Texas has the highest speed limits in the country, but one state lawmaker is arguing for the nighttime speed limits to be raised. State Representative Gary Elkins (R-Houston) is arguing that the nighttime speed limit reductions should be done away with and that 24 hour speed limits should apply. Rather than a reduced nighttime speed limit, the daytime speed limit would apply throughout.
Elkins believes that the familiar black and white speed signs indicating nighttime limits are a relic which Texas should consign to history. He cites advances in vehicle technology, including halogen lighting which means vehicles can drive at high speeds during the night as well as they can during the day. In Texas the speed limit on most rural roads is 75 miles an hour – the highest in the country, however between El Paso County and Kerr County, a stretch of I-10 has an 80 miles an hour speed limit which is the fastest speed limit anywhere in the US.
The speed limit would continue to be set by municipal and metropolitan authorities in heavily populated areas, which includes the power to set limits on highways. This would not change the speed limits on most of the urban roads and highways in the state.
Elkins’ new proposals are cost neutral in that they do not cost the State any money to implement. He proposes that as the nighttime speed limit signs age out, the State need not replace them. In fact, he claims that the revision to a 24 hour speed limit regime will save the State some money in not having to replace aging signs to begin with. In addition, drivers will be able to get around the State faster and more efficiently than being compelled to artificially reduce speed when their vehicles are more than capable of driving safely.
The big news for truckers is that Elkins is also proposing that the truck speed limit, which is currently set at a maximum of 60 miles an hour, should also be scrapped. Whether truckers will be taking their trucks up to the new proposed speed limits is doubtful given fuel efficiency becomes a serious factor for truckers once their rigs are rolling above 65 miles an hour. Some argue that raising the speed limit is also going to raise the fatalities from accidents (using information provided by the Federal Highway Administration).
The Bill will be heard in the forthcoming legislative session and may become law with a couple of months if passed.
Comments on this entry are closed.