Good News in Texas!

[mhood]

And I don't mean that it finally rained. The speed limit on over 400 miles of I20 is about to go to 75 day and night. If they keep the unofficial 10% enforcement rule, we should be able to cruise at 82 and not get stopped.

[meissen]

Nice! What was it before?

[HDDAN]

Here in Taxachusetts, we have the ten MPH over rule too. I heard a trooper explain it on talk radio. He said that they do indeed have a quota. The quota is not how many tickets that they write, it is a dollar amount. We have graduated tickets here. The cops do not want to write twenty $50 tickets when they can wait for the fast guys and write five $200 and get the same amount. Every time that they sstop a car, they risk danger. The less cars, the less risk.

[mhood]

Originally Posted by meissen

Nice! What was it before?

70...which gave us 75-77 safely (with the 10% enforcement guideline in place). I wish it had gone to 80 but anything is a step in the right direction. It will probably stay 65 near Weatherford and in to Dallas but maybe not.

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by mhood

And I don't mean that it finally rained. The speed limit on over 400 miles of I20 is about to go to 75 day and night. If they keep the unofficial 10% enforcement rule, we should be able to cruise at 82 and not get stopped.

Actually, there is part of I-20 and I-10 that is 80 mph, and has been for quite a few years.

as of January 2007 the 80 mph speed limit in the daytime on I-10 and I-20 in Crockett, Culberson, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kerr, Kimble, Pecos, Reeves, Sutton, and Ward counties. This translates to about 460 miles of I-10, east of El Paso to northwest of San Antonio, and 86 miles of I-20 west of Odessa.

[Sir Nuke]

when we went to CFest II last year......once the TEXAS group headed west got there.....it was "KATTY BAR THE DOOR" we had as many as 75 cars in a row doing at least 90.....it was like a HUGE FRIGHT TRAIN.

[Sir Nuke]

and just in case you want to know what this is going to be taking place across the state, here it the total breakdown:

Where will the new speed limits be posted?
■Interstate 10 — 289 miles across the counties of El Paso, Gillespie, Kerr, Kendall, Bexar, Guadalupe, Caldwell, Gonzales, Fayette, Colorado, Austin, Jefferson and Orange.
■Interstate 20 — 423 miles across the counties of Crane, Ector, Midland, Martin, Howard, Mitchell, Nolan, Taylor, Callahan, Eastland, Erath, Palo Pinto, Van Zandt, Smith, Gregg and Harrison.
■Interstate 27 — 109 miles across the counties of Lubbock, Hale, Swisher and Randall.
■Interstate 30 — 139 miles across the counties of Hunt, Hopkins, Franklin, Titus, Morris and Bowie.
■Interstate 35 — 106 miles across the counties of Webb, Medina, Atascosa, Bexar, Hill and Cooke.
■Interstate 37 — 130 miles across the counties of Nueces, San Patricio, Live Oak, Atascosa and Bexar.
■Interstate 40 — 166 miles across the counties of Deaf Smith, Oldham, Potter, Carson, Gray, Donley and Wheeler.
■Interstate 44 — 11 miles across Wichita County.
■Interstate 45 — 143 miles across the counties of Walker, Madison, Leon, Freestone and Navarro.

Four other highways in Central Texas got the new speed limit late last year. Once all the signs are up, there will be total of 3,063 miles of highway in Texas with a 75 mph speed limit.

And, of course, Texas is famous (safety advocates might say infamous) for its 80 mph speed limit on 521 miles of Interstates 10 and 20 in west Texas.

That's a grand total of 3,584 miles of road in which the speed limit is 75 or greater.

[mhood]

Thanks for the breakdown Sir Nuke. I don't see Parker County on the list so I guess they're going to continue to operate the speed trap (65mph) just West of Weatherford all the way through Dallas on I20. Bummer!

[Earl]

I don't believe this ten MPH over rule. Is this an actual law that states you are allowed to do 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. I'm thinking if a cop wants to be an ahole he or she can still pull you over and ticket you for 1 MPH over.

[Nessal]

Originally Posted by Earl

I don't believe this ten MPH over rule. Is this an actual law that states you are allowed to do 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. I'm thinking if a cop wants to be an ahole he or she can still pull you over and ticket you for 1 MPH over.

Technically you can be written up for 1mph over. But I guess there is a gentlemans agreement in some places.

[90503]

Originally Posted by Earl

I don't believe this ten MPH over rule. Is this an actual law that states you are allowed to do 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. I'm thinking if a cop wants to be an ahole he or she can still pull you over and ticket you for 1 MPH over.

Not sure about all states, but an Arizona officer explained to me that up to 10 miles over the posted limit they can use their own discretion whether to write a ticket or not, but anything over 10 mph they must write a ticket...

[Camaro21]

Originally Posted by Sir Nuke

when we went to CFest II last year......once the TEXAS group headed west got there.....it was "KATTY BAR THE DOOR" we had as many as 75 cars in a row doing at least 90.....it was like a HUGE FRIGHT TRAIN.

Heck Yeah, That was a LOOOOONNNNGGG Train and was a Blast !!

[RJT Impala]

I passed an Arizona trooper years ago--he was going the opposite direction--and I was doing at least 10 over. He raised a hand from the steering wheel and motioned to slow down as we passed. I did--for a couple miles.

[mhood]

Originally Posted by Earl

I don't believe this ten MPH over rule. Is this an actual law that states you are allowed to do 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. I'm thinking if a cop wants to be an ahole he or she can still pull you over and ticket you for 1 MPH over.

I didn't say "10 MPH", I said "10%". In other words, when the speed limit is 70MPH, you can go as fast as 77MPH (7 = 10% of 70) before you will be stopped for sure. I got a ticket a little over a year ago and the infraction didn't list the speed I was clocked at, it said "over 10%". I've been cruising no more than 75 in 70s and 65 in 60s since I got that ticket and everything is fine.

Of course, a HiPo can stop you for any reason at all...one mile an hour over the speed limit is speeding "technically". But in reality, they will give you 8-10% of the posted speed limit.