In April 1987, the federal government enacted the Federal Highway Bill which, among its other provisions, permitted states to increase speed limits on rural sections of their insterstate highways. Forty states have responded to the enabling legislation by raising their speed limits which has fueled an ongoing debate regarding the highway safety effects of higher speed limits. Contributing to the discussion, this paper reports the results of annual cross-sectio-time series analyses of highway safety in California, which raised speed limits in May 1987. Based upon a 9-year sample from 1981 to 1989, the higher speed limits are found to have no system-wide effects on total, fatal, injury-relator property damage accidents. Redistribution effects, however, were indentified in that countries with 65 mph highways experienced a significant increase in each accident category.
Abstract