Published: August 20, 2008 01:01 am            

Double nickel not worth a dime

There are many things I do not miss about the 1970s.

The fashions, for one thing, plaid pants, platform shoes, leisure suits and anything polyester. Then there was disco, pet rocks, mood rings, English Leather, lava lamps and eight-track tapes. Hair styles were long for both men and women, while the guys all wore mutton chop sideburns.

But we survived, despite it all. Now there is a move afoot to bring the worst part of the 1970s back — the national 55 mile per hour speed limit.

The 55 mph limit, the dreaded double nickel, was enacted in 1974 in response to the energy crisis of 1973. It was part of the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act.

The idea was to slow drivers down, and thus cut America’s fuel consumption by 2.2 percent. It didn’t work out that way. The U.S. Department of Transportation found the national speed limit caused a fuel savings of only 1 percent.

It also was supposed to make the roads safer, and it worked. The National Academy of Sciences found the double nickel saved up to 4,000 lives per year. But the Cato Institute reports in 1997 there were 66,000 fewer road injuries than in 1995, the year the 55 mph speed limit was repealed.

I object to returning to the 55 mph speed limit, not because I’m against energy conservation or am in favor of accidents. I oppose it because when you drive 55 it takes so darn long to get anyplace.

During the late 1970s I was a sports writer, traveling the highways and back roads of Oklahoma reporting on various events. Thanks to the 55 mph speed limit, I spent many more hours driving those roads than I cared to. When you can see the armadillos waving at you, you’re driving too slow.

The 55 mph speed limit was only slightly more successful than, and just about as popular as, Prohibition. In New York, a highway study conducted from April to June 1982 found 83 percent of drivers were speeding. In 1988, 85 percent of drivers violated the law in Connecticut, while in 1985, 82 percent of Texas drivers were speeding .

Even state legislatures attempted to circumvent the 55 mph limit. Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah replaced speeding fines with “energy wasting” penalties for drivers who were going faster than 55, but not faster than the limit before the double nickel was enacted. Those penalties ranged between $5 and $15.

The 1987 Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act allowed states to raise speed limits to 65 mph on rural interstates. Oklahoma was one of the first states to apply for acceptance into the program.

Finally, in 1995, Congress repealed the federal speed limit law, returning control of speed limits to the states.

Now there is a move afoot to revive the double nickel. A California man has started a grassroots Drive 55 campaign. In July, U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., introduced a bill to order a study of the effects of a national 60 mph speed limit. U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., has proposed a 60 mph limit in urban areas and 65 elsewhere.

Don’t do it. Don’t make us go back to the national speed limit, whether the double nickel or something faster. I’m not advocating adopting Germany’s no speed limit policy on its famed Autobahn, that would be crazy. We’ve got enough bad drivers on our roads without giving them a license to go as fast as their hybrid SUVs will carry them. But let the states decide. Then, if Oklahoma enacts a 55 mph speed limit, we can all move.

I might not be going anywhere important, but I want to get there as fast as I can. Besides, I am in no hurry to return to the 1970s. It was a bad time for me. I kept falling off the platform shoes.



Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle.