Texas Opens Fastest US Highway With 85 MPH Limit 992
Hugh Pickens writes "Most highways in the U.S. top out at 75 mph, while some highways in rural West Texas and Utah have 80 mph speed limits. All that is about to change as Texas opens a stretch of highway with the highest speed limit in the country, giving eager drivers a chance to rip through a trip between two of the state's largest metropolitan areas at 85 mph for a 41-mile toll road between Austin and San Antonio. While some drivers will want to test their horsepower and radar detectors, others are asking if safety is taking a backseat. A 2009 report in the American Journal of Public Health found that more than 12,500 deaths were attributable to increases in speed limits on all kinds of roads and that rural highways showed a 9.1 percent increase in fatalities on roads where speed limits were raised. 'If you're looking at an 85 mph speed limit, we could possibly see drivers going 95 up to 100 miles per hour,' says Sandra Helin, president of the Southwestern Insurance Information Service. 'When you get to those speeds, your accidents are going to be a lot worse. You're going to have a lot more fatalities.'"
Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
It's in texas.
So. There's that.
Here's a safety tip: (Score:5, Funny)
With a speed limit of 10mph, you can virtually eliminate car related deaths on highways!
Re:Here's a safety tip: (Score:5, Funny)
With a speed limit of 10mph, you can virtually eliminate car related deaths on highways!
You're forgetting something. At 10 mph, driving through Texas would kill people either from boredom or old age.
Re:It's an Effing Toll Road (Score:0, Funny)
This. A million times this. I am SO sick and tired of people citing risk as a reason NOT to do something. I control my own body and my own mind and I and ONLY I should be the one to decide what I do and when I do it. If I want to drive 150 mph on a fucking toll highway in my car [motortopia.com], why shouldn't I? I am a way better driver than anyone else on the road, and even with 'excessive' speed I can avoid accidents just by using COMMON SENSE (which no one else seems to have any more).
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
It's in texas.
So. There's that.
It's Darwinism in action, but don't expect them to put that in the school books.
Please raise it 88 MPH. I have a Delorean. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Here's a safety tip: (Score:3, Funny)
To get to the absurd velocity you suggest we're going to have to change the gearing on that NASA crawler-transporter a few stories down.
Darwinian Self Sacrifice! (Score:2, Funny)
Bring it on! Anything to reduce the number of electoral votes Texas owns!
Kidding, kidding.
Sort of.
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking of Darwinism... how many of those vehicles are pickup trucks with people sitting the bed?
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah but... (Score:2, Funny)
"It's Darwinism in action, but don't expect them to put that in the school books"
More like Calvinism. Armenianism doesn't really apply.
So long as you're settled up with God, speed is not a problem. At least in Texas.YMMV.
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking of Darwinism... how many of those vehicles are pickup trucks with people sitting the bed?
In some parts of Texas that's known as Air Conditioning
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking of Darwinism... how many of those vehicles are pickup trucks with people sitting the bed?
Was that suppose to read:
-OR-
because it could really go either way.
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
Darwinism only affects the population if the dead driver has not yet reproduced. Since the minimum age for obtaining a driver's license is generally greater than the median breeding age in rural Texas, the increased speed limit may not have any impact on Darwinism's effects on the population there.