House OKs hiking speed limit to 85 mph on some Texas roads Bill puts pedal to metal at 85 mph

Speed limit increase attached to corridor repeal

Already the speediest drivers in the nation, Texas motorists may get to drive even faster - up to 85 mph on some highways - if a bill now being considered in the Legislature becomes law.

The House on Thursday passed Brenham state Rep. Lois Kolkhorst's HB 1201 on final reading. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate by Katy Republican Glenn Hegar.

HB 1201's primary goal is to drive a legislative stake into the heart of the controversial but already-dead Trans-Texas Corridor, a network of toll roads and rail and utility lines that would have slashed across rural Texas. The bill preserves one aspect of the TTC: the speed limit.

With an 80-mph speed limit for cars on more than 520 miles of West Texas highways, the Lone Star state already has the fastest roadways in the nation. An additional 1,400 miles have a limit of 75 mph. Elsewhere on major highways - including those in the Houston area - the speed limit is 70 mph, unless otherwise posted.

The 85 mph speed limit would apply only to specially built roads and only after the Texas Department of Transportation performs engineering and traffic studies.

TxDOT spokeswoman Penny Mason said it is uncertain where such super-highways may be constructed.

The bill by Kolkhorst, a Republican who fiercely opposed the TTC, would repeal the statute authorizing the transportation corridor. The project, favored by Gov. Rick Perry, was ended by the Federal Highway Administration last year.

The prospect of higher speed limits brought mixed reaction on Thursday.

Insurers won't be pleased

"It's really not a good idea anywhere," said Jerry Johns, spokesman for the Austin-based Southwestern Insurance Information Service. "Experience has taught that when you raise the speed limit, there is a potential for more serious traffic injuries and fatalities. Speed and alcohol are the biggest contributors to accidents."

TxDOT statistics show Texas traffic deaths dropped from 3,822 in 2003 to 3,089 in 2009, the most recent year for which figures are available, despite a dramatic increase in miles traveled.

Sheriff's Capt. Reno Lewis in West Texas' Reeves County said an increase in speed limits is "an accident just waiting to happen." Interstates 10 and 20 converge in Lewis' county, and he said the advent of the 80-mph speed limit in May 2006 has contributed to more wrecks.

Would be closer to 100

"People already drive 5-to-10 mph over the limit," he said. "Eighty is fast enough. You put it up to 85, and they drive 5-to-10 mph faster, they'll be going close to 100 mph."

Chris McMullin, terminal manager with The Waggoners Trucking in Houston, initially expressed shock at the possible raised speed limit, then mellowed.

"Well, if they're out in West Texas or the Panhandle where you don't have a lot of merging traffic … " he mused as the idea apparently gained his acceptance. "They're probably driving that speed anyway."

Chronicle reporter Patricia Kilday Hart contributed to this report.

allan.turner@chron.com