Citation

Kamerud DB. Transp. Res. A Gen. 1983; 17(1): 51-64.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0191-2607(83)90133-4

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper examines the societal effects of the 55 mph speed limit. Fuel, accident, trucking productivity, and travel time effects are estimated for each of several rural road systems, and are then converted to units of money, lives, and time. A graphical method is developed which permits the reader to compare trade-offs of money, lives, and time to one another and to decide whether his own values of life and time favor a given trade-off. When applied to the speed limit effects estimated here, this method suggests that the limit is less favorable on the rural interstate system than on other affected systems. Indeed, critics using certain plausible values of life and time could argue that the 55 mph limit is actually unfavorable to the users of the rural interstates.