Utah Considers Joining 80 MPH Speed Limit Club
80MPH limit unveiled in Texas. Texas may lose the distinction of being the
state with the highest legal speed limit in the US. With the blessing of the
Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), state Representative James A
Dunnigan (R-Taylorsville) introduced legislation that would test the effects
of higher speed limits on a stretch of Interstate 15.
The state House Business and Labor Committee unanimously approved Dunnigan's
bill on Wednesday.
"The engineering studies that we conduct would determine what the appropriate
speed would be," a UDOT Government Affairs Director Linda Hull explained on
Wednesday. "Looking at it from the outside we think it might be eighty miles
per hour."
The test would consider the 85th percentile speed -- the actual speed at which
the majority of traffic is moving in safety -- along with ten other factors to
determine whether to increase the I-15 limit from 75 MPH to 80 or more. UDOT
would report back on the safety effects of the change to legislators who would
determine whether limits could be raised elsewhere in the state.
A similar bill that would have raised the speed limit to 80 MPH last year was
amended before becoming law. Instead of setting a top speed of 80, that law
mandates that all speed limits be set according to engineering studies.
The same law also requires slower vehicles in the far left-hand lane to yield
when a faster vehicle approaches from behind. Texas officials approved an 80
MPH limit on I-10 and I-20 in 2006
Ed Van Scoy
#128 B/GT Corvette
SCTA-BNI/Gear Grinder
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