I can't drive 75? Speed limit in portion of Nevada raised to 80 MPH

[Dan Druff]

http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2017/05/...een-light.html




Nevada finally enacted its first 80 MPH speed limit, 18 months after the ability to do so was passed into law.

You are probably unlikely to ever drive on this stretch of road -- which begins 40 miles east of Reno on I-80, and heads toward Utah, ending near the city of Winnemuca.

However, this opens the door to other possible 80 MPH speed limit in Nevada, including part of I-15 between Las Vegas and the California state line.

About a year ago, they raised the speed limit from 70 to 75 MPH on part of that stretch of road. Additionally, the speed limit is 75 on I-15 once you get north of Vegas, and is also 75 for most of the drive between Las Vegas and Laughlin.

California's max speed remains at 70.

South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Utah have 80 MPH speed limits in part of those states. A privately-owned toll road in Texas allows an 85 MPH speed limit.

Interestingly the Nevada Highway Patrol initially opposed this speed limit increase, but came around to support it after doing a study which showed that the average speed was around 80 before this change.

Justification for raising the speed limit also came from the claim that roads are safer when vehicles are driving closer to the same speed as each other, thus eliminating the need for passing maneuvers. Raising the speed limit might bump slower drivers, who were going under 80 due to fear of tickets, up to speed with typical traffic.

I will agree that driving in desolate areas is much safer. When driving between Reno and Vegas in 2008, I found that the roads were so wide open, empty, and free of obstructions that I completed most of the drive going 95-100 MPH, and finished it in 5.5 hours, despite having to slow down to 25 MPH in the town of Fallon.

As recently as 1994, the national speed limit in the US was just 55 MPH, which was enacted in the 1970s during fuel shortages, and also due to safety issues.

However, vehicles today are far safer and far more capable of being driven safely at higher speeds, so that law was repealed in 1995, opening the door to higher speed limits.

Sammy Hagar was notoriously unhappy about the 55 speed limit in the 1980s.

[MrTickle]

I drove to Essen on the A31 Autobahn in Germany and I have to say it was incredibly safe. Maybe German drivers are better than most but I felt no speed limit was very safe and spent most of it around 140km/h anyway (although going really fast for a bit was good for the novelty factor). 80mph limit in Nevada for long stretches of nothing seems completely reasonable.

[gut]

everything west of the mississippi until like 100 miles of the coast should be 80+

Not counting mountain passes and shit obv.