Wall Street Journal: The Texas Transportation Commission voted in favor of the speed limit for a 41-mile piece of a toll road, State Highway 130. This section is scheduled to open this fall and is expected to provide a quicker connection between two of the state’s largest cities…
“When you increase speed limits, you have an increase in the severity of injuries,” said Lee Friedman, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has studied the correlation between speed limits and traffic fatalities. Many Texas motorists, he said, likely will exceed the new speed limit and travel more than 90 mph, faster than the average speeds on German autobahns.
Veronica Beyer, a spokeswoman for the commission, said the toll road has been designed and tested for high-speed travel. “Safety is our top priority,” she said, adding that the toll road “will help reduce congestion for the Austin-San Antonio corridor.”… (more)
EDITOR: 85 miles per hour isn’t that fast for European limited access highway traffic.
