Is 85 Miles Per Hour, the New Speed Limit in Texas?
What is the fastest speed limit you have seen in Texas? Most would answer 70 mph, but that will likely be changing very soon. If you haven't heard, the Texas Transportation Commission has entered into an agreement with the operators of a 41 mile stretch of toll road between Austin and Seguin (near San Antonio), that will have a speed limit of 85 mph, which is the fastest in Texas and the US. State Highway 130 is planned to be open this fall and is run by private operators who negotiated a contract in 2007 offering the state $100 million for approving an 85 mph speed limit and $67 million for an 80 mph speed limit.
This agreement has caused quite a stir amongst safety advocates who feel the State is ignoring known safety issues purely for financial gain and favors the opinion that increasing speeds is proven to increase fatalities. In a recent post on this topic, George Kennedy of The Auto Blog said the following:
…the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been vocal in its disapproval of the move, though there is not much that it can do. According to Russ Rader, spokesman for IIHS, “The research is clear that when speed limits go up, fatalities go up.” In support of this notion, a 2009 report from the American Journal of Public Health found that between 1995 and 2005, more than 12,500 deaths had connection with increased speed limits on American roads.
Another point being made by safety watch dog groups is concerning the idea that many drivers regularly drive 10-15 mph higher than the posted limits, which could have vehicles traveling at speeds in excess of 100 mph on this new road, which compounds the point being made by the IIHS. Another interesting point worth noting in this debate is that the state also coincidentally lowered the speed limit from 65 to 55 for the free highway that runs alongside this new toll road, effectively encouraging drivers to use the new faster option.
Responding to the concerns on this issue, Texas transportation commision representative Victoria Beyer was quoted in a Wall Street Journal Blog saying,
“Safety is our top priority”, and mentioning that the new road has been properly tested for this new high speed limit.
So who is right? My belief is that the state should be evaluating each stretch of road and determining the safest maximum speed that they believe travelers can drive, taking into acount the latest data on how speed effects the probability of crashes and casualties. If that is 85mph, fine, but if that is truly the case, as Ms. Beyer would like for us to believe, then I would think we should be seeing a large number of highways across Texas changing to 85 as well. I have a hard time believing that there is only one 41 mile stretch of highway in the state that can safely travel at this new speed.
Seems to me that there might be a greater need for drivers to complete a Texas driver safety course if this becomes the new norm.
What do you think?
More Reading
- Texas toll road approved for 85–MPH speed limit
- Why Texas' Insanely Fast 85 MPH Speed Limit Isn't A Big Deal
