If you’re traveling in a rural part of Michigan with a higher speed limit, you might be able to get to your destination faster, but that comes at a price. According to a new study by Michigan State University, crashes increased by about 5% during the two years after a 2017 state law boosted speed limits to 75 miles an hour on 610 miles of freeway. Peter Savolainen co-authored the study. He says it wasn’t just high speeds that caused more crashes, but also a higher variety of speeds on the freeway.
“A lot of people may have tended to increase their speeds when the speed limits increased, but you also had some slower-moving traffic and some drivers who may have not been comfortable at those higher limits and in some of those cases, we saw quite a bit of variability in travel speeds.”
He says all states that have increased speed limits to 75 or 80 miles per hour have generally seen significant increases in crashes resulting in deaths.
