Texas opens highway with 85 mph speed limit, fastest in America — is it too fast?

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• Just watched an episode of COPS and it made me think about all the times I drive 85-90 on I-55 in Illinois. Yes the speed limit is 65, but even when I see a Trooper, I get a nice happy feeling that even if I get pulled over, I don't have a toddler sitting on a 4 pound brick of crystal meth like the dumbass on TV did. Hey, these days you have to take your happiness where you can find it.

  • Happiness is a Warm Puppy, with gravy.

    • Funny, in a sick and twisted sort of way.

      • thanks! :)

    • Not cool.

• Hells donkeys, that only means it's the only state where it's LEGAL! You come up here to the Massachusetts SSR and you'll get your arse blown off doing only 85!

  • New Jersey is like that. I once made a 2 hour driver from Newark airport in one hour. Fast lane - pedal to the metal. I had a big grin all the way.

    • We were supposed to go to California from Newark Airport on 9-15-01, the first day planes were allowed in the air again.
      Our flight got cancelled, and I found a flight from Atlantic City to LAX. I made the 90 minute drive in 55 minutes. We didn't have much time to spare to make the flight.

• Texas is so big even 85 ain't that fast. Last time I drove back from Dallas I had to come back on I-10 because I-40 was snowed in from Amarillo to Albuquerque. I sat on 80-85 most of the time. Feels like you're crawling.

  I-5 in CA is the same way but worse as it's 2 lanes most of the time between the Oregon border and the Grapevine (except around Sacramento and Stockton). Then the retarded state limits semi's to 55 MPH even in the middle of nowhere. What ends up happening is you get going and then some dumbass truck driver has to pass the truck in front of him because it's going 55 and he's going 56. They take 10 miles to pass and create a long line of pissed off drivers behind them, all hitting their brakes. Then when the truck finally gets out of the way and everyone gets going again, you get another dumbass truck driver doing the same thing with the same result.

  The state really needs to let trucks drive the same speed as cars like the rest of the real world does and they really need to take the bullet train to nowhere money and add lanes to I-5 from the Oregon border to the Mexican border, not to mention some other highway improvements.

  • CO2, you have never driven in Ohio, have you?

    • Are you referring to Oiho roads themselves or the idiots I share them with? And ouch C02.

      • I was talking about the damned lower speed for trucks.

      • Sorry it's one of the 57 states I've never been to. I have yet to be in W. Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Idaho, Montana, N. and S. Dakota, Arkansas and Delaware.

        • the important thing here, of course, is that you've been to Texas.

          :)

        • I can understand that part if you didn't have family or business here, I was laughing more at the not even being flyover country.

    • I've never even been in Ohio. In fact I've never even flown over it.

      • Try I-10 through Louisiana. Or I-80 through Pennsylvania. All concrete of course. Concrete highways ride bad the day they open, and deteriorate from there. Asphalt at least rides good for a few years.

        • I-20 through Arkansas, like driving on a washboard.

  • Big speed differential between vehicles is a sure way to cause additional accidents. I drive I-5 all the time, so I know exactly what you're talking about. Don't forget the deplorable condition of a lot of it.

    • The spots they repaved are great. The rest of it would make a good goat trail.

      • CO2, the spots they've paved in the last few years, they just laid asphalt over the lousy concrete surface. It's already starting to conform to the it's base, and you can feel the old torn up surface underneath. Soon, the asphalt will start to break up from being laid on an unstable base, and it will be worse than before.

        There's no way there will be enough money available to do a complete remove and replace operation then, what with the train to nowhere taking up so much. I shudder to think what it will be like in 10 years.

        But then again, I'll probably be in Texas, driving 85.

      • It was very common for me to drive from Darmstadt to Frankfurt in less than seventeen minutes...that's driving at about 120mph. If the other driver a properly trained and the roads are up to speed, it works. When I got back to the states, I felt like a man caught in a time warp having to drive at half that speed. It took a couple of months for me to adjust to the slothful and lazy driving habits of the average American motorist. At 120mph, you don't have time to text, eat, drink, talk on the phone...at that speed, every time you blink, you've covered nearly a 100 meters.

• Guys it's great I'm visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Austin. We just got off of it not a traffic jam any where. Leave it to those in Texas who value personal choice to up the speed limit. That and BYOB and take what you don't drink

• I've been on it. Not only is the traffic usually light, but it's a ton of fun. You also always have the option of taking the right lane if you want to go a wussie 75 mph.

  • Hey, any time you can get from Austin to San Antonio in just 30 minutes, you should take advantage of it!

• YAY TEXAS!

• 85 mph...pshaw! that's nuthin. ;)

  • They forgot 'buckle up' didn't they. Looking forward to seeing all the sights (are you in the valley or on the coastal plain, forget) in 3 minutes 17 seconds.

    The light is red!
    Not by the time we get there, don't worry about them, they'll get outta the way. If they're smart.

    • Welcome to Greensboro, NC, where every one thinks they are NASCar drivers but only some of us get away with it. ;)

      • Doc?

        http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/10/25/car-hits-220-mph-on-new-texas-highway/?intcmp=features

        • Whaaaaaaaat?!? :D

      • Around here, people with NASCAR stickers on their cars are the ones driving slow in the left lane.
        Of course you can get away with it, you have the legs for it! ;-)

        • *shakes head back and forth* Poppa, Poppa, Poppa...you haven't even seen my legs or anything else of mine for that matter.

        • Gee, can't you let a man have his fantasy?

      • They have those in California, too. You can spot em easy. Their cars are stuffed into the sound wall.

• I have no problem with 85 as a speed limit in good conditions. I also took a look at WHERE the Governors Highway Safety Association is located, & I was shocked to see it's in Washington DC. In a part of the country where everything is about 2 hours away or less. The story is in Texas, which is huge in comparison. Same goes for much of the midwest, mountain west, the desert southwest, & the southeast. There is real distance to get from place to place outside of the northeastern corridor, where places like WashDC, Philly, Boston, & NYC are in close proximity.