Speed Limit Smackdown
Debate Over Boosting Illinois’ Speed Limit To 70 Heats Up
By Diana Novak
<span style=
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lor: #ff6600;”>This story reported in partnership with Fox News Chicago.
Illinois lawmakers are preparing to consider raising the speed limit on highways outside of Chicago from 65 to 70 mph.
But two prominent national motorist organizations are at odds over the proposed bill.
One would think the AAA Motor Club and the National Motorists Association (NMA) want the same thing.
The NMA and AAA both claim support for drivers’ rights and member’s interests as the foundation of their organizations—but what happens when they can’t agree on what is best for their constituents?
The NMA has just under 100 of their few thousand members in the Chicagoland area, while the AAA has about 940,000 between Chicago and northwest Indiana, and 52 million nationwide.
Like parents arguing over what is best for their children, the NMA and AAA are throwing down over Illinois Senate Bill 3668, a plan to raise highway speed limits outside the Chicago metropolitan area from 65 mph to 70 mph. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Illinois would be the 34th state to implement such speed limit increase.
Illinois State Senator Dale Risinger of Galesburg, a former highway engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation, is the bill’s sponsor. Risinger feels like this is a natural move for rural interstates.
“These roadways were designed for 70 miles per hour,” says Risinger. “Before 1974, they were all 70 miles per hour and we drove 70 miles per hour. The speed limit was lowered to 55 in 1974 because there was a gas shortage, so they were lowered not to save lives but to conserve energy. Speed doesn’t cause the accidents.”
Risinger refers to the 1974 implementation of the National Maximum Speed Law as part of the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, created after the 1973 oil crisis caused by an OPEC embargo of the United States.
The NMA, founded in 1982 on the premise of fighting for “properly-set speed limits,” supports the use of the 85th percentile for the safest possible speed limit. This method takes a sampling of free-flowing traffic, measuring the speed of the vehicles. The 85th percentile is the speed that 85 percent of the cars are traveling on that particular stretch of roadway.
But is 70 mph the 85th percentile for rural Illinois interstates?
“We haven’t seen recent traffic engineering studies from the Illinois Dept. of Transportation that would provide enough requisite data to make that determination,” says NMA’s Executive Director Gary Biller. “Our promotion of a 70 mph limit outside of Chicago per SB 3668 is based on the fact that Illinois highways and interstates are similar in design and topography to roads in other states that have successfully (i.e., safely) implemented 70, 75 and even 80 mph speed limits.”
AAA argues that Illinois interstates are not designed to support traffic traveling at 70 mph. They cite information from the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Design and Environment Manual that says rural Illinois highways were created to serve a maximum of 70 mph, based on the concept of design speed as the maximum that traffic can travel under conditions that allow design features to function.
“Thus, while Illinois roads are designed to a maximum of 70 mph, it’s under the intention that the speed limit is set lower,” reads an AAA fact sheet on their opposition to the bill. Additionally, they argue that the other states that implemented a higher interstate speed limit “did so only after conducting engineering studies to determine the safety of traveling at higher speeds.”
AAA and the NMA quote conflicting statistics regarding the 1995 increase of the national speed limit from 55 to 65. The NMA, calling itself “instrumental” in the raise, cites information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that shows the highway fatality rate from 2008 to be 26.6 percent lower than that of 1995, before the increase.
AAA, using information provided by a 2009 study in the American Journal of Public Health, found a 3 percent increase in road fatalities as a result of higher speed limits on all road types and a 9 percent increase on rural roads, like the interstates that could be affected by the bill in question. “That translates to 90 more people killed annually,” reads AAA’s fact sheet.
Gary Biller says AAA’s response reflects their status as an insurance company. “AAA is first and foremost, at least from a financial standpoint–is there any other measuring stick?– an auto insurance company. The more its customers are zinged with traffic tickets, the more opportunities for the company to raise insurance premiums at a higher rate of profitability,” he says.
“The NMA, on the other hand, has no financial interest in fighting for a bill like SB 3668. Our members may not agree across the board on all of our motorist issues, but fighting for properly-set speed limits is likely to be near unanimous,” says Biller. “Getting highway speed limits set to the 85th percentile speed is, and always will be, one of our primary focuses because that has been shown to be the safest most efficient limit that can be set to promote free-flowing traffic.”
According to their website, AAA was founded in 1902 intending to promote safety and lobby for driver’s rights. They began selling car insurance in addition to their memberships shortly after their inception, in 1917.
AAA spokesperson Beth Mosher seemed frustrated by the NMA’s accusations. “That is so far fetched. We do sell insurance—but our insurance has nothing to do with our stance on the speed limit increases. We are first and foremost a membership organization…the absurdity of this is comical.”
She highlighted AAA’s concerns about the proposed increase coming too soon after the passage of a law allowing trucks to travel at 65 mph, instead of their original 55. “We have had no time to measure the effects of that increase—that’s pretty reckless,” she says.
Illinois Senator Risinger seems to feel like the effects have already been measured.
“With the 1995 raise, we found that people drive what people feel comfortable driving. I want to make them law-abiding citizens,” he says. “AAA thinks that more speed causes more accidents. Really, it’s hard to get through the statistics [regarding fatalities on interstates] because you don’t know if alcohol was involved, or something else.”
AAA has sided with the Illinois State Police and IDOT on this issue, as Illinois cut the troopers’ budget by 24 million dollars last year and is slated to cut an additional 32 million in the next year.
“That is a cutback by 500 employees,” says Mosher. “This is sure to include a number of state troopers patrolling Illinois’ highways.”
The decline in patrols won’t bode well for keeping the numbers of tickets written high, regardless of speed limits—or for getting help to those involved in accidents. But that’s not what Senator Risinger is worried about.
“We are actually helping the police, because less people will be breaking the law [if the raise is implemented],” Risinger explains.
But how much does speed limit factor in to the speed people “feel comfortable” driving? Is it about speed, or is it about getting caught?
“These are the safest roads in the world. This is the Prairie State—long, flat roads where you can what’s coming for miles,” says Risinger.
Despite this controversy over bumping up the speed limit , the earliest motorists would potentially see increases would be 2011.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Diana Novak is a recent graduate of Tulane University, currently living in her hometown of Chicago and working as a writer. Besides The Expired Meter, Diana writes for the Huffington Post Chicago and a local advertising agency. She has been published in In These Times magazine, Chicago INNERVIEW magazine and on Truthout.org. When she isn’t at her computer, she enjoys yoga, cooking for her family and sticking it to the Man. She will be attending graduate school to study journalism in the fall.Rich Text AreaToolbarBold (Ctrl / Alt + Shift + B)Italic (Ctrl / Alt + Shift + I)Strikethrough (Alt + Shift + D)Unordered list (Alt + Shift + U)Ordered list (Alt + Shift + O)Blockquote (Alt + Shift + Q)Align Left (Alt + Shift + L)Align Center (Alt + Shift + C)Align Right (Alt + Shift + R)Insert/edit link (Alt + Shift + A)Unlink (Alt + Shift + S)Insert More Tag (Alt + Shift + T)Toggle spellchecker (Alt + Shift + N)▼
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Debate Over Boosting Illinois’ Speed Limit To 70 Heats Up
By Diana Novak
This story reported in partnership with Fox News Chicago.
Illinois lawmakers are preparing to consider raising the speed limit on highways outside of Chicago from 65 to 70 mph.
But two prominent national motorist organizations are at odds over the proposed bill.
One would think the AAA Motor Club and the National Motorists Association (NMA) want the same thing.
The NMA and AAA both claim support for drivers’ rights and member’s interests as the foundation of their organizations—but what happens when they can’t agree on what is best for their constituents?
The NMA has just under 100 of their few thousand members in the Chicagoland area, while the AAA has about 940,000 between Chicago and northwest Indiana, and 52 million nationwide.
Like parents arguing over what is best for their children, the NMA and AAA are throwing down over Illinois Senate Bill 3668, a plan to raise highway speed limits outside the Chicago metropolitan area from 65 mph to 70 mph. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Illinois would be the 34th state to implement such speed limit increase.
Illinois State Senator Dale Risinger of Galesburg, a former highway engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation, is the bill’s sponsor. Risinger feels like this is a natural move for rural interstates.
“These roadways were designed for 70 miles per hour,” says Risinger. “Before 1974, they were all 70 miles per hour and we drove 70 miles per hour. The speed limit was lowered to 55 in 1974 because there was a gas shortage, so they were lowered not to save lives but to conserve energy. Speed doesn’t cause the accidents.”
Risinger refers to the 1974 implementation of the National Maximum Speed Law as part of the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, created after the 1973 oil crisis caused by an OPEC embargo of the United States.
The NMA, founded in 1982 on the premise of fighting for “properly-set speed limits,” supports the use of the 85th percentile for the safest possible speed limit. This method takes a sampling of free-flowing traffic, measuring the speed of the vehicles. The 85th percentile is the speed that 85 percent of the cars are traveling on that particular stretch of roadway.
But is 70 mph the 85th percentile for rural Illinois interstates?
“We haven’t seen recent traffic engineering studies from the Illinois Dept. of Transportation that would provide enough requisite data to make that determination,” says NMA’s Executive Director Gary Biller. “Our promotion of a 70 mph limit outside of Chicago per SB 3668 is based on the fact that Illinois highways and interstates are similar in design and topography to roads in other states that have successfully (i.e., safely) implemented 70, 75 and even 80 mph speed limits.”
AAA argues that Illinois interstates are not designed to support traffic traveling at 70 mph. They cite information from the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Design and Environment Manual that says rural Illinois highways were created to serve a maximum of 70 mph, based on the concept of design speed as the maximum that traffic can travel under conditions that allow design features to function.
“Thus, while Illinois roads are designed to a maximum of 70 mph, it’s under the intention that the speed limit is set lower,” reads an AAA fact sheet on their opposition to the bill. Additionally, they argue that the other states that implemented a higher interstate speed limit “did so only after conducting engineering studies to determine the safety of traveling at higher speeds.”
AAA and the NMA quote conflicting statistics regarding the 1995 increase of the national speed limit from 55 to 65. The NMA, calling itself “instrumental” in the raise, cites information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that shows the highway fatality rate from 2008 to be 26.6 percent lower than that of 1995, before the increase.
AAA, using information provided by a 2009 study in the American Journal of Public Health, found a 3 percent increase in road fatalities as a result of higher speed limits on all road types and a 9 percent increase on rural roads, like the interstates that could be affected by the bill in question. “That translates to 90 more people killed annually,” reads AAA’s fact sheet.
Gary Biller says AAA’s response reflects their status as an insurance company. “AAA is first and foremost, at least from a financial standpoint–is there any other measuring stick?– an
auto insurance company. The more its customers are zinged with traffic tickets, the more opportunities for the company to raise insurance premiums at a higher rate of profitability,” he says.
“The NMA, on the other hand, has no financial interest in fighting for a bill like SB 3668. Our members may not agree across the board on all of our motorist issues, but fighting for properly-set speed limits is likely to be near unanimous,” says Biller. “Getting highway speed limits set to the 85th percentile speed is, and always will be, one of our primary focuses because that has been shown to be the safest most efficient limit that can be set to promote free-flowing traffic.”
According to their website, AAA was founded in 1902 intending to promote safety and lobby for driver’s rights. They began
selling car insurance in addition to their memberships shortly after their inception, in 1917.
AAA spokesperson Beth Mosher seemed frustrated by the NMA’s accusations. “That is so far fetched. We do sell insurance—but our insurance has nothing to do with our stance on the speed limit increases. We are first and foremost a membership organization…the absurdity of this is comical.”
She highlighted AAA’s concerns about the proposed increase coming too soon after the passage of a law allowing trucks to travel at 65 mph, instead of their original 55. “We have had no time to measure the effects of that increase—that’s pretty reckless,” she says.
Illinois Senator Risinger seems to feel like the effects have already been measured.
“With the 1995 raise, we found that people drive what people feel comfortable driving. I want to make them law-abiding citizens,” he says. “AAA thinks that more speed causes more accidents. Really, it’s hard to get through the statistics [regarding fatalities on interstates] because you don’t know if alcohol was involved, or something else.”
AAA has sided with the Illinois State Police and IDOT on this issue, as Illinois cut the troopers’ budget by 24 million dollars last year and is slated to cut an additional 32 million in the next year.
“That is a cutback by 500 employees,” says Mosher. “This is sure to include a number of state troopers patrolling Illinois’ highways.”
The decline in patrols won’t bode well for keeping the numbers of tickets written high, regardless of speed limits—or for getting help to those involved in accidents. But that’s not what Senator Risinger is worried about.
“We are actually helping the police, because less people will be breaking the law [if the raise is implemented],” Risinger explains.
But how much does speed limit factor in to the speed people “feel comfortable” driving? Is it about speed, or is it about getting caught?
“These are the safest roads in the world. This is the Prairie State—long, flat roads where you can what’s coming for miles,” says Risinger.
Despite this controversy over bumping up the speed limit , the earliest motorists would potentially see increases would be 2011.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Diana Novak is a recent graduate of Tulane University, currently living in her hometown of Chicago and working as a writer. Besides The Expired Meter, Diana writes for the Huffington Post Chicago and a local advertising agency. She has been published in In These Times magazine, Chicago INNERVIEW magazine and on Truthout.org. When she isn’t at her computer, she enjoys yoga, cooking for her family and sticking it to the Man. She will be attending graduate school to study journalism in the fall.
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Most roads are designed/engineered for higher speeds than expected speed limits. If interstate highways were designed with expected 70 mph speeds, you can bet they’re engineered for higher. So they FEEL like driving 70 mph or higher is appropriate.
Most Chicago streets were designed for two-way traffic. That’s why all those folks are zipping down your block on the one-way, because it FEELS safe to do so.
Anyone who drives Illinois interstates know that the cars are already driving at 70mph. Because they know they have that “window” before you get a ticket. People usually beleive they have a good five miles over the limit. So raising the limit to 70 will convince people that they can go 75. It’s already happened with trucks. The majority of them already went around 65 when their limit was 55. Now they are going 70+ as well.
Come on now….is there really a big fight over this? I realize America’s roadways are not generally at the quality level of western Europe, but I find it highly ridiculous that in very dense Europe the standard “interstate” speed limit is 130km/h (80mph) or that Germany can have loads of unrestricted Autobahn, yet in the USA you have to drive through places like Montana or Washington for hours and hours while seeing minimal traffic and all at 70 or 75mph.
If 98% of traffic “breaks the law” through speeding, then something is wrong with the limits.
Now that I’ve been living in Europe for 6 months, I have really grown to appreciate the way Germany does it. Limits, where they exist, seem to be more reasonable since there is a reason they’re there, and people seem to be more inclined to follow them because when not required, you can go as fast as you feel like. Its perfect. And on top of that, I would say a vast majority of drivers keep it under 90-100mph even when they could be doing 130mph. They all slow way down when traffic binds up or conditions worsen. Add in that people are forced to keep right, traffic doesn’t bind up because all the lanes are going the same speed, and that you stay alert, and I really don’t see ANY reason (other than road conditions/potholes/ruts/etc) that limits anywhere in rural America couldn’t be 80mph at the absolute minimum, and in fact should actually be even higher or unlimited at times.
Can we try? Hell, I’d be willing to pay higher fuel tax to keep the roads in better shape if we could get this in return. And the time savings are worth money too. Montana on I94 is 700 miles wide. Average 100 and you take 7 hours. At 75 it takes nearly 2.5 hours longer.
In my opinion the benefits would far outweigh the negatives. Lets give it a whirl.
Of course, then how could the government get massive revenues out of people? That’s always the most important thing….
Do 70 mph. 65 is insanely slow in flat farmlands of Illinois. Is it any different than Texas at 80 or Nebraska at 75?
The highways throughout the USA can support speeds in excess of 100 mph. However, drivers in the USA and especially Illinois are not skilled enough to drive at high speeds, many Illinois drivers should park their cars forever. Personally, I have driven through the entire state’s highway system at 90-100 mph. So, saying the roads aren’t designed to handle those speeds sounds to me like a lie. Enforce the lane rules and we can start driving cars they way they are intended to be driven. Slow cars to the right, fast cars and passing cars to the left. All drivers who are more focused on mindlessly staring into space or at the bumper in front of them, should stay in the lanes to the right where they can mope along at speeds from 45-55 mph. The middle lanes should support speeds from 65-75 and the far right lane, the passing lane the speeds should be from 75 to whatever it takes. This of course would require advanced driver training and keeping teenagers (children)out of the way or “playing in traffic”.
And Lynn….thats why a lot of one way and two way residential streets are getting speed bumps….to slow the morons down.
Residential Neighborhoods default to 25 MPH (if I recall correctly) in this City.
Not only are qualifying rural routes and Interstates designed for higher, more efficient speeds of 70 MPH, or more but the vehicles which travel on them are too. Because new cars have so many safety improvements it effectively raises the road speed safety cushion on the rural and interstate routes. Changing the speed signs won’t change the speed of the majority of the traffic, but will eliminate potential violators, something the insurance companies want to preserve. More speeding violations directly to higher insurance premiums which correlates to insurance company’s higher profits.
DoR, Another speed deterrent would be for folks on both sides of the street to park a couple feet away from the curb, thus narrowing the passing area. But then you’d go and give them a ticket, wouldn’t you?
Ah well, such a simple, cost effective solution mired in the mysteries of city (dys)function.
Ticket Doctor……when was the last time you saw a CPD squad pull someone over for speeding in this city?
And Lynn….you want to park your Audi or Chevy a few Feet off the curb; go for it.
Breaking 1 municipal code to deter people from violating another isn’t the answer.
As for the city dysfunction……find people to run for office that are not beholden to the Burke Crime Family.
DoR Employee:
How do you know what a person is getting pulled over for? Are you able to read the minds of police officers?
Also, try driving west on Roosevelt from Western to California. There is ALWAYS at least one CPD squad car sitting there with the radar, laser, or whatever they use. You can see the officer pointing it at cars, especially during evening rush hour.
DoR, parking away from the curb IS one answer. That could be combined with changing that law so it doesn’t apply to one-way residential streets over a certain width, for example. Or the present law could be overlooked for the greater benefit, lower cost approach. Laws are overlooked all the time — littering for example — and even embraced by our dysfunctional government — dibs, anyone?
PTG–some data is incorrect. The national speed limit was raised to 65 in 1987, but Congress let states decide if they wanted to go above 55. (Notably, NY and PA kept a 55 speed limit until mid-1995). In Nov. 1995, Congress abolished the national speed limit, letting states decide whatever speed they felt was appropriate. Many states had laws that would automatically revert to 1974 levels when the Federal law was abolished. Since then, other states, like IN, increased their speeds but slowly, over time.
An interesting side note… From Nov. 1995 to Dec. 1998, Montana had a daytime “Reasonable & Prudent” speed limit for cars. This was struck down by the state supreme court as unconstitutionally vague. So, for a few months, MT had NO speed limit whatsoever, until the legislature enacted a 75 MPH speed limit in June 1999…
come on, if Illinois increases their speed limit to 70 miles per hour, then Wisconsin and Oregon should go up to 70 mph as well by default. Oregon has a lower population density than Illinois and Wisconsin, and Wisconsin has fewer people than Illinois. It’s about time we let drivers legally go 70 mph in Illinois. It’s almost 2011, the roads in Illinois couldn’t be any safer, the interstates are already safe. I-57 is currently 65 mph for 340 miles, (MS river in Cairo to US 30 Lincoln Hwy- Matteson) that’s a long north to south interstate, longest in Illinois.
NB I-57: trucks have to slow down to 55 mph now at mile 325 at the Kankakee-Will county line, 45 miles south of downtown (loop) Chicago.
I say Illinois should make like Texas if they want to keep a 65 mph speed limit, but during night time.
Boost the speed limit in New Hampshire from 65mph to 70mph.
Increase the speed limit in New Hampshire from 65mph to 70mph.
Raise the speed limit in New Hampshire from 65mph to 70mph.
The government should not outright get rid of speed limits but go back to the *basic speed rule* using the signs as a suggestion for police officers in addition to other factors in determining if someone needs to be pulled over or not so Officers will actually be useful.
Reckless driving is a lot more dangerous then speeding and one thing not discussed much is people playing loud music when driving to the point they cannot hear emergency vehicles.
On another note one thing I am surprised about is all the hate against drunk drivers when they DON’T kill anyone they are still treated as murderers. Most of the drunk driving deaths happen at night when there is limited visibility and they are usually driving too fast plus most of them are young.
Here you get young reckless drivers who are not in their right mind set with limited visibility and who knows what other factors are involved besides intoxication.
Chances are at least 75 percent of Drunk Driving crashes (And I am being conservative) would’ve still happened regardless of alcohol because these people have an attitude of them *Owning the road* which is far more dangerous then what they consume.
Some people realize after they hurt someone what they have done and you can tell by the fruits they bear when they have interviews with the media.
Most people who are not sorry will have a *blank* expression not giving an F.
Hey David! How about making it mandatory to go to Driving School and make it so when a driver completes the course the driver get his/her license from the instructor when she sees the driver deemed fit.
You actually do learn a lot in driving class that you don’t get in the book.
But on the other hand that would make many insurance companies angry having so many smart drivers on the road since they will have to think of other excuses to keep a float.
Right now they are pretty much holding on artificially.