Illinois may increase speed limit 70

[Revive 755]

Does anyone know how I-80 is posted? According to the map it looks like 70mph stops at I-55.

The 70 mph speed limit stops just west of I-55.

[Brandon]

Does anyone know how I-80 is posted? According to the map it looks like 70mph stops at I-55.

The 70 mph speed limit stops just west of I-55.

Between the DuPage River and I-55.

[dave069]

Does anyone know how I-80 is posted? According to the map it looks like 70mph stops at I-55.

The 70 mph speed limit stops just west of I-55.

Between the DuPage River and I-55.

Ah thanks! Nice to know that it is actually posted according to the map.

[bahnburner]

Update:

Veto override session. Passed the Senate. House vote is in 2 weeks.

http://patch.com/illinois/naperville/state-sen-oberweis-leads-override-governors-speed-limit-veto-0

State Sen. Oberweis leads override of Governor's speed-limit veto

Senator Jim Oberweis has successfully challenged a veto of legislation he sponsored to raise the speed limit on Illinois toll highways.

SPRINGFIELD — State Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove) has successfully challenged a gubernatorial veto of legislation he sponsored to raise the speed limit on Illinois toll highways to 70 miles-per-hour.

The Senate voted 44-5-1 on Nov. 20 to override Gov. Pat Quinn's veto of Senate Bill 2015.

"The Governor is fond of saying "˜Let the will of the people be the law of the land,' yet he was quick to veto legislation that was sponsored by 36 Senators representing Chicago, suburban and downstate areas of Illinois,"  Oberweis said. "And today, a majority of my colleagues in the Senate joined me in overriding the Governor's veto."

Senate Bill 2015 now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Quinn vetoed Oberweis' Senate Bill 2015 on Aug. 26, citing evidence that tollway drivers already exceed the speed limit in many cases, which he said can lead to serious accidents. Oberweis noted a recent study showed that differential speeds between vehicles were actually more problematic. The original 70 mph speed limit law he sponsored last year — Senate Bill 2356 — already provides tougher penalties for people who exceed the speed limit by more than 26 mph.

"The Governor's argument that tollway drivers already exceed the speed limit is a great argument as to why we should increase the current speed limit to 70 mph,"  Oberweis said. "And it is an argument we have already addressed in the original law. Those who exceed the 70 mph limit by more than 26 mph now face tougher penalties."

Oberweis said the original law, which took effect Jan. 1, provides public safety enhancements in the form of a lowered threshold upon which the penalty for speeding is increased from a petty offense to a misdemeanor. Speeding in excess of 26 mph but less than 35 mph (currently 31-40 mph) will be a Class B misdemeanor. Speeding in excess of 35 mph (currently 40 mph) will be a Class A misdemeanor.

Senate Bill 2015 was passed by a 111-4 vote of the House of Representatives on May 29 and by a 48-6 vote of the Senate on May 21.

[Brandon]

^^ A nice, last "FUCK YOU" to Pat "Judas" Quinn. 

[JREwing78]

I'm looking forward to legally being able to do 70 all the way through Chicagoland en route to Michigan.

[Joe The Dragon]

I hope that tollway also means the 53 extension even if they build for 45 MPH (no one will be doing that and US12 has 50-55 MPH parts)

[pianocello]

So if that bill passes the House and the Tollways are bumped to 70, what are the chances that IDOT will increase the speed of their interstates in the area? Obviously nothing will change inside the Tri-State, but I wonder if they would put a speed limit of 70 on I-80 east of Joliet or I-55 in DuPage and Will Counties.

[Joe The Dragon]

Maybe IL-53 / I-290 up till I-294.

[Revive 755]

So if that bill passes the House and the Tollways are bumped to 70, what are the chances that IDOT will increase the speed of their interstates in the area? Obviously nothing will change inside the Tri-State, but I wonder if they would put a speed limit of 70 on I-80 east of Joliet or I-55 in DuPage and Will Counties.

I doubt IDOT will change any speed limits if the bill passes - it will probably take a separate bill to get anything other speed limits bumped up.  I still expect the tollway to find a way to keep most of their roads at 55 - possibly through perpetual construction given how they once dropped the speed limit on I-294 down to 45 for some minor shoulder work.

I'm looking forward to legally being able to do 70 all the way through Chicagoland en route to Michigan.

You would still have a brief section of 55 on I-80/I-94 between the Indiana border and I-294 that is not part of the tollway system.

[Joe The Dragon]

So if that bill passes the House and the Tollways are bumped to 70, what are the chances that IDOT will increase the speed of their interstates in the area? Obviously nothing will change inside the Tri-State, but I wonder if they would put a speed limit of 70 on I-80 east of Joliet or I-55 in DuPage and Will Counties.

I doubt IDOT will change any speed limits if the bill passes - it will probably take a separate bill to get anything other speed limits bumped up.  I still expect the tollway to find a way to keep most of their roads at 55 - possibly through perpetual construction given how they once dropped the speed limit on I-294 down to 45 for some minor shoulder work.

I'm looking forward to legally being able to do 70 all the way through Chicagoland en route to Michigan.

You would still have a brief section of 55 on I-80/I-94 between the Indiana border and I-294 that is not part of the tollway system.

The borman is still 55?  and  perpetual construction 45 on 70 MPH road will just make it even more of joke and even more useless

[JREwing78]

So if that bill passes the House and the Tollways are bumped to 70, what are the chances that IDOT will increase the speed of their interstates in the area? Obviously nothing will change inside the Tri-State, but I wonder if they would put a speed limit of 70 on I-80 east of Joliet or I-55 in DuPage and Will Counties.

I doubt IDOT will change any speed limits if the bill passes - it will probably take a separate bill to get anything other speed limits bumped up.  I still expect the tollway to find a way to keep most of their roads at 55 - possibly through perpetual construction given how they once dropped the speed limit on I-294 down to 45 for some minor shoulder work.

I'm looking forward to legally being able to do 70 all the way through Chicagoland en route to Michigan.

You would still have a brief section of 55 on I-80/I-94 between the Indiana border and I-294 that is not part of the tollway system.

True. And, of course, the Borman is still 55. But it's a relatively short section of my drive around Chicago.

[bahnburner]

Good news today!

http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/mph-speed-limit-coming-to-illinois-toll-roads/article_57238c9a-22fa-5187-a769-4e2f4a9e2503.html

70-mph speed limit coming to Illinois toll roads

SPRINGFIELD – Motorists soon could see the speed limit on Illinois toll highways jump to 70 mph.

On Wednesday, the Illinois House voted 100-11 to override Gov. Pat Quinn's veto of legislation that would have allowed the higher speeds on the nearly 300-mile network of roads in the Chicago area.

The move follows an earlier vote in the Senate to turn back Quinn's bid to scuttle the proposal and came a day after the General Assembly overrode a veto allowing higher truck speeds on Chicago-area expressways.

The higher speed limits on the tollways brings Chicago-area expressways in line with downstate interstates, which were switched to a 70-mph speed limit last year.

Quinn vetoed the toll road legislation in August, arguing that the higher speeds would create a safety risk for motorists and public safety workers.

The higher speeds were opposed by the Illinois State Police, tollway officials and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The legislation is Senate Bill 2015.

[sipes23]

A victory for reality.

[dave069]

I hope im wrong but i dont think the tollway will raise any speed limits to 70. They'll probably use a lame excuse to stay at 55. Maybe some 55 roads will go to 60 like the north section of I-355 since I-290 is 60 between 355 and I-90.

[SSOWorld]

I hope im wrong but i dont think the tollway will raise any speed limits to 70. They'll probably use a lame excuse to stay at 55. Maybe some 55 roads will go to 60 like the north section of I-355 since I-290 is 60 between 355 and I-90.

Counties can still opt-out of the plan. -- that is the lame excuse.

[Brandon]

I hope im wrong but i dont think the tollway will raise any speed limits to 70. They'll probably use a lame excuse to stay at 55. Maybe some 55 roads will go to 60 like the north section of I-355 since I-290 is 60 between 355 and I-90.

Counties can still opt-out of the plan. -- that is the lame excuse.

Only 6 counties can opt out, and of those, 2 have no roads over 65 mph (one has none over 55 - DuPage), and the other 4 have 70 mph freeways/tollways (Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will).

[dave069]

I hope im wrong but i dont think the tollway will raise any speed limits to 70. They'll probably use a lame excuse to stay at 55. Maybe some 55 roads will go to 60 like the north section of I-355 since I-290 is 60 between 355 and I-90.

Counties can still opt-out of the plan. -- that is the lame excuse.

Only 6 counties can opt out, and of those, 2 have no roads over 65 mph (one has none over 55 - DuPage), and the other 4 have 70 mph freeways/tollways (Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will).

I feel like the county boards don't care enough one way or the other to opt out, especially in Will, Kane, Lake, and McHenry where rural 70mph roads exist, but the tollway seems really resistant to higher speed limits around Chicagoland, so they'd probably just decide not to post it, even if no county opts out.

[SSOWorld]

They have to provide proof that it's unsafe to post the limit - which they could doctor up if they were the assholes they pretend to be, It's likely that this shit's going in front of judges.

[dave069]

Yeah, I feel like they'd probably do anything they could to keep their roads 55. They're gonna pull an Oregon. At least I-90 west of Elgin will probably become a 70 M.P.H. zone soon. If it doesn't I'll have to complain to them personally.

[bahnburner]

From the facebook page "Raise the Speed Limit in Metro Chicago & Illinois"

https://www.facebook.com/raisethespeedlimitinmetrochicagoandillinois/posts/402628333245873

Dec. 18th (sorry it's a little late):

Jim Walker from NMA released our secret weapon at the Tollway Board of Directors meeting today. Jim Walker, Sen. Jim Oberweis (R-Sugar Grove) and Steve Doner attended and testified to the board, but the most persuasive case was a written statement from F/Lt Thad Peterson of the Michigan State Police which Walker read and handed out. Peterson was invited to the meeting but had a conflict. Full statement pasted below. Recording will be available on Tollway website within a couple of days.
--------------------------------
Madam Chairman and members of the board,
My name is Thad Peterson, and I retired from the Michigan Department of State Police in early 2013, after 25 years of service to the citizens of Michigan.
During the last 10 years of my career with the State Police I served as the commanding officer of the Traffic Services Section, where one of our main focus areas together with the Department of Transportation, County Road Commissions, and elected officials of all levels, was to correct hundreds of artificially low speed limits across the state.
The speed limit corrections implemented during my tenure in traffic services (mostly increases of up to 15 miles per hour) impacted millions of vehicle miles traveled per day. Over that same time frame, Michigan's traffic fatality numbers plummeted, by about a third. In conjunction with my counterparts, I was recognized for those efforts with two Governor's Traffic Safety Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Traffic Safety.
Many of these corrections were on urban freeways, typically correcting under-posted speed limits of 55 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour. 70 was the nearest multiple of 5 miles per hour to the 85th percentile speed, and closely matched the prevailing, safe traffic speeds on these freeways.
In all cases, we conducted after-studies to determine the effect of the changes, and to see if we needed to revise or reverse them. Safety was our overriding concern.
Despite our openness to adjusting our engineering changes or even completely reversing them if necessary, we found that our results were consistent with the long standing national studies on speed limit establishment:
- No 85th percentile speeds increased by any significant amount, and some actually decreased after increasing the speed limit 15 MPH.
- Overall, the crash rates on the freeways in question trended downward, and our fatality rate declined strongly statewide.
- Rush hour traffic congestion on the urban freeway segments we corrected by speed limit increases, was dramatically reduced or eliminated.
- Reduced statistical variance measured in the traffic speeds, matched the overall impression of greater vehicle speed uniformity, with reduced conflicts between vehicles and a more pleasant driving environment as a result.
- The ONLY empirical measure that changed dramatically was a huge increase in compliance with the new speed limits.
As you would expect from these results, we never had to roll back any of the speed limit changes we made. With continued after-studies now many years after the changes, the results remain the same.
To summarize the dilemma related to speed limit changes, perceptions and expectation simply don't match with the results.
People worry that vehicles/drivers will increase travel speeds by the amount of the speed limit increase. The best research solidly refutes this assertion, and in the hundreds of the road segments where we increased the speed limit up to 15 miles per hour, traffic travel speeds never increased significantly.
Travel speeds are made more CONSISTENT across the board, which is why crashes are normally reduced, and the crashes that do occur, do NOT tend to involve higher speeds than they did prior to the speed limit increase. The result is INCREASED SAFETY.
Road authorities are often concerned about an engineering factor called "Design Speed."  Interestingly, when citing this concern, they miss the point that if the speed limit is far below normal travel speeds for that segment of the roadway, they have usually already failed to design for the prevailing speeds at which traffic is traveling SAFELY. Design speed is a highly misused and misunderstood topic that should not deter road authorities from maximizing traffic safety through the use of optimal speed limits.
Upward speed limit corrections open the door for posting ADVISORY signs where road conditions warrant them, while increasing compliance with the speed limit. Artificially low speed limits, on the other hand, incite disregard for traffic controls as a whole, and DON'T allow for some advisory signs that drivers may really need in some cases to alert them to potentially hazardous design features of the roadway.
As you can see, there is much more to this extremely important, and somewhat counter-intuitive topic than time allows in this forum. I am more than happy to answer any questions you have of me, and I thank you very much for your time and your consideration of this topic that is of such great importance to the safety of your constituents and road users.

Respectfully submitted,
Thad V. Peterson, F/Lt., Retired
Michigan Department of State Police

FYI, the audio from the board meeting can be downloaded here (December 2014 Board Meeting -file 1of2):

http://www.illinoistollway.com/about-the-tollway/board-information/web-cast-audio-archives

[Revive 755]

On a somewhat related note, the 45 mph section of I-80 through Joliet has been raised to 55, at least for westbound.  Now if IDOT would only cut back the legnth of that 55 mph section so it is only for the area near the Des Plaines River and does not drag on east of Briggs Street.

[pianocello]

On a somewhat related note, the 45 mph section of I-80 through Joliet has been raised to 55, at least for westbound.  Now if IDOT would only cut back the legnth of that 55 mph section so it is only for the area near the Des Plaines River and does not drag on east of Briggs Street.

It's been like that (eastbound as well) for a couple years now, even before the statewide speed limit was increased. It's good that they increased it, everyone goes 60 on the bridge and 65 through the rest of that stretch anyway.

[Stratuscaster]

Goes into effect 1/1/15. 70MPH on all Interstates and toll roads & 65MPH on all 4+ lane divided (with more than paint) highways unless there is a speed restriction in place.

Of course, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Madison, McHenry, St. Clair, and Will counties can make up their own rules.

[Brandon]

Goes into effect 1/1/15. 70MPH on all Interstates and toll roads & 65MPH on all 4+ lane divided (with more than paint) highways unless there is a speed restriction in place.

Of course, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Madison, McHenry, St. Clair, and Will counties can make up their own rules.

Will County will not.  The county board and county executive have already decided that they cannot counter state law, and they don't see any reason to create any exemption.