Heard on TV the other night that Texas put the speed limit at 80 MPH on the wide open Highways. So guess I will slow down when driving on them deserted stretches.

 

Just consider it as you can now drive 10 mph faster than before.

but yea, I10, I30, and some others are being upped to 80 mph in the long stretches.

 

I wish we could clone Texas's state govt over here to New Mexico!

 

NM has a max speed limit of 75, thats close enough...
besides, in texas, its only specific spots that allow 80.

several states are still stuck at 65...
http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/laws.html

 

Yea, well there is that... Still, I like the renegade mentality. Our govt here is still very arcane, territorial, and often corrupt. Too much of Santa Ana's influence..

 

Like texas is much better....
Most Texans still think they are an independant republic.

 

hah..somebody sounds jealous

*location dually noted*

 

WE'RE NOT??????

Overall I disagree with it.....there should be more of it put at 80 mph....

From what I remember, 80 mph only exist between the NM line and Monahans on 20 and pecos on 10.....

Everyone knows that there is nothing after between el paso, and abline on 20 and san anatonio on 10....

 

yea, its west texas.
No, not jealous of texans, texas has several redeaming features, Just from working with them, the whole "everythings we have is bigger" and thus somehow better attitude gets old.

 

You think 75 in NM is bad...just try going into California towing anything. You are restricted to 55 mph on Interstates, etc!!! People fly past you wondering why your driving so dang slow...it's your California legislature not me! About the time I began wondering if the 55 towing speed limit was enforced I saw a CHP do a U-Turn and stop someone towing that was doing only 65.

If you ask me its a bad law to create such a blatant speed disparity between vehicles on an Interstate. Most cars are hitting 80 mph and I'm doing my towing speed limit of 55 mph. It forces more quickie lane changes from impatient drivers coming up from behind and just sets the stage for more accidents. Someone needs to do a state-by-state comparison of towing accidents versus California with their silly 55 mph towing on Interstates, etc. to see if it's really doing what they thought it would. I seriously doubt it!!!

 

there are some pretty nasty hills in there

 

Ok, ok, I give. We do have it good in many ways. Everyone has it good compared to the coasts.

 

like me?????

 

There are places where there isn't much of anything and speed limits of 70-75 do seem restrictive. and I on occasion do go slightly above them. and I can justify my actions almost every time !!! BUT,.,.,., when you think about the open range laws, the LARGE game animals (Elk, deer, sheep) that pop out of nowhere, the retiree pulling his camper or the poor sole that has car trouble on the other side of the hill or curve, some drunk going the wrong direction, (the list can go on) when you are doing 80+ mph you may have difficulty avoiding an accident with them. When I was a vol fireman for 17+ years I went to quite a few bad ones and saw what excessive speed can do, especially at night when a large animal with dark hair is standing in the middle of the road. It is a mess that most people don't want to clean up. At that speed, most people hit the brake pedal just before impact. Speed limits of 75 are just fine with me.

 

As the wide open speed limits increase I guess we are all going to need a set of "Roo-Guards" like they run on trucks in Australia. They are for the Kangaroo that jump up in front of of trucks barreling along the outback and such. They make our road armour bumpers and the like look like milk toast. Of course, there goes the mpg into the toilet.

I remember back in my younger days running some pretty tricked out cafe racer motorcycles at late night at 100+ mph on those wide open flat straight stretches of Texas hi-ways like I-10 West of SA. The Texas Hi-way dept. sure does build good smooth roads! I now consider myself very lucky to have never hit a deer or anything else and am grateful to have survived my 20's! Not very cool hitting anything in a truck, much less a motorcycle, at those speeds!

Hey, maybe I'll just have to put some of them thar little whistling critter scaring thing-a-ma-jigs on my RAM bumpers