The History of Speed Limits

As automobiles become more popular, governments realize they need Speed Limits. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Watch your speed. We'll discuss aswe take a bite out of history with
ingles markets. Speed limits for horsesand buggies have existed since the colonies.
In eighteen sixty six, General UlyssesS. Grant was famously arrested for speeding
in his horse and buggy through DC. It wasn't until nineteen oh one that
Connecticut became the first to pass alaw limiting the speed of motor vehicles twelve
miles per hour in cities and fifteenon country roads. Some states slowly adopted

(00:23):
their own form of speed limits,but there was no uniformity, and in
nineteen thirty twelve states still had nolimits. By nineteen seventy, the dramatic
rise of fuel prices sparked the loweringof limits nationwide, and in nineteen seventy
four President Nixon set the national speedlimit at fifty five. Fast forward to
nineteen eighty seven and Congress decided toallow rural states to increase their limits to
sixty five. Then, in nineteenninety five, the National Highway System Designation

(00:47):
Act did away with the national speedlimit and gave control to the individual states.
The highest posted speed limit in theUS is eighty five on a toll
road between Austin, Texas and SanAntonio. This has been a bite out
of history with Ingles market. It's