Texas testing 85 MPH speed limit on highway segment

(AP)HOUSTON - Transportation officials in Texas are testing a new 41-mile segment of highway to see whether it would be safe to post the state's first 85 mph speed limit, setting it on a path to have the highest posted speed limit in the U.S.

The Texas Department of Transportation is considering the move on a portion of state Highway 130 that would run north-south between Austin and Seguin, a town just east of San Antonio, spokesman Mark Cross said Thursday.

The agency is looking at the toll road's topography, checking what speed most drivers are traveling on existing parts of the highway and ensuring the access points and cross-sections would still be safe with an 85 mph speed limit, Cross said.

If Texas decides to go this route, that segment of road would have the highest posted speed limit in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In 2011, the Texas Legislature upped the maximum speed limit from 80 mph to 85 mph, but only for future highways.

Right now, only sparsely populated areas of West Texas have roads with 80 mph speed limits. Some roads in Utah also have 80 mph speed limits, but most highways in the U.S. top out at 75 mph. There are no longer roads in the United States that have no speed limit, like Germany's autobahn.

The idea behind increasing the speed limit is to relieve congestion on state roads.

[ryan_marshall]

Where I live everyone drives to work at 90Mph... I totally forgot there was a speed limit until I saw this article.

[David_Tampa]

First thing from Texas that made any sense lately. BTW it is not how fast you go.... it is how quickly you are able to obtain that speed from a dead stop.

Ya see I drive a nasty Cummins so I have that part handled. Sorry PowerStrokers and Duramaxers.

[David_Tampa]

Slow in the fast lane huh welllll we had that covered...... slow traffic MUST keep right.... but the king REPUBLICAN JEB BUSH vetoed it. Said he didn't want to encourage speeding.

[Raptorsmasher]

On the open highway, I travel between 85 to 95 miles per hour on a regular basis. To date, I've had not had any speeding tickets. The greatest threat to driving fast is the jerk who believes he or she has the right to drive slow in the fast lane, because you can't tell him or her what to do.

[formerlyluvnut]

Agreed.

[ArleneVella]

Speeding ******** got no right to complain. People driving maximum legal speed in the fast lane are just right. I've seen to many jerks like you already.

[RichZubaty]

Insane.

[chroniccomplainer]

This will never pass. Highway 130 is brand new and built to eliminate congestion on IH-35 in downtown Austin. The average speed is 75 anyway.

[formerlyluvnut]

Well why wouldn't it pass then?

[KnowerseekerReturns]

Yeeeee Hawwww!!!

[Ourdoc1]

Yeah, gene pool cleansing!

[lloydbest1]

Great, just what we need to encourage fuel conservation.

[parisdakar]

Ugh, here we go with the speed limit debate again. A couple of horrific accidents and they'll lower it.

[ArleneVella]

Let's take care of guns first, then bother with speed limits. A society that has its citizens armed up as if the war was coming, is a sick society.