63Corvette

85 mph! Texas to open toll highway with fastest speed limit in nation
By Vignesh Ramachandran
The claim that "everything is bigger in Texas" will likely gain further credence later this year, when the speed limit on a stretch of toll road between Austin and San Antonio hits 85 miles per hour — the highest limit in the country.
Constructions crews on Wednesday began posting 85-mph speed limit signs along a pending section of toll road on Texas' State Highway 130. This 41-mile stretch of highway, which will open for traffic by Nov. 11, is on the east side of Austin and heads southwest toward San Antonio.
Chris Lippincott, an official with the State Highway 130 Concession Co., said that the Texas Department of Transportation has determined that this area is safe to travel at 85 mph

KNSBrakes

Packing my bags!

CHJ In Virginia

Marvelous !! There are many stretches of modern interstates that can easily and safely support speed limits of 85 MPH. The next thing is to require better driver education and enforce lane discipline !

Corvee

YEEEHIII!!!!!!! This will get you to COTA quick - Damn proud to live in the Republic of Texas!!!

Bills Z06

,

waddisme

I feel safer at 150+ with 3 cars around me at VIR than on any interstate.

Glennm27

I agree. We'll have to see how the texting drivers make out at 85mph+ when they drop a tire off the road or cross the centerline.
I know everyone that reads this section of Corvetteforum can easily handle 85+ but there are many that will have problems.

Sorry to sound negative but this is from a father who lost his daughter to a careless driver.

John Shiels

people can't drive 55 never mind 85

KNSBrakes

Fixed

VatorMan

I've always wished that we could have a separate roadway that resembled the autobahn. It would require stringent training and a special drivers license to drive it.

95jersey

Personally, I like driving around 70mph. I can relax, I have plenty of time to make corrections. After 11 years of track driving, I have no interest in doing 85 on public streets. I'd rather sit back and just be safe.

I also agree with waddisme, I feel WAY safer only 2 feet from another car's bumper at 140mph on a race track, than doing 85 on the highway.

skyavonee

I agree with the sentiment. I typically like to do 75-80 on the freeway when possible. But that's in my Z06. In my girlfriend's Toyota, I feel a lot safer doing 65-70. There are a lot of vehicles and drivers that have no business doing 85 on public roads when other people are in the vicinity.

BrianCunningham

Need to move back there

crease-guard

Well one reason it would work is that there is nobody, and I mean nobody on this road. I drove it back in May ( makes getting to San Antonio a piece of cake) and it was a posted 80 then. Did 90 for the most part and there weren't a dozen cars for the entire 40 some miles. This road is in the middle of nowhere (for now). No LEOs to be seen either.

Jay

JJKJ

This stretch of road has been open, the author is a little behind. I drove it at the end of July when I went to see my son in San Antonio.

Another beautiful thing about this toll road besides the 85mph speed limit is that you don't have to slow down or stop for the toll plazas. They have a pay-by-mail option. I stopped at the first toll booth and asked the attendant how to excercise that option. He told me you just drive through the open lane and a traffic cam snaps a pic of your plate which gets you a toll bill in the mail.

I loved it. If any of you have driven I-35 in the Austin area, you know how much of an improvement it is to be able to by-pass all the congestion and run a nice speed limit.

With the 85mph speed limit, I found no reason to speed but someone must've because I saw 1 car pulled over by the highway patrol.

johninar

Chris Lippincott is a moron. This is so irresponsible. The average driver has no business going 85. People are going to die that would not otherwise. Amazing lack of sense.

VetteDrmr

85 might be fine on that stretch, but IMO much better is the 75 mph speed limit on a LOT of the divided roads (my experience has been on I-30 to date as I commute back and forth between DFW and Hot Springs). The good thing is that folks for the most part are driving the same as they did when the limit was 70, we just don't have police running radar near as much as before. I've seen a few people pulled over, but more I've seen the police pulling over acting as a block for folks that are having some car issue.

Y'all have a good one,
Mike

RaleighSS

this road may have been open but all media outlets including the link below are reporting it is a new section yet to be opened... maybe its just getting tolls or something ... never the less I fear the first bad accident on this road will cause a flurry of reports placing blame on the high speed of the road as the main cause. Having logged thousands of miles on the autobahn i agree with the above post drives need to maintain lane discipline and just be generally aware of approaching cars speed. Have not herd any reports of a minimum speed but if you have someone running 45/50 in the fast lane and a guy busting 90 with 0 experience weaving in and out of traffic bad things will happen ...

http://www.freep.com/usatoday/articl...CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

z06801

In Utah we have had long sections of I-15 between SLC and Vegas that have been posted 80mph for years now. Doesn't seem to be a problem.

63Corvette

In Texas, I30 between the I20/I30 split, east of El Paso and Midland is 80mph. Most could easily run 100mph there IF they didn't have cell phones for distraction