TX may increase speed limit to 85 MPH

[OriginalWheelman]

This is how we should build highways.

[MinisterofDOOM]

This is a good thing. I can't believe I'm on an automobile enthusiast website and hearing people complaining about increased speed limits. I feel like putting my head through a wall.

Oh mah gawd...people with different opinions from your own. That wall of yours have any free space?

It's not the wall you should be asking about. It's my poor head.

[sbird1]

This is a good thing. I can't believe I'm on an automobile enthusiast website and hearing people complaining about increased speed limits. I feel like putting my head through a wall.

The same car-enthusiast website where the F1 thread has 6 unique posters after 3 weeks...

[Encryptshun]

This is a good thing. I can't believe I'm on an automobile enthusiast website and hearing people complaining about increased speed limits. I feel like putting my head through a wall.

The same car-enthusiast website where the F1 thread has 6 unique posters after 3 weeks...

I don't watch F1 for the same reason I don't wear a European man-thong -- it makes me feel fat.

[sbird1]

Haha. So that makes one person with a good reason...

I mean, last year's manufacturers champs and this years front runner (Red Bull Racing) is partnered with Infiniti. I would think that would encourage a little more viewers from this forum.

[JTR]

Worst time to raise the speed limit, but that Texas for you.

Fuel economy and cost are the WORST REASONS IMAGINABLE for picking a speed limit.

We've got 80mph speed limits on stretches of I15 in utah. People do 85. I have commuted hundreds of miles at 85 in an '04 Max and guess what my fuel economy was? 31MPG. THIRTY f**king ONE. Stop WHINING. I want to get where I'm going faster. If you want to hide from the world because you're afraid of a couple MPG or a dollar or two max every fillup, be my guest, but don't get in MY way. You get in the right lane and do 65. I'll be in the left lane enjoying higher posted speed limits.

And for everyone bitching about safety:
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/29/2941.asp

Stop whining. STOP WHINING.

This is a good thing. I can't believe I'm on an automobile enthusiast website and hearing people complaining about increased speed limits. I feel like putting my head through a wall.

Relax champ.

When fuel consumption goes up, fuel prices go up. When fuel prices go up, cost of EVERYTHING goes up. Considering the state on the economy, prices goin up on anything is the last thing you need.

Go ahead speed, no one is stopping you, but do try to things of critically for a change.

[dgms240]

This is how we should build highways.

Agreed!! I've had the same sort of idea for a while now.
Better designed(and built) roads and tiered licensing, while not very feasible would do wonders for this country!
I've never had so much road rage or seen so many stupid f*ck!n people texting or doing god knows what else at 85-90mph(speed limits are 55-65) since moving to Atlanta 2 yrs ago!!

[dgms240]

also, IMO anyone over the age of 50-60 should def be required to take their driving test again.

[Jesda]

Most accidents happen at intersections near home.

Highways are generally very, very safe, especially in rural Texas where THERE IS NOTHING.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

also, IMO anyone over the age of 50-60 should def be required to take their driving test again.

I have said for years that once you turn 65 you should be required to retake a driving exam every year until either you die or voluntarily/involuntarily turn in your license.

MoD - I'm not whining about the speed limit increase, the roads they are talking about qualifying for such an increase are in the middle of no where and are miles and miles of wide open flat road surface and people are already going 85 + there anyway. People go at least that fast here on the east coast on the PA and NJ Turnpikes and all up and down I95.

As far as the tiered license feasibility is considered it's been in practice in most states for years now. You can no longer walk into your local DMV on your 16th Bday and get your license like we used to be able to do, now you get a multi-stage permit until your 18 and then you have a probationary period until your license is in full effect (no time or passenger constraints).

I'm just wondering what the TXSP will use for Speed Enforcement vehicles on these roads. I haven't been to West Tx in years and at that time they were using 5.0 Mustangs and Corvette powered Camaro's. 5 mph speed difference is a lot when you are traveling at those speeds especially if they have to catch you from a dead stop.

[bundy26]

MoD - I'm not whining about the speed limit increase, the roads they are talking about qualifying for such an increase are in the middle of no where and are miles and miles of wide open flat road surface and people are already going 85 + there anyway. People go at least that fast here on the east coast on the PA and NJ Turnpikes and all up and down I95.

I drive 80-85mph every day and most people drive the same speed on rt80 and there is no problem at all.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

I guess this answers my question about what they would use for speed interdiction...

http://www.policemag.com/Blog/Vehicles/ ... l-Car.aspx





Apparently it's been tuned to over 400 HP and has a top speed of 165mph, I'd say that would work pretty well. Departments can also get the same car with all the same features in a solid unmarked black paint job. You'd never see it coming, especially since the light bars are hidden in the grill and in the rear shelf. There's even lights in the center garnish of the tail lights...

[bundy26]

NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEE but I don't want to see them behind me

[PapaSmurf2k3]

I'm just wondering what the TXSP will use for Speed Enforcement

As much as I hate to say it, speed cameras would be the best option... again, following Europe. You don't have to staff someone out in the middle of freaking nowhere to sit in an expensive vehicle, waiting for people to speed (which @ 85MPH speed limit, could be quite rare).

The problem in Texas is that people will just shoot the cameras out

IMO, there NEEDS to be a tiered highway system. Like MOD said, some vehicles get great efficiency at 80, but a lot don't. The people that (A)Get great efficiency or (B) don't give a crap, can travel in the fast lane (with a designated speed range). Everyone else can travel in lane B with a slower speed range. I realize that is how it is supposed to work now, but its rarely designated, or enforced.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKOJJzMD ... r_embedded[/youtube]

[nissangirl74]

Texas is a huge state and there is a whole lot of nothing in most of it. When traveling I40 across the northern part of the state, it bisects only ONE town, Amarillo. When traveling I10 across the southern border, it only hits two major cities, San Antonio and Houston. High speeds are just a given out there, as they are here. People are going to speed, regardless if it is legal or not. They do it now, they've always done it. Swapping the numbers on the speed limit sign isn't going to make a bit of difference. Make the driver's license test harder to get, make the penalties for driving without one more severe, and start holding the person responsible for f*** up (when it happens) accountable for their actions.

[ThatGuyRoger]

Texas is a huge state and there is a whole lot of nothing in most of it.

This is true, lol. Especially driving out of San Antonio, any major city besides Austin is a 3+ hr drive.

[OriginalWheelman]

A trucker friend of mine has been stopped by a plane in W Texas.

[srellim234]

Having made the drive roundtrip from CA to FL five times in recent years, I'm fine with whatever they do out there. The law doesn't say you HAVE to go that fast , just above the minimum they set. I actually like the fact that the speed limit is lower at night in Texas. Much safer that way.

I have always just set the cruise control at the speed closest to the speed limit that I feel safe at. One or two mph over at most. In the Versa I'm not particularly comfortable above 75 so I'd just set the cruise control at that and stay to the right.

The little extra time my friends have saved by tearing up the road has usually been offset by my arriving nice and relaxed. If others want to go faster, let them. I'll stay in the right lane and out of the way.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

I'm just wondering what the TXSP will use for Speed Enforcement

As much as I hate to say it, speed cameras would be the best option... again, following Europe. You don't have to staff someone out in the middle of freaking nowhere to sit in an expensive vehicle, waiting for people to speed (which @ 85MPH speed limit, could be quite rare).

The problem in Texas is that people will just shoot the cameras out

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKOJJzMD ... r_embedded[/youtube]

NJ is one of those states that has the whole pass left, drive right laws. I've had a sheriff's deputy do that to me on the AC expressway coming back from a service call. One second he wasn't there, the next he was in my a** with lights and sirens on. Scared the isht out of me, I couldn't get over because there was a truck beside me, but once I got over the deputy flew by and got off at the first exit lights and sirens off. Had it been an emergency he would have gone around me, but afterward I figured he was just pushing me out of the left lane.

[zacmil]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKOJJzMD ... r_embedded[/youtube]

That cop is my new hero!

I don't think I've ever seen that enforced in Kentucky. Heck... my county has like the only 2 lane stretch of I-75 in the state and tractor trailers tend to just travel in the passing lane doing like 1 or 2 mph more than the guy in the slow lane. It's bad enough that if I'm in a hurry, I'll take the state highways to the next county up and get on the interstate there.