Eliminating Highway Speed Limits
 

If highway speed limits were eliminated, would more people avoid driving on highways? This question occurred to me regarding the relationship between high speed driving on the autobahn and the relative popularity of train travel in the EU compared with the US. Obviously there are many more factors at work than just avoiding highway driving, but it leads me to wonder if eliminating highway speed limits in the US would stimulate interest in safer forms of transportation.

I vote for lowering speed limits to make it safer for non-cars. That might also reduce some of the speed demons from driving on certain roads. Give the freeways to the speed freaks and we slowpokes will take the rest of the roads.

Most people would drive however fast they feel is safe without speed limits, basically about the same as with speed limits. JMO

This is my thinking, too. I have noticed some speed limits decreasing and I think it will help with traffic congestion. Nothing causes a traffic jam faster than everyone racing up to a bottleneck.

Idk, you might be underestimating the discomfort people feel when someone rushes up behind them at 100+mph. Presumably, slower traffic would stay to the right, or at least learn to do so quickly. Maybe passing on the right would become illegal. Either way it would be an interesting social experiment, albeit a sad one when the speeding casualties started growing.

And this would be just fine...if only people were capable of accurately judging how fast is safe.

Maybe we should get rid of air bags and safety belts. Throw out the engineering of impact zones to minimize injury. Make the cars as dangerous as possible to promote the car free lifestyle!

I've seen the suggestion before that driver behavior would be significantly improved if the airbag in the center of the steering wheel were replaced by a large spike aimed directly at the driver's chest.

People always drive at the speed they feel safe at, some slower than the speed limit, most near the speed limit but over, some much faster than the speed limit....

True, but those people don't/wouldn't drive any better with a speed limit, or I suspect without... ;)

EDIT; They may/probably "modify" their speed and driving style because of fear of tickets for short times, but not overall...

Nope. It would probably encourage more people to drive on the highways. And most would continue to drive roughly the same speed they do now.

But how many would feel comfortable with cars rushing up on them at 100mph before swooping by? Do you think drivers could get used to getting passed at such fast speeds or would it stress them out a lot?

I don't see any particular problem with it.

I disagree. Eliminating the hwy speed limits would raise the fuel prices, increase deaths as some people over estimate their ability to drive safely.

Secondly, the reason why people speed is basically based on two things, poor time management, and ego. Time management is self explanatory, however ego, well I cannot read the minds of the other drivers but I got the feeling often is that they dislike having someone in front of them, so they often speed up so that they will always be first in line. Not only that, they will try their best to prevent someone from ever moving into their lane in front of them.

In europe, They just finished WW2 and they decided that due to crowding in cities, they prefer to set up rail system rather than expanding their highways. thats why in Europe, they have the best Rail system. In North america, sadly Canada followed USA, they decided to put all their money in setting up Interstate highways across USA instead of on Rail system. Thats why both Canada and USA lag in terms of rail services compared to Europe.

There's two kinds of speed signs, depending on what I drive I totally/basically follow the numbers when I drive my truck with the camper on. If the sign says 30MPH corner I go 30 MPH, but in my car (Subaru STi) I didn't even slow down from 60 MPH on a corner like that as it was un-necessary... As for the normal speed signs I think they are just a money making device for the Government, In my STi I was safer driving at 70 MPH than someone driving a clunker or even most average vehicles at 60 MPH... JMO...

Autobahn existed before US freeways .. It has limited routes ..

After WW2 the public trolley system was destroyed in the US , forcing Bus sales and private Auto sales

Europe rebuilt their rail systems , With Marshall Plan US funds..



Use Political Power to influence transportation choices .. get Involved. Run for a Planning committee seat.

NL has lots of Voters On Bikes, for 100 years, , that is why they have the Infrastructure.

The public opinion surveys are informative:

When they ask people "Should the speed limits should be raised in the state or region?" the majority say "YES".

But they overwhelmingly say "NO" when the question is phrased, "Should the speed limit be raised in your neighborhood?"

Would more people avoid federal highway travel, then, and choose lower-speed highways instead?

Part of me thinks they would and it would be move toward more car free living but another part of me thinks it would shift lane-demand to other highways, which would stimulate more congestion and lane-expansion on those roads, etc.

The problem is that there's so much land, we can't reach a point where people just accept the objective necessity of reducing traffic instead of building more roads and lanes. At some point, if population continues to grow (which I expect it will because why wouldn't it?), more people are going to have to shift from driving to living car free. The question is what steps we have to go through to reach that point . . . and will it end happily in sustainable culture or will it end badly in destruction followed by population reset without reform.

Bring it on!
Both my sport touring motorcycle and roadster are designed for Autobahn speeds and I've taken advanced rider & driver courses.
With vehicle inspection, driver training and licensing requirements like Germany's ( which would relegate 90% of US drivers to non-Autobahn use ) I'd be happy to enjoy at a nice 150MPH jaunt to Austin.

Another totally un-realistic and pointless scenario, but one that I support!

-Bandera

That might be because when you say "state" people think "highway", and do indeed want faster highways. When you say "neighborhood" people think about the 25 mph street they live on with kids running and such.

I think it's pretty clear that people want slow speeds where their own kids are playing and riding their bikes, but they don't have the same concern for other peoples' kids who live between them and the shopping mall.

Increasing speed limits on motorways would lead to more pollution and increased road deaths. Aren't we killing and polluting enough as it is?

Speed limit rise would increase deaths and pollution, admits government | Environment | The Guardian

They recently raised the interstate speed to 80 mph here in South Dakota. I found it interesting that the speeds that people drive for the most part didn't change. Those who did 90 mph before still do 90 mph. Those who drove 70 mph before are still driving 70 mph.

I expected everyone to increase their speed relative to the new higher limit, but from my anecdotal observations that hasn't happened.

That is correct, as I mentioned earlier people will drive at the speed they is feel safe, basically almost totally ignoring speed limit signs... :innocent:

By keeping the speed at around 70, most cars will be driving at about the same speed (I'd prefer if the truck speed limit was the same as the car speed limit).

Take away the speed limit, and there will be some cars that will be driving at 100 MPH, and some at 60.... which could be very dangerous.

When I was in Italy with friends a few years ago, one would see fast approaching cars from behind flashing their lights... as if to say, get out of the way or you'll be plowed into. Not a pleasant sight if you're passing a classic Fiat 500 with a classic Panda.

As far as encouraging public transport over private cars, making driving "better" won't help. I believe most European nations have VERY HIGH GAS PRICES. Some also subsidize trains. Add subsidies plus high gas prices, and you'll get more people turning to alternative transportation.

Here in Michigan, the law states that speed limits shall be set at the 85th percentile of actual speeds on the road. This is supposed to eliminate speed traps set by municipalities to raise revenues. The result has been many speed limits being increased. The higher speed limits have resulted in many protests from both citizens and local governments, but it's now almost impossible to change the limits--even when the public clearly demands it. I think the intentions were good when this law was passed, but I'm very much against it. I think most speed limits should be lowered for better safety and fuel conservation.

The law was obviously put into place because of abuse.

There are places in St. Louis with 4 lane, jersey barrier divided highways, nothing but open fields, limited access, and a 40 MPH speed limit. And the police just ignore it during rush hour, but they're out in force to harass motorists after midnight when there's nobody on the road.

A small town in Oklahoma has big Semi-trailers parked on both sides with a SPEED TRAP warning written on the sides, and still the local cops are out working the street.

The municipalities need some control over setting reasonable speeds, but in many places they just ignore "reasonable" and use it as a money grab.

I found it.
Big Cabin Oklahoma.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/pix/speedtrap.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ca...ffic_citations