Speed limits on Great Plains highways are trending upward

[Dan Robinson]

Speed limits for chasers have been on an uptrend across the Great Plains and Midwest in recent years.

Many of you have seen the new 80mph speed limit on part of the Turner Turnpike between Oklahoma City and Tulsa last year, as well as many of Kansas' interstates going from 70mph to 75mph in recent years. North Dakota and Montana have adopted 80mph limits on some highways. Wyoming and Texas have had 80mph limits for many years, with Texas currently the nationwide record holder with an 85mph stretch near Austin. There is a bill in the Missouri house to raise the limit in the state to 75mph.

When I made my first trip in 2001, the rural interstate limit topped out in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky at 65mph. It's all 70mph now.

 

[Warren Faidley]

As long as gas prices stay low, we can haul ass. This will all change in a flash if the political landscape changes.

 

[Jesse Risley]

Does anyone remember the 55 mph national limits?

 

[Bob Schafer]

I drive Colorado to Ohio and back every-other month. The cruise control gets set at 79 and there is never any drama (and I get passed by about 5% of other vehicles). When I have a 75mph limit I'll bump it up to maybe 82. My point: at least for me, those higher limits wouldn't make much diff. I drive a pickup, and I'm not really comfortable going faster than 82 in it, anyway.

I got my license during the early days of 55. Boy, you got treated like an axe murderer if you went 70. I went through plenty of radar detectors and CB radios. I stopped using my Valentine a few years ago. No need.

Try driving I-65 from Louisville to Mobile. (Just did) 20% of other vehicles will pass you with the cruise set on 79.

 

[Randy Zipser]

Many of you have seen the new 80mph speed limit on part of the Turner Turnpike between Oklahoma City and Tulsa last year

Now just imagine a scenario of adding 85mph legal speed limits (which will be exceeded by chasers, guaranteed!) to an EF-5 tornado event when the Oklahoma legislature's new storm-chaser restrictions are fully in effect: the result will be a really serious disaster...largely of the legislature's own making. The OHP will be overwhelmed for sure.

 

[John Farley]

Does anyone remember the 55 mph national limits?

Yup. Travelled from Ann Arbor, MI to Jackson, WY during that, and the owner of the car we were in insisted on strict adherence. Long drive.

 

[John Farley]

TX is only tied for the record. There is a stretch in Utah that has been 85 for a number of years. Not chase country, but TX is not the only place with that limit.