Last week’s Safety on the Roads column was about the Safe System Approach to speeding. In November a column was about “Intelligent Speed Assistance.” Today we’ll discuss some of the dangers of speed, courtesy of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

More than 11,000 deaths — 29% of all crash fatalities — occurred in speed-related crashes in 2020. High speeds make a crash more likely because it takes longer to stop or slow down. They also make collisions more deadly because crash energy increases exponentially as speeds go up.

Many older drivers can remember back to 1973, when Congress established the national maximum speed limit of 55 mph in response to oil shortages. The U.S. Department of Transportation was directed to withhold highway funds from states that did not adopt a maximum speed limit of 55 mph. Before that, speed limits on rural interstates in most states ranged from 65 to 75 mph, with most states setting rural interstate speed limits of 70 mph.

By March 1974, all states had adopted the 55-mph national maximum speed limit. Concerns about fuel availability and costs faded, however, and Congress in 1987 allowed states to increase speed limits on rural interstates to 65 mph. The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 repealed the maximum speed limit, allowing states to set their own limits for the first time since 1974. Many states quickly moved to raise speed limits on both rural and urban interstates and freeways.

Although the national maximum speed limit was imposed to conserve oil, its greatest effect was on safety. The National Research Council attributed 4,000 fewer fatalities to the decreased speeds in 1974 compared with 1973.

Not surprisingly, higher limits established after the 1995 repeal were associated with immediate increases in travel speeds. For example, within one year after speed limits were raised from 55 to 70 mph on three urban freeways in Texas, the percentage of passenger vehicles traveling faster than 70 mph increased from 15 to 50%; the percentage exceeding 75 mph increased from 4 to 17% (Retting & Greene, 1997). On California urban freeways where speed limits were raised from 55 to 65 mph, the percentage of motorists traveling faster than 70 mph increased from 29 to 41%.

It’s a given that drivers don’t obey posted speed limits. Surveys show most drivers feel they won’t get a ticket under 10 mph above the posted limit. Absent heavy enforcement, speeding is everywhere, on all types of roads, and even on city and village streets. Among enforcement methods, speed cameras stand apart because they don’t require the presence of an officer. By deploying cameras, communities can enforce speed limits much more consistently than they can using traditional enforcement. An IIHS study in Montgomery County, Maryland, found that about 7 1/2 years after the speed camera program began, the cameras were associated with a 10% reduction in mean speeds and a 62% reduction in the likelihood that a vehicle was traveling more than 10 mph above the speed limit on camera-eligible roads.

In an August speed survey totaling 393 vehicles on Franklin Street (SR 11b) in the village of Malone, where the speed limit is 30 mph, 67% of vehicles traveling west, leaving the village, were traveling 40 mph or more; 44% entering the village were 10 or more mph above the limit.

Speeding on all types of roads has increased. In 2007, 14% of free-flow traffic on interstates and other freeways, 15% on major arterials and 16% on minor arterials and collectors exceeded posted speed limits by 10 mph or more.

Since speed camera enforcement is non-existent in Franklin County, combined with a small chance of encountering radar enforcement, it’s no wonder drivers are apparently comfortable speeding.

Why are we drivers always in such a hurry?