It's been argued that the 55 mph speed limit is responsible for an entire generation of bad drivers. Even today's higher than 55 mph speed limits are often at the 5th or 10th percentile, meaning 90-95% of drivers routinely violate them. Since drivers see they can safety break this traffic law, their behavoir carries over to other traffic laws, such as not stopping at red lights, where violation is defintely not safe. The end result is a country of unsafe drivers who routinely ignore traffic laws and common courtesy. Lowering the limit back to 55 mph will make this behavoir even worse. Also, legislating speed limits is a terrible idea in general. The original 55 mph limit got us into this habit. We never went back to letting traffic engineers decide the limit even after it was lifted. Quite a few states still have maximum state speed limits making it impossible for traffic engineers to set proper limits.
Lower speed limits also hinder automobile development. Had higher limits existed, we would have been using vehicles which were more efficient at those speeds, and incidentally at all speeds, rather than SUVs. Even when gas was $1.50 SUVs would have been too expensive to operate for most people had proper limits existed. We can make vehicles which are more efficient at 100 mph than most of today's vehicles are at 55 mph if there was the need. All a 55 mph limit does is act as a bandaid for poor vehicle design. Also, since the reason is to ostensibly save fuel, then what would be the deal with the soon-to-come electric cars which don't burn fuel at all? And for that matter why should a highly fuel efficient vehicle be limited to the same speed as a gas-guzzling SUV?
Lower speed limits are NOT the way to deal with higher energy prices. Besides being unenforceable, they have been proven to decrease safety. Slower speeds remove a driver's attention from the driving process. They end up doing other tasks besides driving with deadly results, or even fall asleep behind the wheel out of sheer boredom. If we're really determined to reduce the energy usage for travel in this country then we need a multitiered approach. For starters, we need a national high-speed rail system so that many long distance car or plane trips are done by train instead. We need to switch over from internal combustion engines to batteries and electric motors. We need to design vehicles which are inherently more efficient regardless of how they're powered. This means getting rid of the boxes which currently dominate the roads. It costs no more to shape a vehicle to cut through the wind, and the energy savings last for the life of the vehicle. Lastly, we need to set sane speed limits based on sound traffic engineering practice. Higher limits will encourage innovation.
Incidentally, the original 55 mph limit was the reason I totally lost interest in obtaining a driver's license. Driving at such a low speed made the auto totally useless to cover the large distances in the US from my perspective. Even today's slighter higher limits don't cut it from a transportation efficiency standpoint. How about the novel idea of letting traffic engineers set speed limits, and designing cars which can run safely and efficiently at those limits? Last I checked I don't think any lawmaker had a degree in traffic engineering, let alone was qualified to determine speed limits. I honestly can't believe the lawmakers are even discussing doing something this idiotic again. It didn't work then, it won't work now. If an individual wants to drive 55, that's their perogative. However, their decision shouldn't be forced upon the rest of us.
