The insurance industry likes lower limits because it means more tickets for a wider variety of people rather than the truly dangerous drivers. More tickets gives the insurance companies more opportunities to jack up rates on people who get charged for doing 60 in a 55 zone.
The other knock at the higher limits is that cars use more fuel at higher speeds. Baxter shrugs off that point. “Modern vehicles don’t have nearly the differential in fuel consumption that they used to,”
Right on target. I remember some of these environmentalist types insisting that cars get 30% worse gas mileage at 70 than they do at 55. My car at the time was rated at 27 mpg highway at 55 mph. I consistently got 30 mpg when going 70-75 on vacations.
By their logic my car would get 39 mpg at 55 mph, so my car must have been an anti-lemon, getting 12 mpg more than the typical model. Of course the reality is that there's very little difference in mileage at 55 mph vs. 70 mph. In fact, in a car with a big engine, 70 mph is likely more efficient.
As for the safety argument, it's laughable. Speed differential kills more than speed does. Making the much safer freeways less driveable with politically set speed limits and putting more traffic on the other roads leads to *more* head on collisions and more deaths (furthermore, most freeway deaths are single-car collisions, much moreso than on "regular" roads).
That doesn't mean that speed limits should be 90 mph. It does mean that most drivers proceed at a safe and reasonable speed given the conditions and speed limits should be set based on what people actually are driving. 62 mph (100 kph) on the 401 is ridiculously low. It should be 115 (71 mph).
I drive I5 (in California) daily, and its 2-lane segments are almost a duplicate of the 401 (the more generous shoulders and escape areas of I5 are the notable differences).
The mix of truck and auto traffic is similar too.
Having done it for three years now, there is no question in my mind that the slower traffic is more responsible for accidents than the occasional nut doing 95 (mph).
The speed nut usually ends up doing himself in.
The slower nut usually takes several to a dozen or more vehicles into his excitement...
LOL. ALL govt. policy is based on ideology. Nice to see the environmentalists called on one of theirs, though.
In some of the western states, where 70 - 75 mph limits are posted,typical speeds are well in excess of the limit.
On the basis of very limited observation, I've tentatively concluded people tend to exceed the speed limit-no matter how high you set it.
On the flip side, I was intentionally run off the road by some moron in a Kenworth. he chased me for about 5 miles at sapeeds in excess of 85mph. (BTW, my wife and three kids were in the car and visible as well) At one point, he changed lanes, so I stayed where I was and backed off. Moron jumped into my lane and sent me off into the rocks on the shoulder. I'm a real good driver, but not that good. As I was sliding down the freeway sideways at 80, obviously the hand of the Lord was on my wheel. I had a long talk with his boss the next day. If you care, it was Gerth Transport out of Kitchener. Sorry about the long post, I just get a little excited when someone tries to kill my family.