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On this day in 1974 Richard Nixon signed into law that mandated lowering the speed limit to 55 mph. Now, the reason for this was to make the country preserve gasoline in the middle of an OPEC embargo (which it did), but they also sold the bill to us as a march towards safety. After all, speed is a factor in most automobile accidents, right?
Not really. After the law's repeal in 1995 Montana decided that it just wouldn't bother with any non-urban speed limits at all. Traffic fatalities didn't rise. Hell, traffic fatalities across the country didn't even drop when the law went into place. As much as it pains us to admit it, Sammy Haggar was right about the 55 mph speed limit.
That doesn't mean we're going to listen to him crow about it. Here are our top 10 songs about fast driving.
Keep the Houston Press Free... Since we started the Houston Press, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Houston, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Houston with no paywalls.
