Posted on 06/27/2005 8:37:42 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
Drivers in Texas, Iowa, and Indiana will enjoy higher speed limits next month as legislation raising the top speeds on rural roads takes effect.
On Friday, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) signed HB 2257 into law making 80 MPH the maximum allowable speed in the state. Rural portions of I-10 and I-20 will enjoy the new top speed, while other rural roads could see the limit rise to 75 MPH. Both the state House and Senate adopted the legislation without opposition last month.
On July 1, a law signed by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (D) creating a 70 MPH speed limit goes into effect. This new limit better reflects the actual speed of cars on rural highways which averages 69.8 MPH according to sensors embedded into the pavement.
In May, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) signed SB 217 into law raising the maximum limit from 65 MPH to 70 MPH in areas with less than 50,000 population. The law also raises the limit for trucks from 60 to 65 MPH, and gives a 10 MPH boost to several roads currently posted at 55 MPH. The state will begin placing the higher-limit signs on July 5.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewspaper.com ...
For that reason, I've been taking 231 instead of the interstate....Have noticed that the trucks actually speed up when they hit Indy (either on 65 or 465) then slow back down in the rural areas....Must be common knowledge among the truckers that they're safe in "race town".
The speed limit at the Arkansas/Texas border drops 10 mph at night. It is no darker in Arkansas, nor are the critters any smaller.
I'm sure you called me an idiot in a positive way.
Great ... now everyone will be pushing 100. They're already driving 80 and getting by with it. Raising the limit will also raise the margin by which the officers let speeders get away with.
That's always the assumption. However, a leading cause of accidents is road fatigue and falling asleep at the wheel, and studies have shown that higher speed limits reduce that. So it ain't as simple as you might believe.
People are already doing 70 in a 55 here in Indianapolis. That just means they'll do 100.
Or, state troopers decided it made more sense to spend their finite resources on nabbing those who are speeding excessively, thus collecting the higher fines.
The same thing will happen with this new limit but, not immediately. At first, there won't be many people who increase their actual speed by 5 MPH; so, troopers will not "allow" for the usual 9 MPH cushion. If they did, they wouldn't be writing enough tickets. As the driving public gets used to and adjusts to the new limit, nearly all will return to our previous patterns where enough of us are going 10 MPH over the limit to keep the state troopers busy writing tickets.
The Iowa State Patrol has already told the media the new speed limit will be more strictly enforced. This is why. It's either that, or sit on their thumbs until people get used to the new limit.
Truckers agree-Pennsylvania is the worst:
HIGHWAY REPORT CARD
392 OVERDRIVE READERS responded to the Highway Report Card survey during fall 2004, giving results with a 4.9 percent margin of error. Almost 85 percent of respondents were owner-operators. More than 75 percent of respondents had more than 11 years in the trucking industry. More than 31 percent drive all 48 states.
Because each ranking is based on separate questions, and because states that have a large share of truck traffic tend to get the most votes, a state can show up on two lists of seemingly opposite results.
Best Roads
1. Texas
2. Florida
3. Tennessee
4. Georgia
5. Ohio
Worst Roads
1. Pennsylvania
2. Louisiana
3. Missouri
4. Arkansas
5. Michigan
Most Improved
1. Arkansas
2. Pennsylvania
3. Georgia
4. Louisiana
5. Nebraska
Least available Overnight Parking
1. New Jersey
2. California
3. Virginia
4. Connecticut
5. New York
Most available Overnight Parking
1. Texas
2. Indiana
3. Pennsylvania
4. Kentucky
5. Tennessee
Worst Rest Stops
1. Texas
2. Virginia
3. California
4. Louisiana
5. New Jersey
Best Rest Stops
1-2. Texas, Florida (tie)
3. Georgia
4. Ohio
5. Indiana
Worst Automobile Drivers
1. California
2. New York
3. Florida
4. New Jersey
5. Illinois
Best Automobile Drivers
1. Texas
2. California
3. Wyoming
4. Indiana
5. Pennsylvania
Worst Truck Stops
1. New Jersey
2. New York
3. California
4. Massachusetts
5. Illinois
Best Truck Stops
1. Texas
2. Iowa
3. Nebraska
4. Georgia
5. Ohio
Toughest On Truck Inspections
1. California
2. Ohio
3. Pennsylvania
4. Missouri
5. Maryland
Weakest On Truck Inspections
1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. South Carolina
5. Nevada
My guess is that the 80 m.p.h. speed limit will be applied to where the speed limit is now 75: mostly in Far West Texas on I-10 and I-20.
Yikes! This means Mr. TheLeftLaneIsMine is going to be driving 100 and will try to convince the rest of us that that is OK. I don't think I like this.
Agreed. Most people in urban areas waste many gallons sitting stopped in traffic! This will save me my personal time and money in the long run.
Highway gas mileage stickers are based on an EPA test conducted on what amounts to a treadmill at an average speed of 48mph. There is no air resistance and unrealistic rolling resistance. Accessories such as AC are off. Acceleration is limited to about 3mph per second, or 0-60 in 18 seconds. To try and account for these inadequacies, results are then tweaked downwards by an arbitrary 22% irrespective of model.
The test is so divorced from actual driving as to be absolutely meaningless to the consumer, and the occasional instances where EPA numbers match real driving are purely coincidental.
Actually, unless my speedometer is way off, they are averating 75 mph on 380 right now on sunday afternoon. I also noticed that during weekdays it's even faster.
Driving across Texas at 65 mph is not a trip. It's a career.
Very outdated information from the 70's compiled from biased testing. In the 70's a car doing 60 mph was turning around 3500 rpm's or higher. Today my SUV will do 75 mph without going over 2100 rpm's.
During the summer I drive to work from the lake quite often. Traffic in the fast lane moves consistently at 75 to 80 mph and see almost no unsafe driving incidents. About once a week someone will hang in the fast lane doing 68 mph and all hell breaks loose. You see more unsafe driving incidents in 10 minutes than you see in a week at the higher speeds.
Recent studies show that the safest traffic pattern on non-urban highways is when the lanes move at the speed which 80% or more of the drivers want to travel at. Traveling at other rates of speed increase tension, increase reaction time and promote compulsive actions.
No there are not.
I drive Dallas to Shreveport about once a month, but I use US 80 out to MP 500 and pick up I-20 there. The limit has been 60 or 65 on the US 80 and even part of I-20 for several years. I rarely see more than one vehicle pulled over anywhere.
I drive a 1995 Toyota 4WD pickup, 3 liter V-6, manual 5-speed, 113,000 miles. For years I drove 70-75 on this run, but since gas passed $2, on the last couple of trips I tried to hold 65, hard to do exactly without cruise control, but I'm now actually seeing 20 mpg rather than 18.5. I have replaced the cat converter with an aftermarket one that probably causes less back pressure, and it also got me through the Dallas area emissions inspection with a much better score than last year's squeak-by with the original stock one.
My trip now takes me 15 minutes longer, but if I start 15 minutes earlier, it works out the same, right?
65 at night.
I was passed at night on I-10 between Beaumont and Houston doing 85, and the speed limit at night was 70 (75 in day). 100+mph driving will become more and more commonplace. Not that I have a problem doing so safely, but too many other drivers (regardless of age) are not as compotent behind the wheel as I am...
Modern hell? My 83 Cutlass has a '73 455 in it with an overdrive tranmsission and on the highway I get 26 mpg going 75-80mph.. It drops to 20-22 mpg in the 60-65 mph range. Of course I don't have steep rear gears (2.21 open rear).
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