Residential speed limits are properly set, and should not be raised. Narrow streets with lots of driveways are 25 MPH, and they should never be raised.
But the streets that are currently 45 MPH and above…. ALL of those limits can be raised by 10, with no net negative safety impact whatsoever.
Highways and freeways would be far safer if we raised the limits to 90 MPH. People flip over this logic and don’t understand it.
But if highways and freeways had a 90 MPH upper limit, with strict enforcement (which, within months would be replaced by natural obedience) of “Fast stay left, slow, stay right”.... our lives, highways, and freeways, would all be tremendously safer.
Think of all the times when some slug-of-a-driver causes a slow down behind him that ripples for miles and miles, all because he chose on a whimsy to be in the left lane where he didn’t belong. The days of that would be Over.
Think of all the dangerous merges you’ve had to make, while on an onramp, because some slug-of-a-driver in front of you chose to drive real slow (and in his stupid mind “careful”, which it’s not) as he entered the freeway, causing a jammed convoy to occur behind the guy. In fact, on onramps… we need MINIMUM speeds to be enforced, with waivers for heavy trucks and Volkswagens that just can’t do it.
And besides, if speed limits were raised to 90 MPH…. the average actual speed would still be 65 MPH on heavy traveled freeways or 85 MPH on long desert roads. Speeders do a service to everybody by taking up available space. This increases traffic flow and reduces congestion. It’s time to legalize speeding by raising the limit.