Speeders are in no hurry to slow down

For some, it’s more important to save time than save lives

WASHINGTON —A comprehensive new report on the perils of speeding suggests that the evergrowing cultural divide between rural and urban America may include shifting views on the wisdom of putting the pedal to the metal.

Many Western and Southern states have been raising the speed limit in recent years, despite data showing that non-interstate rural roads are more than twice as deadly when it comes to speed-related crash rates than urban roadways.

But some cities, often as part of the international Vision Zero initiative to reduce traffic deaths, have been clamping down on speeding by lowering the posted limits or increasing enforcement or penalties.

The Governors Highway Safety Association has seized on that as a sign of hope that now is the time to deal with the American addiction to speed.

“We want to marshal that energy from some of the urban areas and see what we can learn from that and apply that to rural areas,” GHSA Executive Director Jonathan Adkins said in an interview.

He said the growing effort to transform some cities and suburbs into places that are environmentally sustainable and safer for bicyclists and pedestrians has created a new push for reducing traffic speeds.

But the GHSA’s report suggests it might go unheard in the complacent whoosh of speeding traffic across most of the nation, just as so many other reports before it.

In calm and even-tempered language, the GHSA makes the case that Americans are basically fine with the idea that nearly 10,000 people die every year because to some it’s more important to save time than save lives.

A number of state legislatures have all but waved the green flag for leadfooters: 22 states have bumped the maximum speed to 70 mph, while seven have raised the limit to 80 mph. Texas has a stretch of highway that allows people to cruise along at 85 mph, the report says. And that’s just the posted limit.

The report, citing federal studies, notes that “most traffic exceeds posted speed limits, and this culture is mutually reinforced between drivers, policy makers, and many transportation stakeholders.”

The GHSA report, called “Speeding Away from Zero,” urges renewed efforts to slow people down, such as educational programs, the wider use of technology (such as traffic cameras and GPS monitoring) and federally funded programs that target excessive speed, including law enforcement.

But the report also suggests that our addiction to speed is a legacy of the way transportation engineers, planners and policy wonks have long measured success — reducing travel times. This has become all the more pressing as people commute longer distances or travel farther to recreational destinations.