pulled cars over, the same may have happened. 

All of this begs the question, When did speeding become the ultimate peer pressure?  And, the more important question, What do we do about it? 

How did the Kennel Club resolve the opposition to the enforcement of the ban?  They rolled over.  The ban was lifted.  Hairspray is now fair game.  I think I can hear Pascal (our family dog) running for cover. 

Please post your thoughts on these issues in the comment box.  I'd be particularly interested in thoughts (or equations) on how you select your speed in relation to the posted speed limit.

Looking for resources to reduce speeding?  VHB compiled a CD of resources on speeding for the Federal Highway Administration.  Email me (keccles@vhb.com) if you’d like a copy of the searchable CD or check it out online at:

http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/fhwasa09028/