File photo. (Thinkstock)
Can't drive 55? … 65? … 75? How about 85?
A stretch of Texas highway may soon be the first road in the country to have a posted 85 mph speed limit.
The Texas Department of Transportation
said this week that part of a toll road being built between Austin and
San Antonio will be tested to see if motorists can safely push it to 85.
"It was designed under extremely high design parameters," Darren McDaniel, the state's Speed Management Director told WOAI radio.
Texas and Utah are the only
states with 80-mph limits on some roadways. But Texas turned heads when
lawmakers gave the green light to go to 85 if needed.
"The higher the speed limit, the
more accidents there are, the more injuries and the more deaths," Jerry
Johns, president of the Southwest Insurance Information Institute, told
Reuters last year.
Eighty-five mph
would be the second-highest posted speed limit in the world, according
to the European auto rental firm Rhino Car Hire, Reuters reported. Some
roads in Poland reportedly allow speeds of about 86 mph.
Texas hopes the faster toll road
will help relieve one of the country's most congested interstates,
between Austin and San Antonio.
"It's in a straight, flat area,"
TxDOT spokesman Mark Cross told Yahoo. "Safety is a priority. We want to
make sure people understand that."
For years Montana had 'Prudent Safe Speed' as the limit! :-) And if you're NOT doing 85 out there today, you're stuck in the right lane. Just sayin...
ReplyDeleteHere in GA especially on the Atlanta Perimeter, if you ain't going 85...you better be in the right lane...
ReplyDelete