To the editor:

I spent last week in central Nebraska and I noticed that the roads are in far better condition than roads here in Iowa and undivided highway speed limits are 65 miles per hour. Nebraskans also pay less in gasoline and diesel taxes than we do in Iowa.

Before the oil embargo of the early ’70s when the federal government blackmailed all the states to lower their speed limits to 55 miles an hour, daytime speed limits on Iowa roads were 70 miles per hour- and that’s when cars had bias tires, drum brakes, very few people wore seat belts, and air bags did not exist.

The Iowa legislature points to other states when they want to raise fees and taxes in order to be “comparable” so why then do we still have a 55 mile speed limit when our neighbors have higher limits? Minnesota, Missouri and every state west of Iowa has higher speed limits. I would argue that the reason Iowa has kept speed limits at 55 is that it gives local and state entities a means to bolster their bottom lines with revenue squeezed from taxpayers simply trying to get to work.

Jim Hirschberg

Lohrville