News Why 70 Miles Per Hour Is the New 55

Why 70 Miles Per Hour Is the New 55

Virginia Becomes the Latest State to Raise Its Speed Limit; Drivers in Mississippi Go Really Fast





Left to their own devices, American drivers confronted with an open stretch of interstate highway tend to drive at about 70 miles per hour—whatever the legal speed limit happens to be.

That's the finding of an analysis of speed data gathered by TomTom Inc., a marketer of GPS navigation devices. This helps to explain why safety advocates and conservationists are losing the long-running debate over lowering freeway speed limits.

The Virginia legislature last week passed legislation raising the speed limit on rural interstate highways to 70 mph from 65 mph. The state's new Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, put boosting the legal speed limit high on his list of priorities, and got action less than three months after taking office.

Virginia will become the 34th state to boost interstate speed limits to 70 mph or higher. In big, empty states such as New Mexico, Idaho and Nevada, posted limits on rural interstates can be as high as 75 mph.

TomTom collected speed data from 45 states and the District of Columbia, under agreements with customers who agreed to allow the company to collect the information anonymously to improve the quality of its route guidance by directing customers away from congested roads at peak travel times.

The TomTom data suggest that most drivers tend to stay within a few miles per hour of the speed limit on major roads. In 31 out of the 46 jurisdictions, average freeway speeds ranged between 65 and 70.1 mph.

TomTom found the fastest drivers, on average, in Mississippi, where interstate drivers average 70.1 mph, or a hair over the maximum posted limit. The company doesn't have speed data from some sparsely populated states, including Montana, where drivers may be moving faster than those in Mississippi, says Nhai Cao, senior product manager for TomTom's SpeedProfiles database.

Virginia drivers clock in at a law-abiding 65 mph. The slowest drivers—drumroll, please—are in Washington, D.C. Freeway traffic in the nation's congested capital crawls at an average of 46.4 mph, according to TomTom's data. That may explain the eagerness of Virginia residents who work inside the Beltway for the freedom to go faster when they finally see some open road.

Hawaii is the slowest state, with highway drivers traveling at an average 52.7 mph.

Speed limits and enforcement have taken a symbolic significance that transcends vehicle mechanics or highway design.

The 55 mph national speed limit enacted in 1973 in response to the first Arab oil embargo was justified as a means of conserving fuel. In 1987, the law was changed to allow speeds up to 65 mph. But the Republican Congress elected in 1994 did few things more popular than repealing the limit altogether in 1995.

Driving speed has become a proxy for bigger questions about personal freedom versus government control.

The argument for raising speed limits is fundamentally an argument for letting drivers use their own judgment. The argument for stronger speed control is that too many people behave badly behind the wheel


Insurers and other safety advocates, including groups such as the Governors Highway Safety Association, have consistently called for motorists to slow down, and for state and local authorities to get tougher on speeding enforcement.

"Higher speeds are bad on any road," says Anne McCartt, vice president of research for the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, a research arm of the insurance industry.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that in 2008, about 31% of the total 37,261 highway fatalities were related to speeding over posted limits.

But advocates of relaxing speed limits point to federal statistics which show that both fatalities and fatality rates on U.S. highways are declining even as speed limits rise. The U.S. Department of Transportation last week reported that its latest estimate of highway deaths in 2009 is 33,963—the lowest number since the government began keeping these grim records in 1954. The fatality rate is estimated at 1.16 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

Modern cars and light trucks have an average of 225 horsepower under the hood and sophisticated safety systems such as traction control. They are designed to cruise comfortably, safely and efficiently at between 65 and 70 mph—if not faster, particularly in the case of the autobahn-burners German luxury brands sell.

If gas prices spike again this summer, as some predict, the idea of dropping speed limits again may get a new hearing. But Virginia's decision and the powerful cars consumers are buying suggest otherwise.

hope California gets it too

and NY lol

Hopefully Illinois gets it too. 55 mph is just way too slow.

I'd rather enforce the policy of idea of slow cars on outer lane, fast cars on inner lane. and if you don't follow the rules, you can be ticketed for that too. I understand if there is only two lanes on the highway but in bigger cities where you have 4-5 lanes plus a carpool lane, people shouldn't be driving slow on the faster lanes. either that or i think US shouuld also charge like a buck or two everytime you get on the freeway. We're in the midst of a bad economy, everyone needs money, charge people who use the freeway, also charge people who drive a car more, increase car tax. that way only the people who can afford it can drive. and for the peopel that can't drive, make public transportation hella cheap. Anyway I can keep going on and on but when I compare US to many other countries, US is so much cheaper to drive a car. Not enough people are really appreciating what we have. ( I think i went off on a tangent. sorry)

+1. I don't believe illinios is a slow state, people haul ass on the freeways, haha. I will be doing 70+ and people are still buzzing by me like i am doing something stupid, lol, its funny.

I def don't believe Jersey is a slow state. Just take a ride on the turn pike and you'll c what i mean. I think if there was no speed limit, ppl would drive where they are comfortable, some at 65-75 and some 80+. I think there would be more accidents at first but ppl would eventually learn their comfort zone and there would be no "out of control" speeders. After all, the autobahn has very few accidents.

So in the midst of this bad economy, where everyone BESIDES the government needs money, you want me to pay our government $4 a day more so I can drive to work? On top of the 22 gallons of fuel I burn a week on a 40 cent tax / gallon? Sorry, I already get up around 3:45-4:00 to get to work by 5:30. I don't need to be getting up at 2:30 to make it to the bus-stop by 3:30, to bus to work by 5:30.

I'm already getting bent over by the state and federal government on my registration fees. First year I bought the truck tags were almost $600. Year before last they had finally come down to $130. Colorado passes a law to up the cost of registration, it's back up to $190.

Where do you think all this money is going to go? Everybody needs money, so let's take it away? That's an awesome plan.

Alright, i spose ill give you some news from Australia.
In northern territory, on most of the highways there were no speed limits. UNTIL they decided to put the speed limit at 81mph. Soon after this, the death toll increased DRAMATICALLY due to the fact that most people werent actually going this fast in the first place, after putting the speed limit up people decided to go faster. Stupid politicians, i blame them.

and we have to pay $600 for registration on our car each year. 350 for 6 months. even if you compare exchange rates, aussies are getting raped basically

What if public transportation was cheap and or free by your employer and it took half the time or at least a significant less time to and from work? then would you consider paying more for your car to use more as a recreational vehicle? thats where i'm trying to get to. first create efficient public transportation, if you live in areas where you have these transportation, you are required to pay more money for owning a car, the extra money is then used to create more public trasportation and improving any related costs.

we also pay taxes every time we fill up that go to the state and federal governments. we already got a look at what higher gas prices will do to the economy a couple years ago and it wasn't good.

speed limit going from vegas to utah is 75 even for truckers. it's nice to get up and moving when going a long distance.

81mph, is 130kmph in australia, soo not really a wierd number for us down under. im respectful of your imperialistic system and calculate the conversions for ya's.

Why is California only rated a middle speed? People drive at 80+ mph.

Must be the high numbers of Persians and Armenians here.

So, who are the liberals and who are the conservatives in this thread? Wow.

I saw we have the autobahn. screw the speed limit. I mean, in Germany there's a saying and a law, KEEP RIGHT. If you don' let a faster car pass you up from the left, you'll get a ticket if you're caught!

The gov't cannot charge us to use the freeway. That's why it's called a freeway.

Here in SD, we drive fast

pfft compared to drivers on the 5 or 805?

The 5 here is a parking lot.