increased travel, 2/3 from increased speed) while the full repeal in 1995 led to a further 15% increase in fatalities. In contrast, researchers at University of California Transportation Science Center argue that the interstates in question are only part of the equation, one also must account for traffic moving off the relatively more dangerous country roads and onto the relatively safer interstates. Accounting for this they find that raising rural speed limits to caused a 3.4% to 5.1% decrease in fatalities. Fuel savings In 1998, the Transportation Research Board footnoted an estimate that the NMSL reduced fuel consumption by 0.2 to 1.0 percent. Rural interstates, the roads most visibly affected by the NMSL, accounted for 9.5% of the U.S.’s vehicle-miles-traveled in 1973, but such free-flowing roads typically provide more fuel-efficient travel than conventional roads. Opposition and noncompliance Despite federal compliance standards mandated by Congress that no more than 50 percent of free-flowing traffic on 55 mph-posted highways exceed 55 mph from 1981 onwards, which required up to a 10 percent reduction in federal highway funding for states in noncompliance, by the 1980s traffic surveys showed the NMSL was widely violated: The speed limit had very low compliance, contrary to the commonly accepted engineering practice that says that the speed limit should criminalize only the fastest 15% of drivers: From April to June 1982, speed was monitored on New York's Interstate highways, and an 83% noncompliance rate was found despite extreme penalties ranging from $100 (1982 dollars, equal to $ today) or 30 days jail on a first offense to $500 (1982 dollars, equal to $ today), up to 180 days in jail, and a six-month driver's license revocation upon third conviction in 18 months. In the fourth quarter of 1988, 85% of drivers violated the speed limits on Connecticut rural interstates. In 1985, the Texas's State Department of Highways and Public Transportation surveyed motorist speeds at 101 locations on six types of urban and rural roads. It found that 82.2% of motorists violated the speed limit on rural interstates, 67.2% violated speed limits on urban interstates, and 61.6% violated speed limits on all roads. Western states began to reduce fines in the 1980s, effectively minimizing the impact of the 55 mph (90 km/h) limit: Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada replaced traditional speeding fines with $5–$15 energy wasting fines as long as drivers did not exceed the speed limit in effect