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Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Ohio House Highways and Public Safety Committee. My name is Duke Ganote. I am a constituent of Rep. Robert Corbin. I've volunteered my spare time since 1986 as Legislative Director for the Ohio chapter of the National Motorists Association (NMA), and have appeared regularly before this committee during that time. The NMA was formed in 1982 in order to repeal the 55-mph National Maximum Speed Limit.
As you know, the National Maximum Speed Limits were repealed in December 1995, and the General Assembly took almost immediate action. Within three months, Ohio Governor George V. Voinovich signed a new law authorizing speed limits up to 65-mph for most vehicles on Ohio freeways, after traffic studies. Specifically, Ohio now has:
I'll review for the committee the basic research in speed limits, speed and accidents. Note also that I like to verify others' results by conducting my own research. For example, during the past four years, I used radar to measure free-flowing travel speeds on I-675, the beltway around Dayton. At one location, I measured speeds with three different speed limits: recently, after the speed limit was raised to 65-mph, previously when it was 55-mph, and even one summer when a 45-mph construction zone speed limit was kept for months after work was essentially complete. My results are tabulated below:
| Speed Limit | Exceeding Speed Limit more than 10-mph | Average Speed | 85th Percentile Speed | Date | Number of Automobiles Monitored | Motorists Exceeding Speed Limit |
| 65-mph | 2% | 67-mph | 72-mph | 8-Jan-97 | 100 | 60% |
| 55-mph | 35% | 64-mph | 68-mph | 18-Apr-93 | 199 | 98% |
| 45-mph | 97% | 63-mph | 68-mph | 2-Aug-94 | 100 | 100% |
As you can see, despite a 20-mph change in speed limits, travel speeds were essentially unchanged. My findings are unsurprising, and merely confirm decades of traffic engineering research. That research demonstrates that most motorists' travel speeds reflect existing road and traffic conditions, regardless of the posted speed limit. Since my studies were conducted under comparable road and traffic conditions, it is equally clear that most speed limits do not reflect existing traffic and road conditions.
Freeways are our fastest, safest, most fuel-efficient highways, carrying long distance travelers who benefit from higher speeds. Freeways dramatically reduce most deadly crashes, specifically:
Investment in better highways pays off: our freeways have about half the fatality rate of Ohio overall.
Information about trucks in Ohio is very limited. Part of the 1988 study on the 65-mph performed by Dr. Desai of the Ohio State University for the State Patrol looked at trucks. Now, in general, Dr. Desai found "no adverse effects of the increase in the speed limit to 65 MPH". With regard to vehicles still under the 55-mph limit, he found "no change in the relative representation of vehicles, subject to the 55 MPH speed limit, in the accidents."
Part of the 1991 study on the 65-mph limit performed by Dr. Pant of the University of Cincinnati, again for the State Patrol, also looked at vehicle mixes. In general, Dr. Pant found the "65 mph speed limit has not adversely affected fatal accident rates in rural interstate highways posted at 65-mph." He also found the "accident rates involving light and heavy vehicles were not different" since increasing the speed limit for light vehicles to 65-mph.
Apparently, the Highway Patrol got very tired of hearing these conclusions from unbiased observers and traffic engineering professionals. It was also apparent that the National Maximum Speed Limit was under serious threat of being repealed at the national level. So the Patrol released its own study the month before repeal of the National Maximum Speed Limit in 1995. The Patrol's study ignored the previous independent studies, glossed over impacts of travel-mileage on accident rates, but admitted that during the study period that on 65-mph interstates "fatal crashes decreased 23 percent." (These 65-mph interstates at the time represented about 85% of 65-mph freeways. However, the Patrol's press release focused on the remaining 15% of 65-mph freeways, and trumpeted an increase in accidents on those roads.) Interestingly, the Patrol study ignored any difference in accidents involving cars and trucks.
Chair and members of the committee, it is NMA's recommendation that the Committee abolish the separate speed limits for heavy vehicles. There is scant evidence that the 55-mph limit for trucks provides any safety benefits, as we have seen. This suggests that the 55-mph limit has the same impact on trucks as it formerly had for other vehicles: it brings contempt on the law and its enforcers by outlawing reasonable, normal driving practices.
We note that Dr. Pant, who conducted the last independent study of the 65-mph limit for the Patrol, is also a member of the Speed Zoning Committee of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), the association of traffic engineering professionals. The ITE Speed Zoning Committee has published recommendations on speed zoning, which are based on the observation that most motorists' travel speeds reflect existing road and traffic conditions. Using the ITE criteria, the speed limit for trucks should be about 65-mph.
The National Motorists Association (NMA), a motorists' right advocacy group, lead the struggle against the National Speed Limits, and operates through state chapters and local activists. Mr. Ganote volunteers his spare time as an activist for the NMA. His home phone is (937) 435-8911. The NMA is headquartered in Dane, Wisconsin, and may be reached at (608) 849-6000 or on the world-wide web at http://www.motorists.com/.
*************************************** POSTSCRIPT: Per the request of the sponsor (Rep. Ron Hood), the committee had a straight vote on the bill with no amendments. It was defeated 4-8 (Chairman Bateman was out of town during the vote) in May 1997.
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