What are the speed limits in the US ? The last time I drove there there was a universal limit of 55 mph, I think, but I expect you've raised it since then ! Is there a variation from state to state or is it fixed federally ?

The standard speed limit is still 55, however, in many states they have raised the highway speed limits to 65 and 70, especially on the long stretches of highway between towns. Love cruising along at 70!

In the US, the federal government gets laws passed in states that it doesn't have the authority to pass federally by making conditions on highway funding. Until relatively recently, one of those conditions was a maximum speed limit of 55. A few states (Massachusetts comes to mind), had higher speed limits anyway. When the federal government removed that condition, almost all speed limits went up. For some states, the speed limit was completely removed on highways for a while, and replaced with signs about using your best judgment, or something like that. That was discovered not to be a feasible law to enforce, so speed limits have now been set in those states as well. The typical speed limit is now 65-75. This is, of course, the limit on interstate highways and the like. State roads typically have lower speed limits and within towns the speed limits are lower still.

Thanks for that. The first thing that I noticed about 55 mph was that great 'slabs' of traffic all cruised at that speed abreast even over very wide highways, often with drivers apparently on auto-pilot ; cruise control devices may have played a part . It was eerie because 55 is no speed at all for a road like that. No wonder visitors from the States reported fear or apprehension when on European roads. In those days there were no limits at all on major German or French highways;I can remember being overtaken by cars doing 140mph at night; France at least now has a limit at about 75mph ( so far as I'm aware there is still no overall city speed limit in Paris!)