The 55 mph national speed limit: Current status and options for the future. Paper presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 1982

The 55 mph speed limit was enacted because of a fuel crisis. Safety experts had preached for decades about the life saving benefits of reduced speed, but their advice went largely unheeded. Now it is clear that the 55 mph speed limit is under attack. Five aspects of maintaining the 55 mph speed limit are addressed, namely, the safety implications, the highway or pavement maintenance implications, the vehicle implications, and the implications for travel time.