Remember when Congress abolished the federally mandated 55-mile-an-hour speed limit back in 1995 and various "safety experts" clucked that this would entail a dramatic rise in accident and fatality rates? Well, the facts are in. But you probably haven't heard very much about them, since they tend to refute everything the experts said would happen.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration predicted that an additional 6,400 motorists would die annually as a result of rising speed limits. In fact, fatality and accident rates have declined since the repeal of the national speed limit; 1997, the year for which the most recent data are available, had the lowest traffic-death rate in the nation's history. NHTSA has been less than vigorous about acknowledging its erroneous prediction, perhaps because the 55 mph speed limit gave the federal government considerable power over the states and provided a raison d'être for the continued existence of NHTSA's bloated bureaucracy.
![[Media]](../edition/current/media/SB911878461413966500.html) Put the pedal to the medal! |
As the roads have gotten safer, speed limits have increased. This year New Jersey and Connecticut raised their limits from 55 to 65 mph, leaving only Hawaii with a limit of 55. Twenty-one states have a maximum limit of 65 mph; 17 states have a limit of 70 mph; 10 states have a limit of 75 mph. Montana has no posted daytime speed limit, requiring only that drivers maintain a "reasonable and prudent" speed.
These higher speeds are safer because they reflect the normal flow of traffic--what highway engineers call the "85th percentile" speed. This is the speed most drivers will maintain on a given stretch of road under a given set of conditions. When speed limits are set arbitrarily low--as under the old system--tailgating, weaving and "speed variance" (the problem of some cars traveling significantly faster than others) make roads less safe.
When the interstate highway system was constructed, the flow of traffic was monitored and speed limits set according to the 85th percentile rule. Until the early 1970s, most interstate highways were posted 70 to 75 mph. Bear in mind these speeds were considered perfectly safe by highway engineers assuming 1950s-era brake, suspension and tire technology.
But after the energy crisis of the 1970s, when the 55 mph limit was enacted as a fuel-conservation measure, the cry that "speed kills" kept limits down. Even though modern cars are vastly more capable of traveling safely at high speed, we're supposed to believe that it's reckless to operate them at speeds considered moderate 30 years ago.
Does speed kill? The higher your velocity, of course, the greater the force of any impact; therefore, the greater the extent of injury in the event of an impact. But this does not imply any greater risk of accident--just that more damage will occur if there is one. Speed, by itself, does not kill. Hitting something does. Most highway fatalities occur at speeds of 45 mph or less.
Translated into public policy, this means that driving 65 (or 75) will not automatically increase the odds of you having an accident. There has never been a single credible study that says it does. People who insist that raising speed limits from one arbitrary number to another will somehow make highways less safe and cause more accidents are simply mistaken.
Notwithstanding the facts, the new speed limits are under attack by the very same safety lobby that cried wolf before. Let us hope that it will soon become clear to most people that driving faster than a federal bureaucracy thinks is appropriate isn't hurting anyone--except, of course, the federal bureaucracy.
By Eric Peters, who writes on automotive issues for the Washington Times and is a nationally syndicated columnist.