I love Texas
Posted on 10/20/2010 5:57:35 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A Virginia highway official is recommending the state raise the speed limit on most interstates to 70 mph by year’s end.
That would include nearly all of Interstate 81 in Virginia, except for major urban areas including the stretch between Christiansburg and Roanoke, and parts of I-64, I-66, I-85 and I-95.
Connie Sorrell, chief of system operations at the Virginia Department of Transportation, said this afternoon that she will brief the Commonwealth Transportation Board on her recommendation Wednesday.
Sorrell said she recommends the higher limit for “areas that we felt could be operated safety at 70 miles per hour.”
Sorrell said Virginia State Police representatives were consulted and “were comfortable with the recommendations.”
From freeway to free for all in one fell swoop.
You could always move to west Texas.
I love Texas
Yes, most States are way behind the times!
Revenue comes first - and the slowest of the bunch always gets the ticket...Speed up fellow!
¡YEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAA!
It’s already a “free for all”. lol
You been on I-81 lately? The only other interstate that I know of that’s worse is I-40 going through NC.
>> I-81 Ain’t fun South of Roanoke either <<
Yeah, it can be bad at times. But it has never discombobulated me the way I’ve been discombobulated on the Lex-Roanoke stretch. In fact, when traveling the DC-TN route nowadays, I often detour via Lynchburg or Beckley just to avoid the worst part of I-81 — even though the detour may cost me an hour or two.
Why don’t they carry their data past 55? Most highways are above 55, and increases from 55 to 65 to 75 came at the same time as large reductions in traffic fatalities.
Why don’t they normalize their data by miles driven? I cover a whole lot more distance at 65mph than I do at 35mph. Accordingly, the number of deaths should go up with the distance/time at the speed.
Finally is driving 60mph more risky than driving 20mph? Of course, but most of us decide that the return of spending spending a third less time in the trip is worth the incremental increase in risk. Life has a lot of trade offs and unless you hide in your room, risk of dying somewhere is in the trade off for doing things.
Worthless data is more like junkfood for though. Garbage in, garbage out.
Kentucky went to 70mph a year or so ago.
Wont that cut into speeding ticket revenue?
Certainly not. Most are traveling over the limit now. With a 70 mph posted limit, there will be those that push that limit as always. 75 or 80; it’s just a few miles over the limit so I’ll push it a bit. If VA posted it to 80 mph, there would be those that would justify 85 mph because it was just over the limit. And so it goes, until one of those fools decides by common practice to do so in a dense fog and smacks the back end of a 62 mph truck like mine.
I just hate it when I have to spray the back of my trailer to remove the flesh and broken glass. Delays my trip don’t ya know.
I live in Idaho. We measure distance in hours. Speed limit here is 75. My Aunt got a ticket for doing the speed limit. Impeding traffic...
People who fret about highway speed and related rates of injury and death never take into account the time by motorists. When the speed limit for my local commute was raised to 70 mph, I saved an hour a month. The speed limit change gave me one more day per year.
If we apply some of the simple valuation techniques that are used to justify government projects, the value of the minutes shaved are immense. It is time to take this economic fact into account when setting speed limits.
In NJ, they have stretches that are 65 instead of 55, but they double the fine so they still can collect the same revenue.
I-40 through the smokies is absolutely wonderful. I remember pushing it through there with a slightly-lifted Explorer several years ago - it was a blast. Would have loved to have had a sports car that day!
There’s still quite a few old timer 3speed pickups that wont do much over 60MPH. Give it another decade and I don’t see why we couldn’t have 85MPH speed limits. But if and when they do, they better jack up the minimum to 55. Doing 85-90 and coming up on some jackass doing 40 is NOT safe.
“Bout freaking time !”
Amen to that. Going to DC from my home in AL, the TN-VA state line is halfway there. It is ridiculous for most of I-81 to have a 65 mph speed limit.
Lots of places in upstate NY and PA need to trash the 65 mph limit, too.
You mean they’re actually done with the road construction to make this possible?!
Do you drive for Swift, J.B. Hunt, Western Express, or USA Truck?
What pisses me off more than anything is getting behind those fat people on mopeds. I haven’t yet seen any on the Interstates, but I’ve noticed them increasingly over the past couple of years on the other roads. You usually see them going half the speed limit with a line of 50 cars behind them on 2 lane roads(they NEVER get off the road either). I believe it’s because of the down economy.
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