70 m.p.h., Here We Come?

ammy Hagar couldn’t drive 55. Wisconsinites couldn’t do 65, and now Republicans in the State Assembly want to raise the maximum speed limit on interstate highways in the state to 70. The bill by 70 m.p.h. champion and state Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc) cleared the Assembly Committee on Transportation Tuesday and next faces a vote before the full Assembly. An amendment that would have frozen the limit for commercial vehicles at 65 died in committee, to Tittl’s approval. “Highways are safer when traffic is flowing at the same speed,” he said in a statement. The speed demons on the Journal Sentinel editorial board…

Sammy Hagar couldn’t drive 55. Wisconsinites couldn’t do 65, and now Republicans in the State Assembly want to raise the maximum speed limit on interstate highways in the state to 70. The bill by 70 m.p.h. champion and state Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc) cleared the Assembly Committee on Transportation Tuesday and next faces a vote before the full Assembly. An amendment that would have frozen the limit for commercial vehicles at 65 died in committee, to Tittl’s approval.

“Highways are safer when traffic is flowing at the same speed,” he said in a statement.

The speed demons on the Journal Sentinel editorial board have already endorsed the bump to 70, which could yet run into opponents in the state Senate. Wisconsin is one of only a handful of state with an m.p.h. ceiling still set at 65. Tittl contends that drivers are already going about 70, and “traffic safety engineers say the safest place to set the speed limit is the point at which 85 percent of the people are driving at or below.”

This isn’t Tittl’s first rodeo. His 2013 bill to increase the limit died in the Senate.

(image via shutterstock)