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AP reports that Montana lawmakers are drafting bills that would raise the daytime speed limit on Montana interstate highways from 75 to 80 and possibly as high as 85 mph. “I just think our roads are engineered well, and technology is such we can drive those roads safely,” says Art Wittich noting that Utah, Wyoming and Idaho have raised their speed limits above 75, and they haven't had any problems and drivers on German autobahns average about 84 mph. State Senator Scott Sales says he spent seven months working in the Bakken oil patch, driving back and forth to Bozeman regularly. “If I could drive 85 mph on the interstate, it would save an hour,” says Sales. “Eighty-five would be fine with me."
A few years ago Texas opened a 40 mile stretch on part of a toll road called the Pickle Parkway between Austin and San Antonio. The tolled bypass was supposed to help relieve the bottleneck around Austin but the highway was built so far to the east that practically nobody used it. In desperation, the state raised the toll road speed limit to 85 mph, the fastest in the nation. "The idea was that drivers could drop the top, drop the hammer, crank the music and fly right past Austin," says Wade Goodyn. "It's a beautiful, wide-open highway — but it's empty, and the builders are nearly bankrupt."
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 02 2014, @03:20PM
I liked "reasonable and prudent," myself. If I was doing a flat, straight stretch between Lewistown and Great Falls, I opened it up. Going up the Swan to the Flathead valley, I slowed down. You drove the speed that made sense. Of course, you never really got to go very fast for very long because there are just too darn many motor homes and semis on the road in Montana. The biggest benefit I saw was the absence of stress from having to look over your shoulder for the highway patrol.
Out-of-staters driving too fast on winter roads, especially when they're used to the salted roads back East, do present a hazard to Western drivers who know that sort of thing is suicidal. But in the end those people tend to stick to the Interstate, which can more or less handle those speeds, or they Darwin award themselves out of our company on the smaller roads. It kind of reminds me of the Canadian biker who took a thousand-foot header off Going-to-the-Sun highway in Glacier National Park in the 80's. He was drunk and going 65mph on a road that's iffy at 25. No one else hurt. Gene pool improved.
Washington DC delenda est.