GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Recall the last time you drove down I-96 between Grand Rapids and Lansing, or any freeway between metro areas for that matter. You, a law-abiding citizen, set your cruise control at 70 mph for the drive ahead.

As the city faded in your rearview mirror, your fellow motorists started zipping right by at speeds clearly in excess of 70 mph. And it persisted, you noticed, all the way through the ubiquitous, rolling farmlands around you, until you arrived.

Those speed demons, you thought, created such dangerous driving conditions, you could just spit. But, according to one Michigan State Police traffic expert, you’d be wrong.

You, the 70-mph driver, were actually the more unsafe driver.

It is a common scenario that Lt. Gary Megge with MSP's Traffic Services Section said should prompt lawmakers to reexamine Michigan's freeway speed limits, especially along rural stretches. Legislators, Megge said, should consider amending the Michigan Vehicle Code to bump the maximum past 70 mph for passenger vehicles, and put the limit for commercial trucks on par with that level.

But before we get to Megge's points, some background: On Friday, we noticed the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, was looking at raising the speed limit on a 41-mile stretch of toll road near Austin to 85 mph.

Eighty-five mph? Good grief, right? But Texas already boasts some of the highest freeway speeds in the nation. It shares that distinction with Utah, where freeway speeds in some areas can be as high as 80 mph. Last year, Texas lawmakers upped the limit on some freeway stretches to 85 mph.

So we thought: What about Michigan? Should we up our speed limits? Everyone drives 75 mph anyway, if not more, right?

Expecting to be shot down and told that 70 mph is the norm despite our hunch, we called Megge on Monday for some insight. He had some surprising answers to our questions.

Safe speeds

According to literature from the MSP's Office of Highway Safety Planning, safe and realistic speed limits are set by examining the speed at which 85 percent of drivers are cruising.

The aptly named “85th percentile speed,” Megge tells us, has proven to be a sound method of setting freeway speed limits across Michigan.

And guess what, Michigan? Your fellow motorists overwhelmingly are not obeying the 70 mph limit, at least on rural stretches of Michigan’s interstates.

“On nearly every one, if not every one of our rural freeways in the state of Michigan, the 85th percentile speeds are nearly 75 to 85,” Megge said.

Because of this, he added, law-abiding citizens might actually be more in danger than motorists driving five to 10 mph faster than the posted limit on rural freeways.

“If you are driving 70 mph on a rural interstate, your chance of being involved in a crash is much greater than people driving at or near the 85th percentile speed,” Megge said.

It is the drivers who drive, say, 5 mph under or 15 mph to 20 mph over the posted limit who are creating dangerous driving conditions, he explained.

“People who are driving closer to what is more like the 90th percentile speed, ... they tend to be driving at a speed that best matches the driving conditions, the driving environment, and they tend to be the safest drivers,” Megge said.

“The myth out there that a speed limit actually controls travel speeds is exactly that. It’s a myth,” he added. “The driving environment is what dictates how fast a vast majority of the speed folks drive.”

Still, public opinion, Megge pointed out, tends to center on the maxim that speed kills.

“The vast majority of people want to subscribe to the terms or term that ‘slower is safer,’ but that’s not necessarily the case,” Megge said. “Slower is safer when we’re talking about hazardous road conditions, presence of pedestrians. When we’re presented with certain hazards on the road, then yes, that is true.”

Case by case

None of this is to say Megge advocates flagrant disregard for the posted speed limits on Michigan’s freeways. Rather, it is evidence, Megge said, that the state lawmakers who set the speed limit should acknowledge that all stretches of freeway are not the same.

“The problem comes in when we have these blanket regulations, so to speak, where it says all freeways have a maximum of 70,” Megge explained.

There are marked differences in driver comfort and safe driving practices on, say, rural freeways and those that run near cities.

“That may work great for a percentage of the freeway,” he added. “For instance, on I-496 through downtown Lansing, 70 is a very safe and realistic speed limit. It’s set very close to the engineering studies.”

What’s more, Megge said, freeways in Michigan and elsewhere are by far are the safest thoroughfares for drivers.

“Crashes related to speed or excessive speed, they’re really a small percentage of the overall crash issues we have in Michigan,” Megge said.

The biggest issues are distracted drivers, drug- and alcohol-impaired drivers, drivers not wearing seat belts and urban and rural intersections where drivers fail to yield the right-of-way, he said.

“Our mantra is it’s ‘belts, booze and intersections,’” Megge said. “That’s where we have our issues.”

Evidence to support

The I-496 example Megge cited is one of several successful speed limit increases the MSP has worked on in conjunction with the Michigan Department of Transportation.

I-496 through downtown Lansing was, for years, 55 mph before the limit was upped to 70 mph a couple years ago.

"We’ve been slowly trying to correct or eliminate those 55 freeway limits that are just not practical; they’re not safe, they’re not reasonable," Megge said. "It was a nightmare when the speed limit was 55" on I-496.

Another example is Gerald R. Ford Freeway, or I-196, through downtown Grand Rapids, which now bears a 65 mph limit after years of being 55 mph, Megge said. U.S. 131 through the city was given a bump to 70 mph then.

Such changes are not taken lightly, Megge said, and are recommended after ample data is gathered and studied. Public Act 85 of 2006 scrubbed Michigan's mandate that urban freeway speeds not exceed 55 mph, allowing the increases near Michigan downtowns.

And, in each of multiple cases within the past few years, the increased speed limits have lent themselves to smoother traffic flow, fewer rush hour clogs and, in many cases, fewer crashes, Megge said.

"Generally traffic is just smoother, more efficient and we simply do not see an increase in

travel speeds," he said. "We don't see an increase in crashes when we see a speed limit in an upward direction."

Even for trucks

Michigan’s neighbor, Ohio, has set a 65 mph limit on most of its freeways, but recently upped limits on the Ohio Turnpike, a rural stretch of freeway, to 70 mph for all vehicles, including commercial trucks, Megge said.

Megge said the impact of that 70 mph limit for all vehicles has been to reduce crashes and allow for more comfortable driving conditions, when compared to the 65 mph freeways.

Michigan statute bans commercial trucks from traveling more than 60 mph on some freeways, Megge said, but more study is needed to see whether an increase there is also appropriate.

“When, for instance, we have passenger cars going 65 and commercial vehicles going 55, you just create a lot of conflicts,” Megge said. “You just create a lot of passing maneuvers, lane changes, tailgating, and those things can create driving hazards.”

Bottom line

There are sections of rural freeway throughout Michigan, Megge said, where the “compliance rate” of motorists actually driving near or at 70 mph is in the single digits.

That means “less than 10 percent of the people on the road are driving near or at the posted speed limits,” Megge said. “We have many many many speed limits around the state that are not correct, and there’s a variety of reasons for that, too many to go into.”

So, in Megge’s opinion, should Michigan follow Texas’s example, and assess speed limits for urban and rural freeways on a case by case basis?

“Absolutely,” he said.

“Everybody wants to think if we lower a speed limit, we can lower travel speeds, and that if we raise or increase the speed limit, people will go faster,” Megge said.

“We simply do not see that upward shift in travel speeds. … We all choose our travel speed based on our ability, based on how comfortable are we in our given vehicle, the driving environment. We simply choose that safe reasonable speed because we don’t want to crash.”

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

Zane McMillin may be reached through email and Twitter.