Reply #5: Because it would invite a giant money grab. [View All]

Back in the 70s, the last time we tried it, the local Boss Hogg types sent out their armies of road pirates (aka traffic cops) to entrap people used to driving somewhere closer to the speed that the roads and vehicles were designed to accommodate.

That having been said, I would get behind a national speed limit if a local government's maximum speeding ticket revenue was fixed at some percentage of their annual budget, with any excess fines collected going irrevocably to alternative fuels research. This would take the profit motive away and limit the opportunities for financially-motivated police abuse.

Of course, we could also tell the gluttons in Detroit and Houston to go fuck themselves and raise CAFE standards. That would accomplish the same thing, without giving Boss Hogg and Roscoe P. Coltrane a big fishhook with which to pick the pockets of the public.