I Can Drive 85-In Texas

The Texas legislature is working on bills that, if passed, could raise the speed limit on some Texas highways to 85 miles per hour. It would only affect the parts of the current stretches of Texas highway that are currently 80 miles an hour, but that alone is over 500 miles of roadway.

Utah also has speed limits reaching 80 and a bunch of western states hit 75 like Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Idaho, and Colorado, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Montana actually had no speed limit at one point, or to be more precise (?) the speed limit was whatever was "Safe And Prudent". Ok so not very precise. Technically that meant that while there wasn't a posted limit and you could almost go as fast as you want, cops could also ticket you if they thought you were going too fast, according to what they thought was too fast. They recalled the whole thing in 1999 and its now 75 for most of the state.

So I'm totally for the new speed limits, but if we're going to do that, we need to consider safety. And I'm not talking about the safety of the drivers going 85, even though that obviously has to come into play. I'm talking more about the drivers who would refuse to drive that fast and therefore make it slightly more dangerous for those of us who do (the majority of Texans prefer to go as fast, or faster, than the law will allow). I've been on the part of I-10 going into San Antonio from El Paso that hits 80 and its mostly 2 lane. Plus half of the drivers still won't go over 70 which makes it kinda dangerous for the ones who now have to continually slow to 70 or slower, thanks minivans, just so we don't rear end somebody at full speed. If you're going to raise the speed limit, you also should raise the minimum speed limit, or widen more of the roadway to give the faster drivers the opportunity to safely go around the slower ones.

It looks as if this is going to pass both houses, and probably pretty quickly, so if you're going to be traveling our beautiful state over the summer look for the new signs. But hey, keep an eye out and NEVER TEXT AND DRIVE! Happy motoring happy campers!