How do speed limits and safety records in other countries stack up alongside the United States?
Germany does not even have speed limits on most autobahns, for example, and longstanding claims point to the safety of these roads. Yet the death rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled on U.S. interstate highways has generally been lower than the rate on autobahns. Fatality rates have been declining in both countries for many years, but the German rate had historically been much higher than the U.S. rate. For example, there were 1.24 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled on U.S. interstate highways in 1975, compared with 2.75 deaths per 100 million miles on German autobahns. During 1984-86, U.S. and German rates were similar, but when speed limits on rural interstates were raised to 65 mph beginning in 1987, the U.S. interstate death rate became higher than the rate on the autobahn. After German reunification, autobahn fatality rates fluctuated but declined to 0.94 in 1992 while the U.S. rate reached an all-time low of 0.85. Eighty percent of autobahns do not have speed li
