Ok, I’m assuming we all occasionally drive on interstate highways in the US. In my state, Connecticut, many of our highways (until recently) were still using the old 55 mph speed limit. In fact, we were about the last state to move it back to 65, although in many areas its still 55. Aaaaaanyway, here’s my question: In places where there is either no speed limit (such as I’ve heard of certain Montana roads), or very relaxed speed-enforcement, is there any data on the frequency of speed-related accidents? Is travelling at 80mph or so (which, to be honest, seems like a decent highway speed on long, straight roads) really any more dangerous than driving at 50mph?
For a while, Montanta did not have a daytime speed limit on Interstate highways, but they changed it a year or two ago. When I was there over the summer, the daytime speed limit was 75 mph on the Interstates, and 70 mph on the 2-lane roads I travelled.
Interesting. 75 is a much more reasonable limit than 55 (or even 65). Did you notice a highway-patrol presence when you were in Montana? Meaning, was the 75mph limit strictly enforced?
I saw very few cops anywhere west of the Missouri River (about one per state on average). I saw one cop in about 320 miles in Montana. But there’s also a lot less traffic in MT than CT.
Michigan has 70 for the freeways. I think trucks can only go 55.
(You’re confusing what is posted on the signs with what the MSP and the sheriffs let them get away with. I wouldn’t want to try driving as slowly as 65 on US-23 when there were a lot of trucks out.)
I’m from Montana, and I think the speed limits are ridiculous. On the Interstate, it’s 75 for cars and 65 for trucks. On highways, it’s usually 70 day, 65 night, 65 for trucks during the day, and 55 for trucks during the night. I think having two seperate limits for cars and trucks is dangerous, because you end up with a bunch of cars trying to pass trucks in really stupid places. Also, 75 on the freeway is crazy when it’s dark and icy and a deer could show up at any time. Drivers from out of state seem to think that just because the sign says 75 it must be safe, but that’s just not true. Before we got these speed limits, it was “reasonable and prudent” during the day and 55 at night. That made a lot more sense to me. To answer the OP, I don’t think driving at 80mph is any more dangerous than 50, as long as you can guarantee bare, dry roads, no drunk or careless drivers, no animals or other obstacles in the road, and no sharp corners. Maybe Connecticut has roads like that, but we sure don’t.
I believe that most (if not all) states have a “reasonable and prudent” law, in addition to the set speed limit. If you’re doing 20 in a 65 zone, you can still get a speeding ticket if visibility, ice, or other considerations make that speed unsafe.
And by the way, howdy, Neenah! Nice to see more Montanans here.
I was in Montana in June of 1996 when the limit was “Resonable & Prudent”. I got zapped by a highway cop while doing 92mph and he didn’t look twice at me. I have proof of this as my wife was shooting video. I don’t know why he was running radar if he wasn’t going to stop someone going 92! Three days prior to that I got zapped going 87 in a 75 in Wyoming and didn’t get stopped there either. I think I like the west!
As for the op, I think the difference in speed of vehicles on the same is a bigger factor than the actual speed limit. If 20 cars on the freeway are all going various speeds, theres going to be problems. Have you ever been going 60 on the highway and come up on someone going 40? People driving too fast or too slow are more dangerous than if everybody drives the same speed, even if that same speed is 50 or 80.
National Motorists Association has something to say about this. They are the leading proponent for INTELLIGENT traffic laws and procedures.
http://www.motorists.org/issues/speed/speedQA.html
http://www.motorists.org/issues/speed/ModelLaw.html
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-346es.html
http://www.motorists.org/issues/speed/Did_65_Save_Lives.html
There’s a few. Extrapolating from those, I’m sure you can find many, many more on the same site.
–Tim
Homer,
I just want to say that I am impressed.
For whatever that’s worth.
I’m a Montanan, and the speed limits as stated above are correct. But you have to know something about Montana that isn’t true in the East: On a highway at night, deer are more of a threat to you than other motorists are (usually), because you can go for hours and hours in places without seeing one human being but deer will jump out right in front of you out of the inky blackness. Going 95 in that condition is very stupid, because hitting a deer can kill you if the deer ends up through your windshield. Even if you don’t die, your car is in for some very expensive front-end work and you have to pay certain penalties for destroying the wildlife (I’m almost certain about this). Oh, and in case you forget how dangerous driving can be, certain private groups in Montana do something interesting: They place little white crosses on the roadside where people died in accidents. Sometimes 5-6 crosses are on the same little ‘stand’, one per dead person. Right near my house, not far at all, there are three crosses on the same stand that are sometimes decorated with fake flowers. Sad. Anyway, Montana has speed limits now, and you should observe them. Icy roads, whiteout conditions, and hairpin turns on high mountain passes all exist here. So do deer, antelope, elk, and bears. Not to mention the odd human being. 
Yeah, here in Illinois you can get a ticket for “Driving too fast for conditions.” This is, of course, up to the officer’s discretion, but I don’t know anyone who has had any major problems with it. It basically means don’t be a stupid jackass on a foggy, snowy, or icy road. I believe you can also be cited for this after an accident if the combination of your speed and the driving conditions combined to create the accident (ie. rear-ending someone in the fog. In that case you would get a ticket for driving too fast for the conditions and failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. I think.).
All this talk about speed is just making it harder for me to wait out the additional 2 months before I get my driver’s permit. All I can say is this: Remember that some vehicles can’t even go 80mph, or if they can, their tires might rip apart. Examples of this are: Old Volkswagon Beetles (you’d be lucky if you could get them up to 65!), Hummers, and any vehicle with certain economy tires. I will extend this type of discussion in my post about speed-limiters installed on new cars.
Derleth, just about the time you submitted your post, I hit one of the deer you mentioned. I wasn’t even going very fast-just under 55 when I first saw him. I ended up gutting it myself while waiting for the guy from the food pantry to show up. I’m glad the meat won’t go to waste, but I still feel awful.
I know I’m sort of off topic here, but I do have a small point to make. Right after I hit the deer, while I was looking for a place to get off the road and do what had to be done, another car came up behind me going much faster than I was and almost rear-ended me. So it’s not just deer you have to watch for.
I rolled my van on an icy freeway in January and got a $130 ticket for “driving too fast for conditions” here in Washington (state). I did manage to get out of it, though… I was going 50 in a 70, the same speed as everyone else.
Note to self: “all weather tires” are not snow tires, and when the cop asks “do you think there was anything you could have done to avoid the accident?”, the answer is not “I guess I could have been driving slower.”