You Don't Have To Ride 55!

YOU DON’T HAVE TO RIDE 55!

SPEED LIMIT WFO

CONGRESS MAY HAVE heeded the need for speed by passing the National Highway System Designation Act (Roundup, December, 1995), but it was President Clinton's signature that turned the act into a law last November. The act appropriates $30 million for maintaining and developing off-road trails, removes helmet-law sanctions and repeals-yes, repeals-the 55-mph National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL) instituted during the Great Energy Crisis of 1973.

“It’s been a long, frustrating battle.” says National Motorists Association (NMA) President Jim Baxter, “but we all believed change was inevitable. It was just a matter of how long we would have to suffer through this law. You can’t stop progress with a

piece of legislation, and we’re hopeful the states will move quickly to put more reasonable speed limits in place. I know nine states will change almost immediately, and there are about 30 more that will follow close on their heels.”

The nine states Baxter alludes to are California, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. These states can revert to the speed limits that were legal prior to the NMSL because their respective legislatures treated the act as a temporary provision rather than as a law.

The remaining 41 states can alter speed limits one of two ways: 1) through administrative means, wherein the governor or Department of Transportation merely designates a

speed limit; or 2) through legislative means, which can only occur when a state’s legislature is in session. For some this could be a matter of weeks, for others, years.

All 50 states, however, must rely on their respective legislatures to convene before repealing any helmet laws. Baxter, for one, doesn’t anticipate much change on this front. “I don’t think the federal legislation will have a dramatic effect on helmet laws,” he says.

Mike Osborn, chairman of ABATE of California’s Political Action Committee, disagrees. “Every state in the union is contemplating repeal,” he says. “The act is going to have a tremendous effect.”

ABATE of California President Paul Lax adds that he expects California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida to repeal helmet laws within the year, predicting, “I think that eventually every state west of the Mississippi will get rid of helmet laws.”

Wendy F. Black