Who invented the speed limit and why?

Answer 1

It is not clear which limit of speed the question is asking. If the question is referring to the maximum speed of light, even this can vary depending upon the situation, but in a vaccum, where light travels fastest, that speed is usually written at c. Of course, if the question is not referring to the maximum light of speed, then one must assume the question refers to matters of traffic. Before the advent of automobiles there were all ready speed limits in place for conveyance of wagons, carts or sleighs. In 1652, for example, in the city of New Amsterdam, which would later become New York City, decreed a law that prohibited any wagon, cart or sleigh from being rode or driven at a gallop and the drivers or conductors of said contraptions were required to walk along the lead horses with in the city.

The first maximum speed limit of 10 miles per hour, (16km/h), was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1861. In 1901 the State of Connecticut introduced the first United States state law regulating motor vehicles. The maximum speed limit in the cities was set at 12 mph and 15 mph outside the cities. Why these speed limits are put in place has much to do with basic physics. The resulting kinetic energy of a collision involving a motor vehicle is proportional to the speed at impact. Any fatality becomes more probable when the speed at impact, which is correlated to the fourth power of the speed difference, rises much faster than kinetic energy. This depends on the type of collision which is not always the same speed of travel. It also had a lot to do with not scaring all the horses that were extant at the time.