Who Sets Speed Limits, Beavis & Butthead?
Friday, March 27, 2015 at 12:00AM By Al Vinikour
;)
I live in a state where drivers show little if any regard for speed limits. Speed limit signs are like figuring tips on restaurant checks take the number and add 15%-20%. Why does this nation have one flag, one national anthem and even a self-proscribed national pastime, but yet we seem to have 50 different plans for speed limits? Whatever happened to consistency? In the 1970s, the United States was in the midst of a fuel shortage that put the entire country in panic mode. As part of this national hysteria Congress set a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour. That’s a speed that some scuff-shoed, tweed-jacketed eggheads determined was the ideal number to squeeze out the most miles per gallon and “end our dependence on foreign oil.” (I’ve heard that phrase more than I ever heard my parents tell me to quit popping my knuckles or I’d eventually have hands like claws.)