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Originally posted by subfab
if i remember correctly, the 55 mph speed limit was implemented for saving gas not for safety. it was in the mid to late 70's when this change happened.
-subfab
Would You Drive 55?
The National Maximum Speed Limit of 55 m.p.h. was created in 1974 when Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act. Before that, states had been free to set their own speed limits, but the new law threatened to strip federal highway funding from any state straying above the national standard. The ostensible purpose of this limit was to keep down gas prices, which had been driven through the roof by an OPEC embargo touched off by the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. And with gas prices once again sky-high, Warner isn't alone in talking up a cap on speeding.
Read more: www.time.com...