A Horrendous Act of Civil Obedience

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » March 3, 2006, 1:55 pm

Students tempt the fates, get it on film, and make big news

By ARIEL HART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/03/06

They knew it was dangerous.

"We could have really been hurt," said one of the Atlanta college students after their experiment.
BITA HONARVAR / Staff

It won't win an Oscar, but 'A Meditation on the Speed Limit,' a short film that was the brainchild of college student Andy Medlin, is quite a hit.

From "A Meditation on the Speed Limit"

Some strange scenes, including a car passing in the emergency lane, were the product of Georgia State students simply following the speed limit.

"I was pretty sure that I was doing something stupid," said another.

That may be true. But, young and brash, they had a plan.

They wanted to go the speed limit on I-285.

In four cars, on all four lanes, the students from Georgia State University and other local colleges paced the entire midmorning flow of Perimeter traffic behind them at 55 mph for half an hour. They call it "an act of civil obedience."

"I get a lot of tickets," said Andy Medlin, 20, the Georgia State student who came up with the idea. "The best way to expose the flaws in the system is by following it."

Thankfully, they survived unharmed, though much maligned. The eight students captured it all on video for a student film competition, and the five-minute piece has fired up the country this week on blogs, talk radio, and national news broadcasts.

"NPR was the first biter," said Jordan Streiff, 21, the group's experienced filmmaker and an Asian Studies major at Georgia State. "Initially, we were going to be on ABC's cable network and Web site, but overnight the traffic to the video spiked so they put it on World News Tonight."

The film, "A Meditation on the Speed Limit," was intended as a drama, but won best comedy for Georgia last month at the Campus MovieFest, a traveling movie competition. It will compete against other states' winners for a national title later this spring, said David Roemer, one of the film festival's founders.

In the meantime, driven by blog attention to the video that Streiff posted on Google, a national discussion has bloomed about what is legal and what is right. One of the filmmakers, Georgia State student Amanda Hunter, was interviewed about it on Neal Boortz's radio show on WSB.

"It's just so overwhelming," Hunter said Thursday, after leaving a midterm exam on Sufism and Islamic mysticism. "Jordan's calling me today like, 'Do you have time for CBS?' I called him back and he said, 'Don't worry about that now, just take your test.'"

David Spear, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said if the students weren't blocking emergency vehicles and were going the speed limit, "they didn't do a thing wrong." Spear added that the speed limit was lowered to 55 because it saves lives. "In Atlanta, the actual effect of it is we expect the people going 75 to move over so the people going 95 can have the right of way," he said.

There was little doubt what the students' companions on the road thought that sunny Friday in January. The video shows drivers' steadily mounting hostility to the blockade. Cars honk. They drive onto the shoulder to speed around the students. Obscene gestures are made. The money shot, however, was captured beautifully by Hunter, who stood with her camera on the Church Street bridge over I-285 to watch the approaching traffic.

What she saw was ... nothing. An empty highway, with one or two stray cars. And then, like the hordes on the horizon, over the rise come the students backed by a phalanx of cars, cars, cars. The film plays it for all it's worth, bouncing the image back and forth to the funky beat of the Guru Fish song "Plush."

"It was so fantastic," said Hunter. "I just started jumping up and down and going crazy. There's beeping horns and craziness."

Then it passed, Hunter said, and a woman driving on the bridge stopped and asked, "What was the point of all that?"

Hunter explained the project. It was to make people think, she said.

The woman amicably rolled her eyes, Hunter recalled. "It was kind of like, 'Oh, you kids and your statements.'"

The Film:

http://www.campusmoviefest.com/cgi-bin/ ... ovieID=978

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 3, 2006, 2:15 pm

Hehe.. That's pretty cool.

"In Atlanta, the actual effect of it is we expect the people going 75 to move over so the people going 95 can have the right of way," he said.

If only this would happen regardless of the speed limit. Slower traffic keep right. I don't know what's so hard about that to understand.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » March 3, 2006, 6:35 pm

No fucking shit. I get it, you're turning left in 2 miles. GET OUT OF MY WAY UNTIL THEN.

Post by **Sylvus** » March 3, 2006, 6:50 pm

Sitting here at my desk, I find this to be an hilarious and clever idea. If I were driving on the highway when it happened there would probably be a candlelight vigil at Georgia State mourning the dead students.

A lesser mind would crumble under the pressure of all my double standards.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » March 3, 2006, 6:58 pm

masteen wrote:No fucking shit. I get it, you're turning left in 2 miles. GET OUT OF MY WAY UNTIL THEN.

/agree

This is stupid. I mean, how do you think people are going to react to this ? My cousin and I did that once on highway 169 here for like 20 miles because.. well.. just because.. People were going around us on the shoulder and shit too, but the best part was that we created a traffic jam on an otherwise clear highway at like midnight.

Too bad we didn't have a camera

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » March 4, 2006, 3:56 am

it's cute watching middle america begin to catch on to irony.

two or three more centuries and you will be the intellectual equivalents of europe circa 1925.

Cartalas · Post by **Cartalas** » March 4, 2006, 9:38 am

kyoukan wrote:it's cute watching middle america begin to catch on to irony.

two or three more centuries and you will be the intellectual equivalents of europe circa 1925.

Well at least we leaped frogged Western Canada.

Metanis · Post by **Metanis** » March 4, 2006, 2:35 pm

Cartalas wrote:
kyoukan wrote:it's cute watching middle america begin to catch on to irony.

two or three more centuries and you will be the intellectual equivalents of europe circa 1925.
Well at least we leaped frogged Western Canada.

Dammit visual... Cart leapfrogging Kooky.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 4, 2006, 5:25 pm

This has been done before. I recall the same thing taking place on California highways in the 80's.

Guess they should have filmed it back then!

Metanis · Post by **Metanis** » March 4, 2006, 10:26 pm

Winnow wrote:This has been done before. I recall the same thing taking place on California highways in the 80's.

Guess they should have filmed it back then!

You must be thinking of the high-speed OJ chase. <snicker>

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » March 4, 2006, 11:20 pm

kyoukan wrote:it's cute watching middle america begin to catch on to irony.

two or three more centuries and you will be the intellectual equivalents of europe circa 1925.

It's cute watching you never say anything of value with an air of thinking you have.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » March 5, 2006, 1:23 am

Let it be known that on Saturday, the 4th of March, Two Thousand and Six, at the venerable hour of 10:20 in the pm, Midnyte_Ragebringer did make the most ironic post on the forums know as Veeshan Vault.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » March 5, 2006, 2:54 am

Consider it known.

Post by **Sylvus** » March 5, 2006, 5:10 am

Dregor Thule wrote:Let it be known that on Saturday, the 4th of March, Two Thousand and Six, at the venerable hour of 10:20 in the pm, Midnyte_Ragebringer did make the most ironic post on the forums know as Veeshan Vault.

Hey buddy, you can go fuck yourself for totally stealing my thunder that I was going to post when I read his message! Way to ruin everything.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » March 5, 2006, 10:58 am

Let it be known you morons posted the most predictable responses over. Always the creative ones.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » March 5, 2006, 12:40 pm

Let it be known that on Sunday, the 5th of March, Two Thousand and Six, at the refreshing hour of 9:58 in the am, Midnyte_Ragebringer did make the second most ironic post on the forums know as Veeshan Vault.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · Post by **Midnyte_Ragebringer** » March 5, 2006, 1:43 pm

Dregor Thule wrote:Let it be known that on Sunday, the 5th of March, Two Thousand and Six, at the refreshing hour of 9:58 in the am, Midnyte_Ragebringer did make the second most ironic post on the forums know as Veeshan Vault.

ROFL

Gosh, I wish I was as clever and smart as you.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » March 5, 2006, 4:42 pm

You're not the only one.

Kaldaur · Post by **Kaldaur** » March 5, 2006, 5:03 pm

Not gonna lie, I LOLed in rl on that one.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 5, 2006, 5:27 pm

You're not the only one.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » March 6, 2006, 11:47 am

But is he THE one?