You can now drive 80 mph — legally — in the state of Texas; 75
in twelve other states, including Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma.
Eighteen states, among them California, Michigan and Florida, have
raised their upper limit to 70 mph.
Only Hawaii still “drives 55.”
So — with the exception of the poor Hawaiians — one can now
lawfully drive 15-20 mph faster than the formerly sacrosanct 55 mph
National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL), which Congress repealed ten
years ago, in 1995.
Prior to 1995, driving at those speeds was “speeding,” even
“reckless driving,” and put one at risk of a fat fine, loss of
license, and high insurance premiums. The line was this was
necessary for reasons of “safety”; that is, speeds in excess of 55
mph were dangerous because people were more likely to get into
accidents and be hurt or killed.
We were being ticketed for our own good, you see.
BUT AN INTERESTING THING happened after the NMSL was finally
repealed in 1995. Contrary to the line we were being spoon-fed
about “safety,” motor vehicle accident and fatality rates actually
dropped. They have continued to do so. The latest data (for 2004)
show yet another decrease — to just 1.46 fatalities per 100
million vehicle miles traveled (VMT).
This is the lowest the nation’s fatality rate has ever been.
If “speed” necessarily “kills,” then — ipso facto — there
should be rivers of blood and twisted steel in states like Texas,
Arizona, Tennessee, and Florida, where people now routinely (and
lawfully) drive 70-80 mph. Things should be notably “safer” in
Hawaii.
But no.
The accident/fatality rate in states with much-higher-than-55
mph limits has not gone up. (“Revenue” from trumped-up speeding
tickets may have gone down, of course, but that’s got little to do
with whether the roads are safer.) Higher limits are not leading to
the Mad Max scenario we were warned of in often hysterical bleats
by those opposed to lifting the NMSL. The objective data simply
does not support any of that.
Indeed, quite the opposite. The data suggest that higher-than-55
speeds are, in fact, safer than “driving 55.”
If they are not, one must come up with a rational explanation
for the downturn in accident/fatality rates since 1995. The ghost
of Dale Earnhardt is not watching over a nation of “reckless
maniacs,” shielding them from the consequences of their crazy
driving.
We’re driving faster — and we’re driving more safely.
It’s actually an easy thing to explain why this is so — and,
hopefully, to understand.
OUR HIGHWAY SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED for average speeds in the 70-75 mph
range. The federal government gave us the 55 mph NMSL as a
fuel-saving measure in response to the gas shortages of the early
1970s. It may have been well intentioned, but the 55 mph NMSL set
the precedent for politically contrived (and artificially low)
speed limits that had nothing to do with safe, appropriate speeds
for a given stretch of road. Motorists were being pulled over and
ticketed for no good reason, and most knew it in their gut. They
were driving 70-something before the NMSL, when, suddenly, by the
stroke of a pen, what had been lawful, safe rates of travel well
within the design specification of the road had become illegal
“speeding.”
The corruption spread. Under-posted speed limits became the rule
rather than the exception. Nearly every road in the country was
afflicted with a posted maximum lawful speed 5, 10, 15 — even 20
— mph lower than the 85th percentile speed for that road. The
“85th percentile” is the speed at which the majority of cars on a
given road are traveling; this is the standard according to which
all speed limits are supposed to be set under the guidelines of the
“Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices,” the “bible” of traffic
safety engineering. The MUTCD and its guidelines are, however,
routinely ignored — and lower-than-reasonable limits posted that
turn nearly ever driver into a “speeder” subject to being ticketed
at any time.
And that, of course, is the nut of the deal. Speed enforcement,
to a great extent, is about money, not “safety.” Most motorists
can’t help driving close to 85th percentile speeds — and with the
natural flow of traffic — rather than hewing to an artificially
low limit, even if it opens them up to a “speeding” ticket. State
and local authorities know this, and know how much money can be
raised through traffic tickets. This is why there was so much
resistance to getting rid of the NMSL.
But now the cat is out of the bag. Or at least, his head is. The
“speed kills” lie has been exposed.
It’s taken more than 25 years, from time the NMSL was imposed to
its repeal in ‘95, to get highway speed limits back to where they
were. And to free America’s motorists from the tyranny of being
ticketed at every turn for “violating” posted limits that
themselves were in violation of both traffic safety engineering
principles (MUTCD) and common sense.
With any luck, the unshackling will continue — and the rest of
the “revenue enhancement” speed trap racket shut down at the state
and local levels, too.
