填空题

Put the pedal to the metal if you’re driving in Montana. That state is about to abandon the little loved 65 mph speed limit and, indeed, any limit at all. The state’s regulators have wanted to do this for years, but until now were prevented by a federal law passed 22 years ago.
The end came on November 28th, when a new federal highway bill was signed into law by President Clinton. The president admitted misgivings, perhaps because his own father had been killed in a road accident, but it was clear that a veto would have been most unpopular. The old speed limit was "about the most disregarded" law in America, notes Csaba Csere, editor of Car Driver magazine. A recent study, he said, found that the average speed on interstate highways in Michigan was 74 mph. Until this week, the official limit was 55 mph on urban freeways and 65 mph on rural expressways.
Out west, where a motorist may travel 100 miles without seeing another car, nine states will immediately jump to at least 70 mph, and Nevada, Wyoming and Kansas will go to 75 mph. In Montana it is any speed you like in the daytime. Farther east, where traffic is denser and the weather less reliable, some states are likely to keep to 55 to 65 mph.
The national speed limit was passed in 1973 when the first oil crisis had almost trebled fuel prices. In 1974, Congress ordered a 50 mph limit, which was raised to 55 when the oil crisis had passed. But by then safety enthusiasts were arguing that lower speed limits would sharply reduce road deaths, and they continued to argue their case even as Mr. Clinton signed the bill. The change is "equivalent to a death sentence to thousands of Americans", says Joan Claybrook, a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.