As a legislative bill that proposes raising some North Carolina highway speed limits from 70 to 75 races through the Senate, you may wonder if that's such a good idea. It isn't necessarily a bad one. When the Texas Department of Transportation debated raising the speed limit between San Antonio and Austin to 85 mph — the highest speed limit in the country — Slate debated whether this increase would cause more accidents. "It’s often assumed that higher caps will make roadways more dangerous, because motorists will exceed whatever ceiling is in place," wrote Katy Waldman.
However, "[i]n a [1996 National Motorists Association] study of 22 states where speed limits were either raised or lowered by five, 10, 15, or 20 miles per hour, researchers found that cars' average velocities did change, but by less than two miles per hour." New York raised its speed limit cap to 65 mph in 1995, and the state's crash rate reportedly decreased by 4 percent. Likewise, Ohio reported a total of six deaths — the lowest fatality rate in Ohio Turnpike history — when it raised the speed limit to 70 mph in 2011. Sen. Neal Hunt proposed the bill to "move traffic along" and help prevent people from getting pulled over when there's light traffic and no reason they couldn't be driving a little faster. "You've still got to drive safely," he said.
This isn't to say that faster speed limits are always the answer, but perhaps the higher speed limits don't automatically mean less safe roadways.
About the Editors: The Shapiro Lewis Appleton & Favaloro personal injury law firm, whose attorneys work out of offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, Eastern Shore Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard (include hyperlinks to each of those) as a pro bono service.
