Rewind: The evolution of speed limits in Michigan

Good weather in the Motor City means people want to push their speedometers to the edge, even as the dangers of crashing and suffering greater injuries in high-speed crashes are widely known and backed up by plenty of data.

City freeway speed limits across Michigan range from 55-70 miles per hour and can be as high as 75 on rural freeways. Did state authorities at some point give up on slowing drivers down? It’s always been a bit more complicated.

When cars made in Detroit started to gain popularity nationwide, states were responsible for setting speed limits. And by the 1970s, people were going fast. Michigan’s limit on interstate freeways was 70 mph and 65 mph on state highways.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon passed the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act , setting a National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL) of 55 mph.

The federal government’s push was not out of concern for safety, but rather to conserve fuel during the 1973 oil embargo. In 1987, the federal government increased the NMSL to 65 mph , making states responsible for deciding whether to raise rural freeways to that speed .

Michigan politicians debated next steps for months. Many politicians and residents wanted a higher speed limit, but the Michigan State Police and Secretary of State Richard Austin did not agree .

Gov. James Blanchard had mixed feelings . He was not opposed to testing out a 65 mph speed limit on select rural freeways, but he refused to support legislation that did not include banning drivers’ use of radar detectors . Radar detectors , also known as fuzz busters, notified drivers when police were near so drivers could slow down accordingly. Blanchard argued that the technology would encourage speeding.

Blanchard vetoed the first bill to increase the speed limit on rural interstate highways.

“You cannot separate speed from safety,” Blanchard said in his veto statement. “To sign this legislation would violate my duty to protect our citizens.”

Blanchard gradually came to accept that speed limit enforcement could be effective , and his opinions on increasing the limit shifted. If legislators paired a speed limit increase with stricter enforcement, he could compromise on his desire to ban radar detectors.

Michigan raised speed limits to 65 mph on 720 miles of rural interstate freeways a few months later. A newly established highway safety fund accompanied the bill, funding 50 additional state troopers to patrol freeways.

In a Free Press reader poll, 73% of 268 callers said the speed limit should expand to include rural non-interstate freeways.

Political battles and public opinion

President Bill Clinton reluctantly signed the National Highway System Designation Act into law in November 1995, repealing the NMSL. This move restored power to individual states to set their own speed limits. The legislation also established traffic safety measures like tougher regulations aimed at combating underage drunken driving.

Michigan representatives were not in a rush to make speed limits higher than the 65 mph limit they implemented in 1987, but Michigan senators had other plans. The day after Clinton signed the National Highway System Designation Act, state Sen. Doug Carl (R-Macomb Township) introduced a bill to raise freeway limits to 70 mph. Meanwhile, the House Transportation Committee approved a bill to increase the speed limit to 65 mph on 260 miles of freeway that had never increased its speed limit.

This sparked a lengthy debate among Michigan politicians and residents alike: How much of a difference would a 5 mph increase make? Some worried about the safety implications of raising the limit , including higher car insurance prices.

“Raising the speed limit would raise my already high insurance rates. Most people drive over the present limit. Those same people would continue to drive over posted limits,” argued Detroit resident Avanti F. Herczeg.

Others thought keeping the limit under 70 mph was useless because most drivers exceeded the speed limit anyway .

“Driving 15 miles over the speed limit is normal in Michigan. If you drive under 60 mph, you shouldn’t be on the freeway,” Detroit resident Cassandra Neff wrote to the Free Press.

Michigan State Police Lt. Col. Jim Bolger immediately opposed the proposed increase , arguing it would increase the number of serious accidents and fatalities. Bolger said the state police would lobby with the transportation department and AAA Michigan to keep the 65 mph limit.

Carl argued that both the state police and AAA Michigan had ulterior motives for opposing the 70 mph limit: Lowering speed limits would lead to more speeding tickets, and therefore higher insurance premiums, mirroring a similar concern from Gov. Blanchard in 1987 . AAA Michigan maintained their disapproval was a push to save lives.

By summer 1996, Michigan speed limits jumped to 70 mph on five freeways after Gov. John Engler signed an experiment into law . The plan was that Michigan would extend the new limit to other freeways provided there wasn’t a notable uptick in traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities.

State police still hesitated to support raising the speed limit. The department increased patrols across the five freeways to discourage drivers from using the new limit to exceed the limit at higher speeds.

“Somebody going 80 m.p.h. is going to get a ticket,” state police Lt. Stephen McPherson said. “There’s always a percentage who, if the limit’s 65 m.p.h., they’ll go 75, and if it’s 70, they’ll go 80. At 80 m.p.h., that’s moving pretty good.”

Fatalities and faster speeds

Speed limits did not increase on Detroit freeways like M-10 (John C. Lodge Freeway) or I-94 (Edsel Ford Freeway). At the time, limits ranged from 45 to 55 mph. Unsurprisingly, this did not discourage drivers from exceeding the limit. An informal traffic study conducted by Detroit News of 125 vehicles on a stretch of M-10 found the average driver exceeded the 45 mph limit by 12 mph . The only driver under the limit was a gravel truck.

State police came to accept speed limit increases. The department conducted traffic studies with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) in 2005 to determine average speeds drivers felt comfortable with behind the wheel. Despite research suggesting faster speeds increase the risks of traffic crashes and fatalities, state police officials argued lower speed limits did not inherently mean safer streets when most drivers are exceeding the limit. The study resulted in proposed expansions of the 70 mph limit to three stretches of freeways.

As public opinion around speed limits changed, so did speed limits. In 2006, four freeways increased limits from 65 to 70 mph . By 2009, most rural and suburban freeway limits were raised to 70 mph , with the exception of stretches of Detroit freeways.

Do higher speed limits keep drivers safe? A nationwide study of the long-term effects of repealing the NMSL found a 9.1% increase in fatalities on rural interstates and a nearly 4% increase on urban interstates between 1990-2005.

Speed limits should still reflect the speed most drivers feel comfortable driving. State law requires MDOT and the Michigan State Police to set limits based on the 85th percentile speed — the speed that 85% of drivers are driving on a section of road.

In 2017, Michigan increased speed limits to 75 mph on certain stretches of rural freeways. In the next three years, several studies found increases in traffic crashes and fatalities on 75 mph stretches compared to average crashes in the three years before the expansion; though, this could be attributed to rises in traffic volume and fatal crashes increased on all types of Michigan roads.

Rewind: The evolution of speed limits in Michigan · Outlier Media