People in Texas said ‘Whoa’ when their the speed limit was raised to 80MPHin 2006. Today State Road 130 in Texas has the fastest posted speed limit in the United States. The legal limit on this 40-mile stretch of a new toll road between Austin and San Antonio has an 85 mph limit. Drivers generally think they can go 5 or even 10 miles over the limit, but in this case that’s as dangerous as giving a limitless credit card to a Kardashian.
It might be fast for Texas but are they trying to ‘test us?’ Anyone who has driven on I-95 in South Florida can verify the fact that even in the slow lane we would blow by them in a heartbeat. We live in the fast lane. There is no other lane. To us, the Autobahn is the moving sidewalk at the airport.
Ever since Texas became the second largest State when Alaska came into the Union, they developed a ‘middle child syndrome’ and had to assert themselves in manly ways and that might account for a sort of ‘man up’ contest they’re waging.
If it’s about speed, roads, drivers and lifestyles, Texas will lose big! Let them compete in a Bar-B-Q competition.
South Florida has established itself as having among the rudest drivers, the most congested roads and according to a national poll, the ‘best ability to multi-task’ while driving. In the ‘multi task’ portion of the Florida driving test there’s a picture of a person drinking with one hand, texting with the other, one eye on the road (Of course) and the other on a pedestrian trying to cross.
It’s not easy eating the rest of a media-noche sandwich, yelling at your kids in the back seat and texting their school with a lateness excuse. Thinking and driving is difficult, but it’s as easy as tax reform.
Who do those cowboys think they are? They’ve got wide open spaces to drive. Here, we’re negotiating convoluted streets often ending in canals to ‘go the back way’ and cut valuable seconds off our previous time.
Texas State Road 130 is a toll road, built by a private company to Texas Department of Transportation specs and it costs $6.17 to drive the 40 miles. That’s nothing. We can pay $7 now to go from mid-town to the Golden Glades in heavy traffic which is only about 5 miles. State officials are considering an increase in the maximum toll to $9.because too many drivers are willing to pay that much when traffic congestion is at its worst.
The Texas Legislature set the speed limit in its last session. Maybe they had just reconvened after their caffeine break.