Essay On Speed Limits

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In American society today, there are many laws designed to protect all citizens. One of the those laws is having a speed limit. Speed limits are posted to protect us. Studies show that raising or lowering speed limits do not change the way people drive. In residential areas the speed limit is somewhere around 25-35 MPH, on city streets it is usually 45-55 MPH, on major highways it is around 55-65 MPH, and on interstates it is 65-70 MPH. Speeding can be very dangerous. Speed limits are designed to fit each area. Studies have shown that as speed limits rise, more deaths do as well. School zones are one of the most important. I have small children going to school everyday. When traveling through school zones doing the speed limit you have the ability to stop faster when something random happens like child running out in the street chasing a ball kicked over the fence in the school yard. If you were traveling over the speed limit you would not be able to stop as quickly to avoid hitting …show more content…

The United States Department of Transportation Federal Highway Management performed a study of 22 states and over 100 places/locations before and after speed limits were changed. The study involved a long-term approach on 14 of the places/locations. The study found that lowering the speed limit as much as 20 miles per hour and increasing it as much as 15 miles per hour has little effect on speed. The findings were also that when the speed limit is below the 50 percentile, that is 50 out of 100 driver 's speed 's, it did not decrease the speed of people or decrease bad crashes. but it didn 't increase the number of speeding violations. The problems caused by speed limits on the highways can not only be solved by looking at the many mistakes in thinking that people have about speed but by looking at the many advantages of no speed limits on