Then, he slows just enough to let the officer pass him. We're like a bunch of fish. It's been drilled into our heads that that's what the roads were built for. But speeding drivers have made James Cameron's job as Michigan State Police sergeant difficult and dangerous. In what has been declared by the National Motorists Association the fastest state in America, he says, the de facto speed limit is usually between 75 and 80 mph, even in urban areas.
People get in their cars, and they act like they're unconscious.
They don't pay attention to the cars around them or the speed limit. By contrast, neighboring Ohio and nearby Kentucky are famous for zealous enforcement efforts, which do slow traffic on their highways. Safety concerns or not, many states are set to re-establish the limits that were in effect before 1974 if Congress repeals the national limits. In Western states, where vast streaches of highway separate towns, the issue looms particularly large. Craig Reap of the Montana Highway Patrol, longs for a return to his state's days of no speed limit.