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Florida’s Highway Speed Limit May Increase To 75 MPH
November 13, 2013
A bipartisan measure filed Tuesday could shorten the more than 800-mile drive from Pensacola to Key West to less than half a day of travel.
Sens. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, and Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, proposed a bill (SB 392) that would allow a 75 mph speed limit on some highways and also boost speeds on other roads. Brandes said the idea is to adjust speed limits on interstates and certain rural highway to accurately reflect what most motorists are already driving.
“If people are driving within rates they’re comfortable with, we need to adjust the minimum and maximums speeds to what 85 percent of people are already driving,” Brandes said. “That’s what this bill would allow.”
The proposal would direct the state Department of Transportation to determine the safe minimum and maximum speed limits on all divided highways that have least four lanes.
The DOT would then be able to increase travel on the state’s “limited access highways” to 75 mph and raise the maximum posted limit on divided four-lane highways in sparsely populated rural areas from 65 mph to 70 mph. The DOT could also hike speeds by 5 mph, to 65 mph, on other roads they deem safe.
Florida’s highways have had a 70 mph maximum since 1996, the last time the speed limit was reviewed.
In a news release from the senators, they pointed to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration numbers that indicate the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled has consistently declined since 1996.
However, the proposal will face safety questions.
Raising speed limits above 70 mph, as 16 states have done for select roads since the national speed limit was lifted in 1995, has led to more deaths from speeding accidents as reaction times are reduced and the severity of injuries is made greater, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va.
“Higher speeds make crashes more likely because it takes longer to stop or slow down, and the crashes that happen are more likely to be deadly. It’s physics 101,” said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute.
A 2009 study by the American Journal of Public Health found a 3 percent increase in road fatalities attributed to higher speeds after the 1995 repeal of the national speed limit, with the increase growing to 9 percent on rural interstates with higher limits, Rader said.
More importantly for those questioning the increases, motorists have continued to go above the posted limits as other states have raised the minimum and maximum limits.
In the decade after the speed limit was raised in Nevada and New Mexico from 65 mph to 75 mph on rural interstates, the proportion of passenger vehicles exceeding 80 mph tripled in Nevada and nearly tripled in New Mexico, according to the Insurance Institute.
The Journal of Public Health study was conducted before Maine increased the speed limit to 75 mph for the northern end of Interstate 95 in 2011. The increase made that section of road — between Old Town and Houlton — the first to top 70 mph east of the Mississippi River.
Louisiana allows 75 mph on sections of Interstate 49, which is west of the Mississippi River.
Brandes admitted he had some early reservations about adjusting the limits, but the senators said they are comfortable allowing state engineers to determine if any increase is warranted.
“Allowing professionals to determine safe speeds based on the engineering standards of individual highways is simply common sense,” Clemens said in the news release. “A five mile per hour increase is unlikely to have an impact on road safety, but we’ll let the experts do their job.”
The proposal will be considered during the 2014 legislative session. Currently, there is no House sponsor for the proposal.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Comments
25 Responses to “Florida’s Highway Speed Limit May Increase To 75 MPH”
I do not like the alligator alley. (I-75 from us 27 to collier blvd) TOO LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Driving 10 mph over the speed limit and being passed all the time. Heck the reasoning is everyone is driving 10 over the limit so will raise the limit by 5 mph. Ya’ll needed to drive pedal to the floor and text and pretend your driving NASCAR!
I’m all for raising the speed limits everywhere. If you aren’t comfortable doing 75 then stay in the right hand lane and let us who are drive on! Stay save and put the pedal to the metal!
@Troubled, ” I am already being passed at 65mph, like I am sitting still”.
I used to share those same feelings that you are now experiencing, until I went and did something about it.
CONTEMPLATING:
“But here’s the reasoning:
845 miles / 70 mph = 12.07 hours (more than half a day)
845 miles / 75 mph = 11.27 hours (less than half a day)”
Of course, you’d have to fill up on the run to keep average speed the same as maximum speed or call time refuelling not part of travel time.
David for exciting times
REGARDING:
“In any relatively modern vehicle the danger is not the speed it is traveling, they are all safely capable of much faster speeds. The real danger is the speed difference,”
Nah, speed is still a major factor. People are nearly never killed while driving 45 mph. People are frequently killed driving faster than that because we can’t bring ourselves to go so slowly.
Further, kinetic energy increases with the square of the velocity.
75 versus 65 has about 33% more energy to kill those involved in a collision.
75 versus 55 has about has about 86% more energy.
75 Versus 45 has about 2.78 times as much energy.
And of course there is the reaction time.
If something goes wrong or if the driver is distracted, the car goes much farther if it is going much faster, making a collision more likely in the first place.
Give us robot cars which are always paying attention and ready to respond in milliseconds and the danger of faster driving would be offset by reduced likelihood of a collision in the first place.
Until then we are just deciding we don’t mind the extra deaths as long as we get to go faster.
David for better drivers
even if they are made of silicon
RE: Molino Jim
“I guess that means you could drive 75 to 80 on h’way 97 and pass on the hills and curves north of Dixie Feed Mill.”
It happens now on Hwy 97.
Interstate Hwy’s were designed for high speed travel. 4 lanes with a wide median, on and off ramps to merge and gradual curves. 75 MPH is a safe speed, or faster.
Hwy 29 or worse, Hwy 97 present blind hills, sharp curves, school bus stops, driveways, farm equipment and occasional livestock and deer. Not good places for high speed travel.
I don’t understand why vehicle crashes are called “accidents”. 99% of wrecks have a root cause directly related to the driver. Rarely is it the fault of the road, like a pot hole or the road surface failed. And rarely the fault of the vehicle, like a tire blow out or brake failure, though this was more common years ago.
Drivers either exceed there capabilities of controlling whatever they are driving, or distracted.
In any relatively modern vehicle the danger is not the speed it is traveling, they are all safely capable of much faster speeds. The real danger is the speed difference, if everyone is moving at basically the same speed, and of course safe distances, and only using the left lane to pass, it will usually be fine. The 15mph sudden slow down when 90% of the traffic is doing 80…. That causes trouble.
I guess that means you could drive 75 to 80 on h’way 97 and pass on the hills and curves north of Dixie Feed Mill.
I was under the impression years ago when the max speed limit was 55 MPH, it was in place to save on fuel economy.
Doesn’t fuel cost more now than it did back then? Or do the newer vehicles get better mileage at 75 instead of 55 MPH?
I probably should have edited the first line “A bipartisan measure filed Tuesday could shorten the more than 800-mile drive from Pensacola to Key West to less than half a day of travel”. (The story was written by our Tallahassee news service.)
But here’s the reasoning:
845 miles / 70 mph = 12.07 hours (more than half a day)
845 miles / 75 mph = 11.27 hours (less than half a day)
Raising the speed limit to 75 could shorten the 800+ mile trip from Pensacola to Key West to less than a half day Bogus!!!
Did anyone notice the first paragraph? 800 miles in less than half a day? I know what the author was trying to say…….but it didn’t come out right. If we can raise the speed limit 5 mph and I can drive 800 miles in less than a half day, I AM ALL FOR IT
“Safe and Prudent” West TX. has 85mph now. (look it up debunkers) Rain should be minus 10 of posted. 75 means set cruise to 80. Today, 76 to 84 is the norm for Fl. interstates. (google earth has real time speeds of cars/trucks where gps devices are enabled on board, phones etc) 80 in a BMW is loafing where it is ‘engine redlined” in a Geo metro. SPEED LIMIT does not mean you must match it. I personally like 65.
So do we really not have anything better to spend money on than to get the DOT to look at this and potentially spend a ton of money on new speed limit signs? Here’s an idea, get the road crews to finish the construction faster instead of paving then tearing up the road and paving it again. Let’s find something better to spend those funds on such as education. Just my opinion.
1. Just what we need, an excuse to go faster. Raise the limit to 75 and drivers will do 80… If it is not broken, don’t fix it…..
The speed limit out west in Wyoming or Utah is 80mph!!!!
You can get there safely too.
I would be ok with that but its funny how the FHP works the exits ramps on I110 and they pull over people as soon as they exit for say doing 50mph, what a waste of time that is. There are so many other people they can pull over doing stupid stuff like running red lights, texting, we see them everyday.
I am glad to see this coming! In Texas , on I-10 the speed limit is 80. there are less accidents when people are traveling. In California, it is a $190.00 fine for
talking on a cell phone the first time and doubles the second time and license
suspended the third.
It all comes down to being responsible, when you are out there and paying attention and watching what the other drivers are doing.
Thanks.
A lot of the old slow pokes that post here are not going to like this.
Great idea, all for it.
Most people are already speeding and by the number of accidents we are seeing I would say they probably don’t need to go any faster.
If they put speed limit up, it just gives people an excuse to go faster. I am already being passed at 65 mphs, like I am sitting still. I have watched people eat, text, put on make up, ECT… while doing 65. how many people will get hurt at new(maybe) speed limit or die?
Just what I think!!!!
If the speed limit does not exceed the design specifications of the roadway go for it.
If you do not feel comfortable with 75 you can always stay in the right lane.
I say leave it the way it is