Why do speed limits exist on interstates and other major highways?

I used to do it as a new driver. I thought I was being nice to the entrance/exit lane. I also followed the speed limit to the letter all the time, though. Not even 5 over.

A national speed limit of 55mph was created in 1974 to save fuel after an oil embargo. Took until 1995 to repeal it. The senator that pushed for it also found traffic deaths decreased by 4,000 per year, which is why the consensus is to keep limits low for safety.

>mfw they were too dumb to realize the deaths decreased because people drove significantly less due to the cost

I don't think we could have raised (or no) speed limits in the US.
People use the left lane as a travel lane, not a passing lane, so you would have someone doing 100mph having to slow down pretty quickly because they come up on someone doing 15 below the limit in the left lane.
Plus a lot of our highways aren't in good enough condition to travel that fast safely.

If you had a state that had a "left lane passing only" law, actively enforced it, and maintained the roads well enough, we could try it.

>BUH BUH MAKING ME IMPATIENT IS MORE DANGEROUS
>NO ITS NOT A MATTER OF SELF CONTROL IT IS JUST MORE DANGEROUS OKAY

Nice rationalization, retard.

Montana did just fine.
Then the feds decided to be a fag about it.

When originally constructed, the PA turnpike had no speed limit.

Today, people collectively lost their shit when it was raised from 55 to 65 to 70. They said "That's too dangerous!"

We have speed limits so low because society feels it makes them more safe.

The same reason speed minimums exist. Speed doesn't kill, speed differentials kill.

Because Americans get their licenses from vending machines.

>Completed on May 23, 1956
Most of the cars on the road couldn't break 80mph in a sprint, and 60mph was a more realistic top end cruising speed on flat ground. Throw in the hills it runs through and 70mph was never going to be within the realm of possibility.

Pining for an opportunity to use that stupid reaction and you waste it on that. Go play outside summerfag

i have seen plenty of people driving dangerously at the speed limit

lots of cellphone use

fpbp

Probably somewhat dated as cars have improved quite a bit, still some idiots should not be going as fast as they do so I guess it gives cops a reason to pull over idiots, or idiot cops to pull over victims.

we already have enough morons on the road not using their mirrors, texting, in the wrong lane, arguing/road raging, and generally being shitty drivers that raising the speed limit and letting them drive even faster seems like a really bad idea

No

"Hur dur I've never driven in a foreign country, and me going the same speed in the lane designated for passing to help soothe the flow of traffic is okay just stop being impatient you fuckwit"

His third-world trash hole have cops that earns their money through tickets.

Only guy with an opinion worth a shit here.

Go check out your friendly neighborhood AASHTO green book. They're worried about how fast you're going to slam into the ass end of a semi. This is why slow vehicle lanes exist. Not for you to fly up it in a traffic jam, but for the truck that can barely make it up the grade to get the fuck out of the way.

Also, curves, the design speed is a nice balance between radius, an assumed value for friction, and super elevation. This is why those little yellow signs you don't pay attention to when you're trying to hit the apex on the ramp in your shitbox exists.

Also, ticket revenue. Guidelines state that the speed of a highway should be the 85th percentile of all vehicles. Nobody does this. See the masspike where 70-75 is slow and is still signed at 65.

Source: civil engineer who designs highways. Also, hooligan who tries to hit the apex on every ramp.

>Why do speed limits exist on interstates and other major highways?
Minorities are the reasons we can't have nice things.

Revenue generation

Does anyone else's state double traffic fines in 65mph zones?

This. I remember a lawyer in my city making some kind of report saying that due to current practices the state was losing money on traffic and vehicle defect tickets. Photo radar and stuff like that may be a different story depending on the country/state/etc. but burgers don't make any money from this shit.

>says "Speed Limit"
>is not a limit
?????????

Around 10mph/20km/h of consistent speed variation across lanes is enough for vehicles not to justify ducking back in to the curb lane every time they pass a vehicle. I always wondered how feasible some kind of "speed-by-lane" system would work to keep slower traffic to the right and minimize lane changes by having everyone in each lane do the same speed as each other. It would get more cars though by legalizing higher speeds while keeping faster traffic in the outer lanes and reducing and slowing down curb lane traffic making merging on much easier, both of which result in vehicles especially trucks in my experience that often get forced onto the shoulder because there's too much traffic driving too fast in the curb lane for them to merge on.

I think that's actually part of the reason Germany started building more six lane highways in place of their four lane ones. Doing around 80mph/130km/h in the middle lane is fast enough to continuously pass traffic in the right lane without really needing to justify moving over or getting out to pass anyone ahead while people going faster go as fast as they can in the left lane and only temporarily move over to the middle when necessary. I vaguely remember watching a Video Option special where some Japanese tuners who shipped their cars over the Germany to do testing kept getting cut off by cars in the two lane stretches who were dodging in and out of the curb lane to pass people not anticipating an incoming car going that fast. You wouldn't really have that problem on a three lane stretch working like that.

Speed limits literally exist because that is the tolerable speed that your car can handle around that turn or w.e. Anyone who says its for revenue is fucking stupid and stupid people are good for revenue. Speed limits are to prevent people from dying in fireball crashes because they went around a corner to fast and ate it. Also we have seen initiatives in larger cities that limit the speed limit to about 30 because survivability goes up a lot in case someone gets hit by a car.

IDK BUT I knew a guy with a bmw who got caught doing 90 in a school zone with a posted speed limit of 15 DURING SCHOOL HOURS and he has literally no car now and fines that are equivalent to 2 months worth of pay. They literally straight impounded and crushed his car.

Fucking this so hard. It's crazy how many people don't realize that 95% of the time they're set around ergonomics. You can't raise speed limits on so many roads because the corners are far too sharp already to comfortably take doing anything more

>average BMW driver

Got what he deserved desu

Exactly. This kid has like 20k worth of work done to a 3 year old 40k car. Was street racing during school hours like a moron. Fuck him. Even if it were dead empty they should have done the same. Its better than the rest of the speeders in town who had the precious machines now used as cop cars lmfaoooooooo. They literally threw some decals on and use them only for parades just to gloat about how they are strict on street racing. its great when they take them to the nearby track to run then and have like P.D demonstrations and whatnot for the community. Fuck these spreglords we have amazing strip here and these shitheads take them too school zones lmfaooo.

For the cars of 60 years ago, maybe, but modern cars can easily do 70 in a 55 or 90 in a 65 in comfort and control. Cities should stay 30 though.

No they cant stop fooling yourself.

95% of rural roads are grid pattern. 99.99% of freeways are perfectly straight. The other 0.01% is gentle curves. Cars can handle it. Tire technology and suspension technology has improved a lot.

The high way patrols in Florida really don't enforce the speed limit on I 95.

Friend from Key West drove 100 MPH from the Keys to Gainsville and was never pulled over.

Because some cars like mine don't handle well at 75+ and has a hard enough time getting up to 75 anyways.

How's that ass taste?

I'm not talking about the car's performance capability, I'm talking about lateral g forces exerted on the occupants and your cargo that make driving more laborious. Not to mention braking distance and braking g's which can interfere with traffic behind you if it's going too fast causing more strain on the occupants and cargo needing to brake harder. Simply leaving more space doesn't help in 99% of situations where the vehicle has to slow down to 5mph to turn anyway and would only congest traffic more if people did anyway. Traffic driving too fast in the curb lane may also have to brake hard for traffic trying to slow down before they've completely left the travelling lane to not experience as hard of braking on the offramp, hence why artificially making the right lane slower and the outer lanes faster is much safer and more ergonomic than expecting traffic to go +20mph over what the ramps were designed to handle in the curb lane which is what most burgers and ricers worldwide think should be the case.

>lateral G forces

Everything your saying is bullshit. Speed limits are posted for you safety because that is what cars can handle at that turn or w.e. Get over it you boy racer Einstein . These g forces don't mean shit when your sliding into a ditch going 70 in a 30

You don't have to change the advised speed signs for corners to raise freeway speed limits.

speed limits are made by finding the highest possible speed you can take a corner without friction without friction

That only works in gook countries where the traffic speeds on "expressways" are usually well below 50mph anyway (often closer to 30-35mph) and changing lanes is prohibited near/around the corners. Both of which western lane nazis would never stand for. Germany was smart enough from the beginning to constantly update and stretch out their corners in areas they intended to be unrestricted as cars became faster over the years so that people can take them at 400km/h+ when conditions permit with very little lateral g's and no braking required.
It at least used to be that when setting corner speeds you'd have a person go around the corner in 5mph increments with a makeshift "g meter" using a little ball in a bowl or something like that I think and then round down to the nearest interval when it read past a certain measurement. I can't remember what that magic number was or if it varied between states though

Why does this not apply to the unrestricted portions of the autobahn

How can you even take a corner without friction?

I find speed limits seem to be scientifically set on corners in the US and Canada, since if I go at or just over the speed limit on mountainous twisting roads into the corners on my motorbike it's very relaxed.

As I said here the corners on the autobahn are absolutely wide enough to conform to what I said regarding lateral forces.

As for the interfering with traffic bit I refer you to the second paragraph of my response to here On top of there being a fraction of the congestion there's a duty of care for people not to drive so fast when there's noticeable traffic so everyone has enough room to brake and execute a maneuver safely. I also notice that people who are driving fast in the curb lane there tend to move over to let merging traffic in without slowing down which over here I can attest is very dangerous as they always end up cutting off a person coming up behind them. It's also not legally required and shouldn't be for that reason.

There's also just a cultural aspect where people typically just aren't driving fast in the curb lane anyway so if one guy out of 30 or so is driving fast he doesn't have to worry so much about interfering with someone going faster. Over here everyone would be driving as fast as they could in the curb lane since fast cars are cheap here and it would be chaos due to the speed variation. There's also very few interchanges in four lane stretches which help reduce areas where this could be a problem.

this is true, i live here and it is rare to see someone get pulled over, ive seen racing on the highway at night. onxe you hit georgia tho youre fucked

>drive in Michigan
>push dad's minivan to 85mph for an hour straight and still just leisurely passing people
>still get passed by other cars when another lane opens up
>cops give zero fucks

feels good desu

When I lived for a while on the east coast in Canada it didn't seem like there were any enforced speed limits. As soon as you crossed into Quebec they were all over you though.

They honestly tend to not give a shit in Ontario to the point where a friend of mine who gave zero fucks about anything tried to prove to me that OPP not only rarely even had radar equipment but that would could blow by them at well over 150 on the 401 and they'd do nothing. We went from Windsor to London passing three sitting cops doing at least 160 and they didn't do shit. The only time they're guaranteed to fuck you is when you're driving something conspicuous or that looks modified or if there's two or more people doing the same thing because they think you're racing. Also if they're blitzing with like 10 cruisers around one area and people standing on overpasses gunning incoming cars then they'll fuck you for doing 1 over.

>he doesn't use his phone while driving double the speed limit

Eh. I got caught doing 94 in a 55 on 408 by a motorcycle faggot. 3 empty lanes at 2pm right before the road goes up to 65mph.

That being said I have been long stretches of Orlando-Gainesville doing 90 with no issue, everyone around doing the same too.