[orangethirty]

You are wrong about this part:

The purpose of a speed limit is not to make people not go more than 55 miles per hour. The purpose of a speed limit is to make driving safe, and particularly to make driving safe for society, even moreso than for the individual. If everybody is driving at 65 in the 55 zone, but everybody is safe, the higher purpose of the law is being met, and citations for speeding are just punitive for no gain. When conditions make 55 unsafe, people need to slow down enough to be safe, regardless of what the local speed limit is.

The 55 MPH speed limit was enforced by congress to reduce the consumption of fuel (gasoline). It has nothing to do with safety.

[schiffern]

>The 55 MPH speed limit was enforced by congress to reduce the consumption of fuel (gasoline). It has nothing to do with safety.

The second sentence doesn't follow from the first. I guarantee there were congress-critters for whom the safety justification tipped their vote.

[tptacek]

You write that like it's crazy. But the data shows that when people drive faster on average, accidents increase.

[orangethirty]

All I'm stating is that the double dime speed limit was enforced as a measure to reduce fuel consumption. Read this: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nixon-signs-natio...