States Should Consider Modest Increases in Speed Limits

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

In Kentucky, I'm not sure why cops are so gung-ho on writing traffic violations. The police agencies are the very last on the totem pole to get the revenues from the tickets. The state gets its cut, then the courts, and finally the cops, no matter which agency issues the citation. And that cut used to only be $10 or so a ticket.

Perhaps it's a case of the state telling all the police agencies to write X. tickets per month/year or lose (some) state funding?  I admittedly don't know how it works, but that's a thought that's always crossed my mind.

[hbelkins]

Not sure if that's how it works, but the feds have a quota when they pay for patrols. A friend of mine who recently retired as a police detective spent several years as a patrolman. We are from the same hometown but coincidentally had both moved to another town. I ran into him one day when I was off work and we chatted for a few minutes, but then he had to excuse himself. He said he was working federal overtime and had to write a certain number of tickets. When I headed out of town a few minutes later, sure enough, I saw he had pulled someone over.

[cpzilliacus]

And the European limits can be misleading too. Our highest is only 70, I think only some Scandinavian countries are lower.

you're right; I am pretty sure Norway only goes up to 110km/h (66mph), as I drove some of their highest-quality toll roads in the Oslo area, and that was the highest I saw.

Finland and Sweden currently allow maximum 120 k/h on some motorways, usually "modern" and rural ones.

Urban motorways are usually 100 k/h, but can be as low as 70 k/h (the frequently congested 1960's-vintage Essingeleden (E4/E20) through Stockholm is 70).

Finland used to post its rural motorways at 130 k/h, but nowdays the maximum is only 120 (in my opinion, 130 was appropriate on Finnish motorways, at least in the warm months of the year).

Sweden used to have a maximum of 110 k/h but raised it on certain motorways (again, for "modern" segments in rural areas) to 120 k/h.