The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Compromising the Uncompromisable:
Speed Limits, Parades, Cigarettes 203
The other side is no less intent upon upholding its view
point. One argument stems from freedom, not the pragmatic
issue of safety: people should have the right to do whatever they
wish, unless their actions constitute an explicit “border crossing”
or physical invasion of another person or his property. Even if
there is a statistical correlation between deaths and higher (or no)
speed limits, this is not equivalent to the initiation of violence.
For to go fast is not, per se, to kill someone. 4
But the “speed freedom” advocates are not without a
response to the claim that faster traffic is dangerous. They argue
that it is not speed, but rather the variance of speed which puts
motorists at risk. 5 For example, if all motorists travel at between
(January 1971); A. Hoskin, “Consequences of Raising the Speed Limit,”
Journal of Safety Research 17 (1986): 179–82; James Jondrow, Marianne Bowes,
and Robert Levy, “The Optimal Speed Limit,” Economic Inquiry 21 (July
1983): 325–36; Dana Kamerud, “The 55 MPH.Speed Limit: Costs, Benefits
and Implied Tradeoffs,” Transportation Research 17A (January 1983): 51–64;
Charles Lave, “Speeding, Coordination and the 55-MPH Limit,” American
Economic Review 75, no. 5 (September 1985): 1159–64; Sam Peltzman, “The
Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation,” Journal of Political Economy 83, no.
4 (1975): 677–725; Paul Sommers, “Drinking Age and the 55 MPH Speed
Limit,” Atlantic Economic Journal 13 (March 1985): 43. For a critique, see Walter
Block, 1997. “Tobacco Advertising,” International Journal of Value-Based
Management 10, no. 3, (May 1997): 221–35; idem, “Theories of Highway
Safety,” Transportation Research Record #912 (1983): 7–10.
4Similarly, ownership of a gun is not the same thing as murder, even if
there is a positive correction between them.
5For more on this hypothesis, see Lave, “Speeding, Coordination and the
55-MPH Limit.” For a reply, see David T. Levy and Peter Asch “Speeding,
Coordination and 55-MPH Limit: Comment,” American Economic Review 79,
no. 4 (September 1989): 913–15; Fowles and Loeb, “Speeding, Coordination
and the 55-MPH Limit: Comment;” Donald Snyder, “Speeding, Coordination
and the 55-MPH Limit: Comment,” American Economic Review 79, no. 4
(September 1989): 922. For a rejoinder to his critics, see Charles Lave,
“Speeding, Coordination and the 55-MPH Limit: Reply,” American Economic
Review 79, no. 4 (September 1989): 926–36. Also see Nicholas J. Garber and
Ravi Gadirau, Speed Variance and Its Influence on Accidents (unpublished manuscript;
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, Washington, D.C., July 1988).