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Kansas Liberty: 23 July 2008
Reviving the 55 mph national speed limit is all the rage - in the East.
A lower speed limit? Kansans say, 'Not so fast!'
The proposal by Virginia's Republican Sen. John Warner to revive the double-nickel national speed limit launched a debate that so far hasn't persuaded many Kansans that slow is better.
In a recent survey 63 percent of Kansans said they would oppose a nationwide law creating a maximum speed limit of 55 miles per hour.
The poll sampled the perspectives of 500 Kansans.
The survey, by Rasmussen, also showed that 64 percent of Kansans said they did not believe that reducing the maximum highway speed limit to 55 miles per hour would reduce gas prices.
According to the Associated Press a Kansas committee has been assigned to analyze gas prices in Kansas. Kansas legislators chose the Special Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy to tackle the subject and search for ways to keep gas prices down in Kansas.
The report said the committee will meet prior to the legislative session so it can be ready with suggestions once the session commences in January.
Reducing the speed limit seems to have more support in the East than in the Midwest or West. A CBS News editorial endorsed the 55mph national limit, claiming "drivers could expect to see fuel levels upheld and prices at the pump reduced."
But other media outlets farther west disagreed. The Chicago Tribune said the market should determine the "tipping point."
"The safe speed limit on a given stretch of road is best left to the judgment of states and cities, not the federal government," the paper said in an editorial. "That's why so many drivers—and state highway patrols—thumbed their nose at the old 55 m.p.h. limit. It seems like it takes four years to drive across Kansas on I-70 at 70 m.p.h.; imagine the feds telling you to slow down to 55, even though it was perfectly safe and legal to go much faster when gas was $2 a gallon."
The old national speed limit law was in effect from 1974 until 1995. Today, most states have limits in excess of 55mph.
- Holly Smith for KansasLiberty.com
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