Massachusetts politician can't drive 65

A Massachusetts state congressman can't drive 65, and wants the speed limit in his state raised to 70 mph.

Republican state Rep. Dan Winslow has sponsored a bill to increase the maximum speed limit by 5 mph on sections of Interstate 91 and Interstate 95 as well as the Massachusetts Turnpike.

“Our roads are designed for 70. Our cars are designed for faster than 65,” Winslow said while testifying at a hearing in support of the bill, according to the State House News Service.

By pushing to boost the speed limit in Massachusetts, Winslow is bucking a trend in New England and the Northeast, where a 65-mph maximum prevails. New Hampshire has a maximum 70-mph speed limit, while northern parts of Maine are set at 75 mph.

“My hope is that we can at least join the majority of states by having the maximum speed be 70 rather than 65,” he added.

More than 20 states already have a 70-mph maximum speed limit, including most of the Midwest and the South, along with California and Washington state. All other Western and Great Plains states have a 75-mph maximum speed limit, with the exception of some roads in Utah and Nevada, where it’s 80 mph.

Parts of West Texas also have an 80 mph speed limit, while a 41-mile section of a toll road between Austin and San Antonio in the central part of the state has the nation's highest posted speed limit for a public road: 85 mph. The toll road, financed and built by the Spanish company Cintra to the tune of $1.3 billion, extends a portion of state highway that already has an 80-mph speed limit. This small stretch of high-speed highway promises to shorten commutes between the two cities – for a relatively high price.

While raising speed limits is always a controversial subject and safety advocates say it increases accidents, Winslow acknowledged it’s a law that most people knowingly break, whether they simply want to get where they’re going faster or for an illicit thrill. “By having a law that’s on the books that’s not being enforced, we actually incur sort of a lawless approach to driving in Massachusetts,” he said, “which makes it all the more fun."

[Source: Boston Globe]

 

Source: MSN