Get Rid of Speed Limits

Get Rid of Speed Limits

There are few feelings like the exhilaration of acceleration. Faster is Better. You’ll never hear anyone brag about his record longest trip driving across state. You’ll never hear someone boasting about how slow tear new car is. We love the sensation of being forced against our seat backs, or watching the world recede quickly into the rear view mirror.
Unfortunately for these folks, it is unlikely that we will ever have the American equivalent of the Autobahn, where speeds are limited only by a driver’s vehicle, desire, and judgment. When the federally mandated limits were first repealed, Montana briefly played with a speed limit of “reasonable and prudent.” The “Montanabahn” only lasted a few years and now the trip from Lewiston to Great Falls is limited not by the amount of lead in a driver’s foot, but by the long arm of the Law.
Some folks want slow speed limits for extra safety. But there are other better ways of getting safer highways. In Germany, there are no speed limits on the autobahn, and in France drivers can zip along at 80 miles per hour. The reason they don't all end up dead is that the Europeans are much stricter about whom they let on the highways. Intoxicated drivers are not tolerated. In the US, there are often light penalties for being intoxicated while driving, and even worse, state governments allow incompetent drivers on the roads. Some elderly drivers can't drive safely anymore, yet they routinely get their license renewed. Faced with bad drivers, government sets speed limits low so that any crashes are less destructive.
What should the driving policy be in a free society? Driving is a conditional right. It should be conditional on being a competent and considerate driver. The way the law works now is that driving is an arbitrary privilege granted by government. Since driving is a privilege, government can set arbitrary rules of the road, and this is a good source of revenue, since most folks violate unreasonable road...