You’d get where you were going faster if the government raised the speed limit, right? Not necessarily. A new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety finds that “raising posted speed limits may do little to save time and increase traffic flow but could lead to more crashes, injuries, and deaths.”
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The foundation looked at 12 roadways that saw speed limit changes – six where posted limits were raised and six where they were lowered. They included freeways, arterial roads, and connecting roads “to compare and contrast results across different geographical characteristics.” They examined crash frequency, speeding tickets, travel times, and traffic volume before and after the changes.
Higher Limits Usually Meant More Crashes
Some of the roads saw the outcomes you’d expect – two of three interstates saw “an upward trend in crash frequencies across all examined crash types” after raising speed limits. Deaths increased on three roads with higher limits but fell on two others. A sixth saw no statistically significant change.
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“The study also found that lowering posted speed limits led to fewer crashes in many cases examined,” researchers said.
Speeding tickets decreased everywhere limits were raised and increased on five of six roads that saw their limits lowered.
But People Don’t Drive as Fast as You Let Them
Other results were not intuitive. “Changes in travel times were small in response to both raised and lowered speed limits,” AAA says. Five mph increases in the speed limit tended to result in average speeds about 2 mph faster.
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“The movement in statehouses to raise speed limits is happening across the country in at least eight states this year,” said Jennifer Ryan, director of state relations for AAA. “But the benefits are overrated, and the risks are understated. Increasing speed limits does not always yield the positive results envisioned by traffic planners.”
