Speeding from the Libertarian perspective.

The Trouble With Speed Limits by Thomas Luongo

The speed limit is set by a utilizing a number of considerations, only a few of which take into consideration the actual behavior of the people driving on the roads. The 85th percentile rule, which, in effect would set the speed limit at one standard deviation above the mean speed traveled on the road, is usually invoked by traffic engineers as the right limit, but, in many cases that data is ignored for political reasons, be it resistance to raising the speed limit, existing stautory limits or, as I suspect, the desire by law enforcement agencies to provide increased revenue for themselves directly or indirectly.

In fact, the speed limits are invariably set at between 8 and 12 mph lower than the 85th percentile, according to a 2003 report of the Transportation Research Board of National Academics.

All I have to say to that is, "Cui Bono?"

We all know the answer to that question, of course. It is precisely those who enforce that arbitrary limit who benefit from it. Up until recently, Highway(men) Police in Florida benefitted directly, getting a portion of the ticket revenue as bonus money, now the revenue just goes to the county in which the ticket was issued. If you don't think speeding tickets are big business then you haven't been paying attention. I knew the situation was bad, but I had no idea that cops were now dressing themselves up as hobos to hide their radar guns, setting up 'speeding stings' and the like in residential zones. Yet another reason not to live in a burbclave.

...You see it's a full-fledged crime against the state to drive on an expired license in Florida now. My birthday passed that week and I hadn't re-upped my $15 privilege to use the roads that I paid for in the first place. I had to plead with them not to impound my car.

For being 3 days late with a $15 dollar payment (which I never received a bill for) their response was to take my $20,000 automobile away from me. Somehow the punishment doesn't fit the crime. The best part was their (a 2nd one showed up to do berate me, I guess) insistence that all of this was my fault, a classic example of the State blaming the customer for using the services that they provide. Moreover, Florida's Turnpike is a pay-per-use road, on top of the taxes that I pay in the first place.

...The issue of driver's licensure is one that was enacted originally to help create an account of those who do horrible things while at the wheel of their automobiles. Regardless of whether this was a good implementation for that desired service, it is important to understand its roots. The system has morphed from one designed to facilitate the investigation of crimes committed while driving, like running people over or running into other cars, to one which conflates the enforcement of rules put in place to prevent these things from happening (regardless of their real effects) with them actually happening. If I have to hear the phrase, "Cops write tickets to save lives," one more time I'm going to puke on my keyboard.