Roughly 40,000 people die in traffic every year in the United States. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor-vehicle speeding killed over 10,000 people in 2019, which means around a quarter of all traffic deaths in this country are speed-related. The NHTSA attributes our speeding epidemic to four factors: traffic, running late, anonymity (drivers becoming detached from their actions while in their vehicles), and disregard for others and the law.

It’s easy to blame the driver who goes flying by you weaving between cars at 100MPH for the entire problem, but the truth is, we’re all to blame. It’s just that what each of us considers speeding is sort of relative. Anyone driving slower than you doesn’t know what they’re doing and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac. The problem is, speed limits don’t work this way. They’re fixed.

First, let's look at the conditions where the maximum speed limit applies:

  • Perfect atmospheric conditions (Daylight, between 32 and 90 degrees, overcast or sunny, but not too sunny, with a clean road surface)

  • Perfect traffic conditions (Light traffic, road visibility is good)

  • Average vehicle (Cars, not an SUV, pickup truck, van, or semi) Heavier vehicles take longer to stop, are harder to control, and should be going slower. Keep in mind any changes to the vehicle’s weight (more the two people in a vehicle or added cargo means you should reduce your speed to account for it)

  • Driver of sufficient ability level (every driver has a personal limit on what they can handle based on their experience level and skill set. A new driver that just got their license might not have the experience and skills to maintain control if something goes wrong, even at 45 MPH)

Let’s assume you’re in the average four-door sedan with an experienced driver and one passenger, that the driving conditions this day are perfect, and traffic is light. In this situation, the driver could safely and legally drive up to the speed limit. If anything changes though, a new driver takes the wheel, we put them in an SUV with a couple more people in the vehicle, temperatures drop, and it becomes night time, we’d have to adjust our speed for our situation and driver slower to have the same control. 

Is this how we drive as a society? Some people might, but most people don’t. Research shows that the average U.S. driver drives between 5MPH and 10MPH over the speed limit. I’ve had countless people tell me that when they were learning to drive a parent, friend, or in some cases even a Drivers Ed instructor told them they could drive 5MPH over the speed limit and they won’t get a ticket or get in trouble. 

I can’t speak to whether or not you’ll get a ticket, but I can speak to whether or not this is safe. When you travel down a road with a posted speed limit of 35MPH, but you’re going 40-45MPH, you will have significantly less control over your vehicle. Not a little less control, but a heck of a lot less control. It could easily be the difference between a crash and no crash and potentially between life and death. 

The New York City DOT has noted that a pedestrian struck by a driver at 25MPH is half as likely to die as a pedestrian struck at 30MPH. If this type of information doesn’t change our collective behavior, I’m not sure what will. 

Is going faster worth the legal, moral, and ethical risks? That's a personal question, but let's look at an example. 

The average American’s commute to work is 16 miles. Let's assume that 3/4 of it is highway and the rest is back roads. 

Speed limit

4 miles @ 35 mph = 6 mins 51 secs

12 miles @ 65 mph = 11mins 05secs

Total trip time = 17 minutes 56 seconds

5MPH over limit

4 miles @ 40 mph = 6 mins

12 miles @ 70 mph = 10mins 17secs

Total trip time = 16 minutes 17 seconds

In this example, you’d get to work 1 minute and 39 seconds sooner by going 5mph over the speed limit. But wait, this is assuming no one else is on the road and there are no traffic lights, stop signs, or other slowdowns, If any of these delays exist on your commute then it would eat away dramatically at the already slim early arrival. Let’s assume that with traffic we gained 1 minute total by going 5MPH over the speed limit. 

Is 1 minute worth the risks? I realize we're talking about a single trip to work right now, and most people see this more as a lifestyle choice than as an individual decision they've made, but it’s always a decision. In fact, it could be broken down to moments you could have slowed down throughout this single commute to work. 

It’s true, the longer and more often you speed, the more time you could save, but the risk of getting a ticket, losing control, or possibly killing someone exists as well. 

Risk 1) Getting a ticket - The lowest speeding ticket in MA is $100. $50 is the lowest ticketed amount for speed and $50 goes to a “head injury surcharge” fund for all tickets. 

For 1 minute of early arrival to be worth a $100 ticket, you’d really need to value your time… You’d need to earn $6,000 an hour, $240,000 a week, $960,000 a month and $11,520,000 a year. But let’s say I’m describing you and you make $12 million a year. Congratulations! But if you need to take time to pay that ticket or fight it, it will cost you thousands of dollars of your time to do so. 

Risk 2) Even if the financial risk of getting a ticket doesn’t bother you, let's not forget the exponential loss of control that occurs when you increase your speed. Regardless of how good of a driver you are, if your car is going a speed in which it will no longer be controllable in an emergency then you’re just banking on nothing going wrong that day on your trip to work. If something does go wrong and you lose control, you’re not the only one at risk. That nice older lady walking with her granddaughter and her new puppy on the side of the road is going to pay for this mistake as well, because we know now that 5MPH over the limit absolutely kills.