Michigan May Be On the Road to 75 mph Speed Limits

LANSING, MI – Legislation moving through the Michigan House of Representatives would increase speed limits to 75 and possibly as high as 80 mph on 600 miles of the state’s rural freeways.

A bill package that cleared the Michigan House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Tuesday would reflect the speed motorists are already driving, according to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bradford Jacobsen, R-Oxford, MLive.com reports.

“Most expressways are designed for 5 over, if you would, so they’re designed at 75 miles per hour,” said Jacobsen, who sponsored a similar package in 2014, the same year the Michigan Senate considered changes.

Jacobson told The Detroit News that he has driven 80 mph and has “kept up with traffic.”

The increased speed limit wouldn’t apply in urban areas, Jacobson said. The speed limit on state trunk lines — the ones designated by the letter “M” — would increase to 60 mph from 55 mph under the proposed legislation.

After study, MDOT and the Michigan State Police could raise speed limits to 65 mph.

The legislation would lower speed limits to 45 mph — down from the current 55 mph — on gravel roads in counties with populations of more than 1 million.

On rural freeways, Texas has the highest speed limit in the nation, at 85 mph.

Tell Us

• What do you think? Should the speed limits be raised or kept the same? Tell us in the comments.

» Photo by Garrett via Flickr / Creative Commons