Similar results can be witnessed when comparing the fatal accident rates on modern Interstates and the old two-lane highways they replaced. Speed limits have virtually no influence on regulating general traffic speeds. The only legitimate function of speed limits is to delineate at what point reasonably competent drivers exceed the safe speed for a given roadway. Speed limits can and should be used to control overall traffic speeds. This myth haunts us like bad breath after a night of beer, pizza, and cigars.
Speed limits have virtually no influence on regulating general traffic speeds.
The only legitimate function of speed limits is to delineate at what point reasonably competent drivers exceed the safe speed for a given roadway. For too long we have suffered under the cart before the horse illusion that speed limits can dictate prevailing speeds. Forty years of brainwashing have made it exceedingly difficult to make this distinction clear and understandable. Rural speed limits did not come into wide use until after the Second World War. Reasonable and prudent has great allure until the local sheriff decides anything over 45 mph is imprudent.