Whether you own a car or not, you’ve probably been in a car at some point in your life. That means that you have undoubtedly encountered speed limits. Does anyone actually pay attention to them? Do they actually prevent accidents? How come some speed limits are so ridiculous?
According to the Monroe County Road Commission (MCRC), speed limits do not significantly affect traffic speeds. The reason for this is that most drivers go at the speed that they consider to be safe, regardless of what the speed limit says. For example, if there is a lot of traffic, it would be unsafe to go 50 mph even if the speed limit is 65 mph. If there is no traffic, then most drivers would feel comfortable going 70-80 mph even if the speed limit is 65 mph. The majority of drivers are capable of observing the road conditions and choosing a safe speed at which to drive. Because of this, it is likely that the main purpose of speed limits is to discourage the more reckless drivers from driving too quickly.
While logically it may seem that speed limits should prevent accidents, this is not necessarily the case. The MCRC believes that the safest road conditions occur when all vehicles are traveling at similar speeds: “Speed limits that reflect the normal actions of the reasonable majority, therefore, usually provide the most uniform speeds.” The problem occurs when speed limits are not in accordance with the natural speeds of the cars on the road. If the speed limit is excessively low, then there is actually a higher chance for crashes. The reason for this is that now, there will be two groups of drivers going at different speeds: those driving slowly to obey the speed limit and those driving at a faster speed that they believe is reasonable. As a result, the vehicles on the road will not be traveling at a uniform speed, and this means that traffic accidents are actually more likely because of tailgating, imprudent passing, and weaving between lanes.
Now for the more amusing facts about speed limits. Someone in Haverford College, Pennsylvania decided that the speed limit should be 13 mph. Apparently 10 mph was too slow and 15 mph was too fast. Whether there is some specific reason for this unusual speed limit or if it was simply used to bring publicity is still up for debate. Another strange speed limit is on Highway 20 in Nebraska. This highway has flat, straight roads that extend for hundreds of miles, but according to the speed limit, you must drive no faster than 55 mph. A speed limit like this one seems unrealistic and likely does not represent the average speed of the cars on the road. If the MCRC is correct, Nebraska should actually raise that speed limit to make the road safer. One of the speed limits that I think is the craziest is Copake, New York’s 10.5 mph speed limit.
Surely, there is no way that any law enforcement officials could expect drivers to read their speedometers to the nearest half mph. Travis Okulski from Jalopnik hypothesizes that because the speed limit is so ridiculous, more people will notice and consider it. While this may be true, I think that absurd speed limits are less likely to be followed because people will assume that they are some kind of joke.
I think the most important fact to take away from all of this is that while speed limits can be effective in improving road safety, they are not always effective. It is up to local authorities to determine the normal speed of drivers on a road and use that to set the speed limit. If they do this incorrectly, the safety of the road can actually be compromised. Taking into account the more ridiculous speed limits, it seems hard to deny that drivers are more likely to follow speed limits that they believe are reasonable. Whoever decides on the speed limits ought to keep this in mind before setting the next new speed limit to 23.4 mph. Given everything we know about speed limits, I would say that this possibility is not incredibly remote.
