I remember when the Republicans won the Congress in 1994, and wondering when I would actually see some tangible benefit from it. The first time that I felt that there was really a change in the country was when they repealed the idiotic national speed limit, and I could once again drive legally at a rational pace.

Well, according to the DOT, it turns out that it’s not only increased national productivity, but it’s had no measurable effect on increased loss of life (and may even have reduced traffic deaths).

I’ve long thought that 55 was more deadly, for several reasons. It increased the lengths of trips, making driver fatigue more likely. It also made for more boring driving, resulting in an increase in driver inattention.

I suspect that it also reduced traffic on the freeways, shifting it to the more-dangerous primary highways, since the advantage of using the freeways was greatly diminished by the low speed limit. I know that I tended to use back roads more, because the freeway wasn’t much faster, and the trip was more interesting. And of course, it was particularly stupid to impose a fifty-five MPH speed limit on a freeway that was designed for seventy (and for a different generation of cars, that handled and braked much more poorly than modern ones).

It’s not absolute speed that’s dangerous on the highway–it’s relative speed. In fact, that’s why it’s unfortunate that most states don’t post minimum speeds as well as maximum. Growing up in Michigan, the speed limit on the freeways was minimum 45, maximum 70, and you could get a ticket for driving too slowly as well as too fast. In fact, I think that’s too large a spread, since you have cars sharing the road with a differential of twenty five miles an hour. I think that sixty-five to eighty would in fact be safer, given the performance of modern cars. If there are three lanes, you might allow slow traffic in the far right, but otherwise speed should be generally encouraged, within reason.

Anyway, Steven Moore has a piece in NRO today on the stupid hysteria of Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook and the other safety nannies, and the fact that they refuse to accept the steaming plate of crow they so richly deserve.