Racing forward to today and the speeding ticket has become part of modern life. In the U. The true figure is much higher but there is no data available for motorists who immediately pay a fine, only for those who decide to fight or ignore the initial charge. The speed camera has revolutionized how quickly and how many drivers are caught and fined every year, and it's one of the automotive world's biggest ironies that the Gatso Speed Camera was invented by a racing driver.
Dutch rally driver Maurice Gatsonides was also a dab hand at inventing and was trying to find a way of recording his cornering speed. In creating the Gatso camera, he also created what some believe is a license for authorities to print money. Still, if you want to avoid a speeding fine but are completely unable to resist the need for speed, even in there are still some roads left where speed is limited solely by your car's mechanical capabilities.
The most famous is the German Autobahn where, when all six lanes are open, there are no limits, and the Isle of Man. The home of the TT races, it still has no official limit when the roads are not in urban areas.
However, the fact that none of these roads are multi-lane highways will help curb some drivers' excesses. In Australia's Northern Territory there is also a km stretch of the Stuart Highway that has no official speed limit and takes drivers to either Alice Springs or Barrow Creek. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter delving into climate science and life on a changing planet. Every year over 41 million speeding tickets are issued in the U.
Related Stories Ontario legislators debating school bus cameras but govt not ready to commit. State Rep. Robert Woodruff originally submitted a bill to Connecticut's General Assembly that set a motor-vehicles speed limit of 8 mph within city limits and a full 12 mph on country highways. As passed, the law upped those limits a few miles per hour, but it specified that a driver must reduce his speed when meeting or passing a horse-drawn vehicle, and come to a complete stop if needed to avoid frightening the horses.
How widely -- or how well -- the law was enforced is a puzzle. Speedometers were among the latest bells and whistles for the automotive first adopters of the day.
English mathematician Charles Babbage, he of the difference engine , had invented a railway speedometer in the midth century. The first known auto manufactured with a speedometer was the curved-dash Oldsmobile , from the very year of the Connecticut speed limit.
The plight of speed limits was similar in the UK. For the most part, speed regulations were widely ignored, and actually even abolished in Rising fuel prices in the early s resulted in many US states adopting speed limit laws in an effort to save money and resources. In , President Nixon agreed to a national speed limit of 55 mph for all states. This law actually had a beneficial effect on traffic fatality rates, which dropped from 4.
By the s, the oil-crisis had ended, and the cost of fuel became less of an issue. The national speed limit was increased to 65 mph on rural interstates in Not everyone was happy with the new national limit though. Since the early days of automobiles, there had been a debate around speed limits that boiled down to a case of freedom vs. Montana and Nevada, for example, have historically opposed speed limit laws. In , the maximum national speed limit was abolished.
Control of speed limit setting was given back to the individual states. Many would raise their speed limits to 70 mph or higher. Whether for safety, fuel efficiency, or the environment, most places around the world today have some sort of speed regulations. While the limits might change from time to time, one things has remained the same — drive too fast and you might get a fine.
So slow down, and be careful out there! It is certainly one of the stranger named events in history. No, the XYZ Affair is not a romantic novel. It is not the […].
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