Let’s All Drive Faster for Safety…

Wisconsin’s Assembly Committee just passed a bill that would increase travel on our interstates from 65 mpg to 70 mpg. The bills sponsor, Rep. Paul Tittl of Manitowoc is the sponsor of the bill and argues it would even make the highways safer.

He said he was also embarrassed by little old ladies passing him on the interstate when he drove the speed limit. Now that’s a brainy argument; gee, lawbreakers are going faster than I am so lets all speed up. Other arguments include we would get home faster. Another brainiac say it would reduce driver frustration.

Are these people nuts? Did they site one study to back up there claims? When people drive faster they make serious injuries and deaths more likely and they increase the use of fuel. It is that simple. One study found increasing speed limits from 55 to 65 resulted in a 3% increases in crashes and a 24% increase in the likelihood of fatalities. The same results are increases from 65 to 75 but at a lesser rate.

I remember when we were faced with gas shortages so speed limits were reduced to save gas, and lives which it did. So why did we raise them again and want to raise them more now. Does one get a whiff of oil company lobbyist here?

It is also apparent to drivers that folk don’t dive the speed limits either. Typically folk can count on driving 5 to 6 mph over the speed limit and know they will not get ticketed. That is an enforcement problem. It also seems strange to me that folk drive faster on interstates around cities that elsewhere. Likely folk are in a big hurry to get home and thus more road rage and danger.

The argument by the Wisconsin Assembly Committee supporting this illegal behavior seems an odd argument to make. It is like the teenager complaining that their friends all have….so they should have them too. Lemming psychology. There argument can be found here  

The following data is admittedly dated, but that does not make it incorrect. It comes from studies done by the NCHRP. Here are their conclusions.

Study Conclusions
In the years following both changes in the law, researchers conducted numerous studies on the relationship between higher speed limits and accident rates. The studies' results varied, depending, in part, on the analytical methods used and limits on the type of data available. (Most of
the studies looked only at accidents in which a fatality occurred, since only these must be reported to the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System.)
For example, according to a 2005 presentation by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), five studies conducted on the effects of the 1987 law allowing states to raise speed limits to 65 mph on rural interstates variously found:
1. a 15% increase in fatalities on rural interstates,
2. a 22% increase in fatal crashes on rural interstates,
3. a 19% increase in fatalities on rural interstates relative to other roads,
4. no increase in fatality rates on rural interstates (and a 12% decrease in fatality rates on rural interstates where the 55 mph limit was retained), and
5. in states that raised speed limits to 65 mph, a 3% to 5% decrease in statewide fatality rates.
Similarly, three studies of the effects of the full repeal of NMSL in 1995 variously found a:
1. 15% increase in fatalities and 17% increase in fatality rates on
interstates with increased speed limits;
2. 35% increase in fatalities in states with 70 mph speed limits and 38% increase in fatalities in states with 75 mph speed limits; and
3. 6% increase in fatalities and 15% increase in injuries on interstates, and 2% decrease in fatalities and 3% increase in injuries on non-interstates.
A fourth study found that raising speed limits insignificantly increased fatalities and significantly reduced injuries. We have attached the IIHS presentation

You could also check out the American Journal of Public HealthStudy.   

There is real danger on the roads today if you drive the speed limit because very few other are driving at those speeds. But the solution to just raise the speed limits means that everyone will just jump up another 5-mpg make roads more dangerous. The better solution would be to enforce current laws. And, in the process would save valuable fossil fuels.

Sorry, the proposal just makes no sense to me.