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[thenetwork]

Living in Colorado, CDOT does a very good job with speed limits. 

There are many 2-lane highway signed routes which will give 65 MPH zones as much as possible.  But when there may be a steep hill or a stretch of winding road, they will reduce the speed accordingly, but will quickly raise it back up when the lower speed is not needed.

That doesn't mean they are totally smart.  There are a few WTF stretches where there is no reason to have the speed so low.  Case in point, there is a 50 MPH stretch of CO-82 between Basalt and Aspen with a RIGHT lane HOV lane during AM and PM drive -- just try to stay at or
slightly above 50-55 in the left (Non-HOV) lane during those times without getting honked at, high-beamed or flipped off.

[sprjus4]

This should not limit roads to 55 mph. If your principals were applied somewhere like Texas, yikes. Two lanes there are basically 75 mph all across the state, and seem to present little issues.

The thing about Texas that few people understand is that it basically covers the same acreage as the former Northwest Territory (i.e. Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of MN), but has 20 millions less people than we have. So whenever you want to do an apples-to-apples comparison of anything in Texas, you have to statistically compare either all states (for area), or just those that give you the same population.

West Texas might as well be Iowa. East Texas is reasonably populated, however.

And East Texas still has 65 mph - 75 mph speed limits on two-lane roads, going through forests, etc.

I understand the comparison is not the same, driving in Texas is certainly a different dynamic, but driving across a large, flat open field in Ohio on a 2 lane road at 65 mph is not dangerous.

[GCrites80s]

A concern for me when dealing with 2-lane roads in an "old" "tight" state like much of Ohio (which has nothing on Pennsylvania in these respects) is the fact that while cars have gotten better in the last 30 years they sure have gotten bigger. I drive on old Ohio 2-lanes daily and am shocked at how many vehicles on the road take up the entire lane. You have a lot more wiggle room when vehicles are 4 feet from each other like back in the days where everyone drove Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes instead of F-250s which are mere inches from each other. And there are way, way more semis on the 2-lanes than there used to be. Or take the example of trash collection. 40 years ago in these rural areas there was no trash collection. People burned their trash and either piled up or separated out the non-flammable items to be recycled. Now everyone is driving full speed past garbage trucks in a way they simply don't in a suburb or city.

[Bitmapped]

I'm not sure about a blanket increase to 60mph as the Ohio Senate was proposing, but I think flexibility for ODOT to raise speed limits on two-lane roads above 55mph would be useful. There are lots of two-lane road segments in the state that were rebuilt to ODOT's Super-2 standard which has 12-foot lanes, paved shoulders, and controlled-access ROW. These would seem reasonable candidates for an upgrade to 60mph or 65mph.

[triplemultiplex]

Texas is loony for having such high SL's on two lane roads.  I don't care how rural it is, those roads are not designed for that speed.  I mean I understand the desire to get the fuck out of Texas as fast as possible, but going faster than 65 on a two-lane FM road is ridiculous. 

[sprjus4]

^ Not even close 

Traffic moves 70-75 mph on two lane roads there and traffic flow is fine. Everyone mainly abides by the posted speed limit and I’ve never had issues with it.

I’ve driven all over that state and never seen an issue with the posted limits. 75 mph on a wide super two is a perfect speed. If you have an issue with it, drive elsewhere or expect to be tailgated / passed.

[74/171FAN]

I drove 75 mph on US 380 and felt safer there than many two lane roads up here in the northeast.

[Rothman]

Given NYSDOT's approaches to speed limit changes, if TxDOT follows suit, then I have no problem with the high speed limits on two-lane roads.

Whenever I've been out West, I have never felt unsafe on those higher speeds.  I suppose the only concern I have is if the rural roads are maintained as well, since hitting a pothole at that speed would not be fun.

[Buck87]

Yesterday I noticed a signage change for the US 20 bypass approaching Fremont from the west.

This sign assembly which used to have Norwalk as its control city as recently as the GSV capture in October, now has Clyde as the control city. Norwalk made perfect sense to me, being both the next county seat and the end of this 4 particular lane section of US 20...but now it's just the next town (Clyde.)

[carbaugh2]

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/03/17/ohio-speed-limit-could-increase-to-60-mph-on-all-state-routes-county-roads-with-exceptions/

Ohio could see a speed limit increase on two-lane roads from 55 mph to 60 mph on state and county roads as well as gives authority to ODOT to raise the speed on two-lane state routes to 65 following an engineering study.

This proposal has been pulled from the state transportation budget bill.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/03/proposed-speed-limit-hike-for-55-mph-ohio-highways-stalls-in-senate-committee.html