The Etobian
No. 55 was never about saving fuel.
As interstates replaced the old US highway system throughout the 1960s, there were fewer and fewer accidents, since limited-access rural highways are the safest roads every designed; and there were less and less speeding tickets written, as the interstate SL was pretty much irrelevant in most states, as motorists self-regulated themselves very well, and thus the police mostly left the interstates alone.
Less people with accidents on their records and less people with revenue based speeding tickets = less profit for insurance companies. So they conspired to have the 55 deal brought in. It was the lowest speed they thought they could get away with, and one so low that they understood that the vast majority would drive safe and fast well above it.
Insurance company profits skyrocketed. And jurisdictions discovered that they could pour police onto interstates adn make big money. And cops discovered that writing speeding tickets was easy work, and, better yer, selling bribery stickers was a source of easy money, money that could be poured into legislatures to support unnecessary raises.
The 22 year nightmare finally ended. It cost thousands of lives, and never saved one drop of fuel.
SP Cook
