Seven years ago, highway safety leaders from around the USA gathered to adapt a strategy for attacking speeding -- a problem that contributes to about one-third of all traffic deaths.
Since then, seven states have actually increased speed limits while two have increased speeding fines. In 2010, 10,530 people died in speed-related crashes.
Over the past decade, speeding has been the one area of road safety where advocates have had little success: Fatalities related to non-use of seat belts dropped 23% since 2000 and drunken-driving deaths 3%; speed-related deaths rose 7%.
"There hasn't been much done at the state level or the federal level on speeding" since 2005, says Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association. The GHSA, which represents state highway safety offices, recently surveyed members to see what progress is being made on speeding and aggressive driving.
The collective response: not much.
There is limited use of automated speed enforcement: 14 states allow it, and two -- Tennessee and Utah -- allow it in all areas of the state, the GHSA says.
With limited funds for road safety promotion and education, the issue simply falls through the cracks, Harsha says. "There's pressure to address emerging issues like distracted driving. The other part of the equation is there's fewer law enforcement personnel to do the job."
Harsha says the widespread disregard for speed limits is "more of a cultural thing" that stems largely from the 1995 congressional repeal of the national 55-mph speed limit. "When that was repealed, people's attitudes did significantly change. They didn't take the speed limit seriously. They thought they were just guidelines. The posted speed limits are actually laws, but people don't see it that way."
The National Motorists Association, a Waunakee, Wis.-based group that was initially formed to seek repeal of the 55-mph national speed limit, sees it differently.
"The bottom line is that the roads have never been safer," says NMA communications director John Bowman. "Traffic fatality rates have been steadily dropping since 1995. That, incidentally, was the year they repealed the national speed limit. They've been steadily decreasing, and that's with higher speed."
Bowman says that "rather than a sole focus on increased enforcement," NMA favors a national effort to set speed limits based on sound traffic engineering principles and more public education on safe driving practices, especially lane courtesy, in which slower traffic keeps right.
Harsha in part agrees. "There is a question of: are speed limits set appropriately? That's something state engineers and local public works directors and county engineers need to take a look at." In some instances, speed limits are set too low, she says.
GHSA recommends states address speeding with aggressive driving crackdowns. Other recommendations: targeted enforcement in school and work zones and a national, high-visibility enforcement and education campaign.
