Texas Considers 85 MPH Speed Limit

It's the Texas Autobahn, y'all:

As lead singer of Van Halen, Sammy Hagar once crooned, "I can't drive 55." To show how far things have come, now some Texans aren't happy about only driving 80 miles per hour. The Legislature is considering raising the maximum speed limit to 85 mph, highest in the country.

The Texas House of Representatives has approved a bill that would raise the speed limit to 85 mph on some highways. The bill now goes to the state Senate, the Austin Statesman reports.

We suspect Sammy, shown at right back in 1995 when California raised its speed limit from 55 mph to 65 mph, would be pleased.

Texas currently has more than 520 miles of interstate highways where the speed limit is 80 mph, according to the Associated Press. The bill would allow the Texas Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit on certain roads or lanes after engineering and traffic studies are conducted. The 85-mph maximum would likely be permitted on rural roads with long sightlines.

You want to know how well an 85 mph speed limit would work? Just drive I-5 in California between the 99 in the south and the 205 in the north. It's 236 miles of almost straight, flat road that I've driven twice since Friday. The posted speed limit is 70, but the speed limit for people who don't want to get run over is 80. I ran those stretches of road between 80 and 85 for most of the trip in both directions. There's nothing to it. People routinely go 80 out there.

Texas has lots of roads like that, and although the insurance companies won't like it, it's not unsafe as long as the driver and vehicle are up to it.