“Rose Hammond pushed authorities for years to lower the 55 mph speed limit on a two-lane road that passes her assisted living community, a church, two schools and a busy park that hosts numerous youth sports leagues.

“What are you waiting for, somebody to get killed?” the 85-year-old chided officials in northwest Ohio. From AP

From a feminist urbanist lens, the 85% rule (road’s posted speed should be tied to the 15th-fastest vehicle out of every 100 traveling it in free-flowing traffic, rounded to the nearest 5 mph increment) exemplifies how technical standards institutionalize gender and spatial inequity in addition to environmental harm. It privileges capitalism’s hunger for speed—overwhelmingly prioritizing MARKET efficiency —while greatly diminishing the accessibility of people if they are not traveling solo by car. It also marginalizes those whose sole objective isn’t profit, which is most people. Economic man is a sociopath. He is nightmarish fiction. By codifying the speed of the fastest 15% as normative, danger is disproportionately foisted upon those traveling by foot, bicycle, or transit, which includes bugs, animals etc. The rule entrenches a patriarchal, auto asphyxiation logic that valorizes output over collective well-being.

https://apnews.com/article/speed-limits-85-rule-safety-ohio-0bcc07bd9bd0c9cae2cffc11512cd95f