Highway speed limits continue to get higher, with Virginia last week becoming the most recent state to raise its limit to 70 mph. In fact, now 34 states have speed limits of 70 mph or more, prompting The Wall Street Journal Wednesday to call 70 mph “the new 55.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575125510326010610.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_lifestyle
Virginia’s new governor, Bob McDonnell, had made increasing the speed limit on rural roads to 70 mph from 65 mph one of his priorities. And 70 mph isn’t the top of the scale for speed limits. Idaho, New Mexico and Nevada have speed limits up to 75 mph on some rural interstates.
It seems to us that higher speed limits are a bad idea. People seem to want to behave foolishly behind the wheel, be it by using a cellphone, engaging in amorous behavior or trying to turn around and discipline an unruly child. And when foolish moves are made at 70 mph, the consequences are a lot worse than if a vehicle is traveling at 55 mph.
Proponents of the higher speed limits maintain that drivers should be trusted to use their own judgment as to what speeds they should be traveling at, depending on the weather and other conditions.
After the Arab oil embargo in 1973, 55 mph was set as the national speed limit in an effort to save gasoline. That limit was increased to 65 mph in 1987, but a GOP-controlled Congress totally scrapped the national speed limit in 1995.
There is data both for and against raising speed limits. The Federal Highway Administration, for example, blamed roughly 30 percent of the 37,261 highway fatalities in 2008 on people exceeding speed limits, according to The Journal.
On the other side of the argument, advocates of higher speed limits note that deaths and fatalities are down in the United States, even though speed limits are up.
We’ll end on this note. The GPS maker TomTom did a study that found that when cruising on an open highway, American drivers tend to clock in at about 70 mph – never mind what the posted speed limit is.