65mph is plenty fast. going beyond 70/75 is diminishing returns in the safety of other drivers, not to mention worse greenhouse emissions.

a crash at 80+ is so much worse than one at 65. and American highways are not the Autobahn. different design and engineering.

The energy (damage) of a crash is proportional to the square of the speed. Therefore a crash at 80 units per hour has over 1 and a half times the amount of energy, and thus one and a half times the damage, as one at 65 units per hour.

If anything, American highways are wider and straighter than the Autobahn.

But they are less well maintained and with fewer safety features, built to a lower cost per mile.

Being straighter is actually bad for safety (highway hypnosis).

You’ll find long stretches of interstates with no guard rails as well as state highways with direct intersections with rural roads.

Sometimes the speed limit is set to lower the accident rate on a particular piece of road. Like those 30 MPH curve warnings on a mountain road. Even in straight shots the amount of traffic could make 80 MPH significantly more dangerous than 70 MPH.

That limit is completely reasonable on the NJ turnpike especially considering that the cultural norm is to go 5-10 mph over. American speed limits are determined with the expectation of drivers going over. In other countries the limit is more literal.

No cop is going to ticket you for going 70-75 on the turnpike.

> No cop is going to ticket you for going 70-75 on the turnpike

Unless it's the end of the month and they have to meet quota and blah blah blah... Australia seems to get away with ruthlessly enforcing ridiculously low speed limits. The correct speed limit, by your own comment, seems to be 75 (120 km/h) at least.

In my town you don't get a ticket unless you are going 10mph over, and this is on surface streets. They might be stricter in the 20mph school zones though.