If you’ve ever encountered traffic in L.A., Denver, St. Louis or anywhere else where even the major Interstates clog like a stopped-up drain, then picture this for a moment: alongside the main Interstate, two lanes each direction that are not for truck use, not for cargo use, and have no speed limit on them whatsoever. Fresh asphalt, wide lanes, and signs that have you merging out into the standard Interstate before you run up on the next town so that you join “regular” traffic instead of impeding the wide-open run. Sound enticing?
Per Jalopnik, there is a bill that was just introduced in the California Senate that would offer up just that. Senate Bill 319’s main goal is to reduce the amount of traffic parked on I-5 and State Route 99 by constructing additional lanes that have an explicit prohibition of a maximum speed limit. In short terms, Autobahn rules, baby: slow to the right and keep the hell out of the left unless you need it. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Anyone who has driven on Interstate 70 across Utah or Interstate 90 in Montana daydreams about something like that as they mow down the miles, and those are states where setting the cruise to 100 MPH isn’t going to earn you a blink of an eye so long as you aren’t being outright dumb. (I might know a thing or two about that.)
Wait…this all sounds like a crack pipe dream, doesn’t it? California allowing unlimited speed limit roadways. If it didn’t work in Montana, of all places, how in the hell will it work in California? How did this even become a bill in the first place? Blame the high-speed rail project that recently got canned after spending went off of the deep end ($77 billion!) and has people looking for alternatives for a rail system that might not get built at all. The dream is interesting, to put it mildly, but imagine the kind of squawking that is going on at CARB offices, or at the EPA, or hell, what about the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and NHTSA? Picture that discussion with your insurance agent: “Will you be driving this vehicle on the CaliExpress lanes?” “Um…*sweating profusely*…not often?”
Don’t get me wrong: if there’s a long and straight stretch of roadway and I don’t have to sweat the cops, I’ll play the game. I’ll let my car be inspected to make sure everything is up to par. I’ll get the performance tires. I’ll test out just how willing CHP will be to not issue me a ticket as I make the rip from Los Angeles to the Bay. But…and it’s a big one…two things stick out in my mind that makes this plan a bad idea. One is that the last attempt, the “safe and prudent” speed approach in Montana that occurred when the 65 MPH national limit was removed in 1995, failed after the state Supreme Court ruled the law as “unconstitutionally vague” when a ticket got challenged in court. The other is the one phrase that should always be feared above all others: “The Other Driver”. The last thing I want to see as a fact of life is a unkept mid-2000s SUV hauling major ass down the roadway. That scares me enough in the 65 MPH zones of Nashville.
What are your thoughts on this?
not i’m any kind of believer in a “nanny state” mentality,but,HELLno—–pretty much any yabo that can breath can get a license(and you don’t even need to speak english)–tighten up licensing requirements,and have rigid vehicle inspections for those who want to use the superfast lane,and have a draconian enforcement of the rules,then maybe—
I am pretty sure this bill is a bit of political trolling. No matter what you set the speed limit for on I-5, the speed is going to be “Traffic jam”.
Having lived in Germany for the better part of a decade and having used their very lovely Autobahn system all that time, I was dismayed upon my return at the lack of competence of my fellow American drivers relative to the various Europeans with whom I shard the road. As has earlier been said, we don’t train our drivers very well. Germans and others pay through the nose to get comprehensive driver training that is very advanced and thorough in comparison to ours. To be honest, the only thing I worried about in my American driver’s license test was…parallel parking! I’m not sure making I-5 a no speed limit road would be helpful. The little-used routes through rural ares should have no speed limits. There’s less chance that people would hit someone or something. I-5 is already a cauldron of high traffic as it is. I doubt California has the resources to check every rubbish vehicle on its roads for mechanical safety; they are more worried about emissions than vehicle safety. Perhaps a state other than California could do this, but not California. In California, no speed limits would just be lawyer bait, and the already confiscatory insurance rates would probably rise, too. I’m also inclined this whole thing is just media trolling, too…
Beat me to it. Lived in Germany for 5 years. I’m pretty sure all of the wrecks I saw were US Soldiers. Sadly most American’s simply can’t handle the responsibility of self regulated driving. Lane discipline, situational awareness, and no distracted driving are a bridge too far for a country where people regularly wreck cars “ghost riding” to do a you tube challenge.
I love going fast, but the thought of insecure untalented beardies at 100mph+ on my highways scares the poopie out of me.
As long as we get a loser pays legal system at the same time I’m game. People drive like morons wherever they are in the world. Ive seen upside down cars on dry sunny days in 25mph zones from WA to Germany and back to TN. Make us truely liable for our own actions and let the market sort it out.
That’s true. Germans pay out the ass if they hit something. We had Soldiers flip a HEMMIT fueler in a vineyard. Our tax dollars are probably still paying for the damage. One of my buddies’ wife got a DUI, cost her license and 8,000 Euros in fines over 10 years ago, didn’t even hit anything.
I have driven on the autobahn. The reason it is safe to drive at high speeds is because the road is very well maintained, there are “zones” near exits where you have to slow down, and people just basically dont act like gaping assholes like they do in the usa. Could you imagine all the priuses and subarus that would want to go 45 in the hammer lane? Theres no f’in way.
It would never work. As others have stated, American drivers a among the worst in the world. In Vegas, there is a law that you can not hinder traffic, even if traffic is over the speed limit. Yet, daily I am behind 3 cars in 3 different lanes lined up doing 55 to 60 with clear road in front of them.