Safe at Any Speed?

In an effort to cut down on gasoline consumption, as well as traffic accidents, European governments are trying anew to enforce the speed limits imposed on the Continent's highways in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. The response of motorists has been, well, wrathful. In West Germany, strident opposition greeted a modest proposal to place an 81-m.p.h. (130 km) limit on the currently unrestricted superhighways. In Italy, tempestuous public resistance to restrictions ended in a historic compromise involving an 87-m.p.h. limit on autostradas for Maseratis and other high-powered cars, with less powerful vehicles subject to a sliding scale of lower speeds.

Where governments have legislated maximum speeds, enforcement has frequently proved difficult. On expressways in Portugal (75 m.p.h.) and The Netherlands (62 m.p.h.) the new limits have been consistently flouted. Only Norway has been successful in keeping its motorists on a low 56-m.p.h. mark, sometimes by suspending violators' licenses on the spot.

More resistance to speed limits is likely, as researchers examine some surprising consequences of the new slowdowns. Thus far studies have shown that in France and West Germany fewer traffic fatalities occur on high-speed superhighways than on restricted side roads. Moreover, experts now concede that the gas saving realized by speed limits amounts at best to less than 1% of a country's total energy consumption.

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