Speeding through Texas

            What do toll roads and speed limits really have to do with each other? I am not sure but according to the article Texas House Oks 85 the reason that Texas is considering raising the speed limit to 85-mph is to eliminate funding from building a toll road. My opinion is that no one really needs to drive that fast, but they do and they will so why should we pay extra money for a special road to drive just to do so.

            Texas currently has a speed limit of 80-mph on more than 500 miles of highway. 85-mph would be the highest in the nation; currently Texas and Utah are the only two states that have 80-mph speed limits. If we go to 85-mph we would be the highest in the nation and the second in the world according to the article some parts of Poland have a posted speed limit of 140 kilometers per hour (86-mph). 

            According to the article Gary Biller, executive director of the Wisconsin based Nation Motorist Association and Jerry John, President of the Southwest Insurance Information Institute have very different opinions and I have to agree with the latter. Gary Biller agrees with the raise in the speed limit because of the “good quality of today’s highways construction” he also stated that “In Utah, after they adjusted the speed limit from 75 to 80, nothing happened to the accident rate”. Jerry Johns says that it is a bad idea “two things contribute to most traffic accidents are speed and alcohol”. I agree that we should hold off on adding toll roads. I think it may be less expensive just repair the roads we have, we do need to cut budget costs in as many areas as possible. Why don’t we just wake up a few minutes earlier to get there on time instead of driving so fast and being in such a hurry?