Speed limit 60?

[Breadman17]

I live in PA right now. I've noticed that the speed limits always skip from 55 to 65, apart from some advisory plaques and signs, and seen around here that it isn't very common to see speed limit 60 anywhere. I've driven out to Weirton a couple times on the US-22 freeway and as soon as you get across the state line into WV the speed limit jumps from 55 to 60. Does PA have some law against 60? What's so taboo about the limit?

[MATraveler128]

In Massachusetts, MA 3 south of Boston has a 60 mph speed limit.

[1995hoo]

There's nothing all that odd about 60-mph speed limits in some other states; Virginia, for example, posts them on some four-lane divided highways with at-grade intersections (and won't post anything higher on such routes) and also posts them on Interstates in the "transition area" between rural areas with 65- or 70-mph speed limits and urban or suburban areas with 55-mph speed limits. (Going eastbound on I-66, for example, the speed limit drops from 70 to 65 at Haymarket, from 65 to 60 just before the VA-234 Business exit near Manassas some seven miles east of there, and then from 60 to 55 just before the US-29 exit near Centreville about five miles east of there). Florida posts 60-mph speed limits on some highways and on some two-lane roads (FL-16 near St. Augustine, for example).

I think–but this is speculation–that one reason some states don't post 60 may relate to the way the old National Maximum Speed Law was written. Obviously that law originally banned anything above 55 mph and was interpreted to require 55-mph speed limits even on certain roads that had previously been posted with lower speed limits. In 1987, it was amended to allow 65-mph speed limits, though originally that applied only to rural Interstates. I don't recall exactly how the provision was worded, but I do recall that I only ever saw one road with a 60-mph speed limit in the period between 1987 and the NMSL's repeal in 1995–it was in a work zone somewhere in South Carolina on I-85 and I saw it from a bus window on the way home from a school trip to Atlanta in 1991. I've always wondered why states didn't post more 60-mph limits and I wondered whether it was because the statute generally allowed speed limits higher than 65 mph only on rural Interstates, so states that were willing to go above 55 didn't see any reason to post 60 (especially states that don't reduce speed limits in work zones). I suspect that states that don't use 60-mph limits now do so in part because they're still largely following the 1987 NMSL structure except as to the overall maximum they permit.

[NWI_Irish96]

In Indiana, 60 is the standard speed limit for rural 4-lane non-freeways. Freeways, however, don't use a speed limit of 60 with one exception near Evansville. They go 70->65->55.

[SkyPesos]

60 is a very common speed limit in Missouri, at least in the St Louis area, where pretty much all the freeways through the suburbs use it.

In Ohio, they're mostly on rural 4 lanes in the southern part of the state, with OH 32 as a prime example using it as a speed limit.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

60 is widespread in MN both on rural 2-lane state highways and now most MSP freeways as well.

Wisconsin and Iowa fall in more with what you're describing, though. I think it was posted here Wisconsin only allows 60 as a construction zone speed limit.

[webny99]

NY is similar to PA in that 60 mph is not used at all. PA does have 70, though, which NY doesn't, sadly.

[zzcarp]

60 is a very common speed limit in Missouri, at least in the St Louis area, where pretty much all the freeways through the suburbs use it.

In Ohio, they're mostly on rural 4 lanes in the southern part of the state, with OH 32 as a prime example using it as a speed limit.

And on every freeway in Cuyahoga County except the Ohio Turnpike and right through downtown, ODOT posts a 60 mph speed limit.

Here in Colorado, it's sometimes posted on rural two lane roads as well as US 36 freeway in Boulder and I-25 between Santa Fe Drive and Colorado Blvd.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have a 60 MPH zone around the corner from me on Jensen Avenue in Fresno.  It was recently lowered from 65 MPH due to a new school opening.  Usually it's either 55 MPH or 65 MPH but I wouldn't call 60 MPH exactly uncommon in California. 

[gonealookin]

Here's Nevada DOT's latest highway speed limit map.  60 is quite rare but not totally unheard of; that's what's posted on the somewhat curvy stretch of US 95 along Walker Lake, part of Alternate US 95 near Yerington and a few minor highways.

https://www.dot.nv.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/17053/637069878487100000

70 mph is clearly the standard speed limit on rural two-lane highways.

[tolbs17]

Here in North Carolina they are common along urban interstates and on four-lane divided highways

[US 89]

60 is almost unheard of in Georgia. The only 60 zone I know of here is I-20 through central Atlanta. The 2-lane maximum is 55, urban freeways and rural divided highways are generally 55 or 65, and rural freeways can be up to 70.

It's not super common in Utah, but does exist on a greater scale than in GA. Mostly it's used on some urban expressways/freeways and rural 2-laners that are too dense/curvy/etc. to be posted at 65, the usual limit for those types of roads.

Related topic from last year where there was some discussion on the relative lack of 60 limits: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=28545.msg2572714#msg2572714

[jmacswimmer]

Off the top of my head, there are exactly 5 60 mph zones in Maryland:

-I-81 from south of exit 4 (I-70 interchange) to north of exit 8 in Hagerstown
-I-195 almost entire length (begins dropping for the BWI approach just west of exit 1)
-I-795 entire length
-I-83 from northern I-695 interchange (unnumbered, but would be exit 14) to exit 18 in Timonium
-MD 200/ICC almost entire length (drops to 55 just west of I-95)

No non-freeways are posted above 55, and only a select few non-interstate freeways make it above 55:

-The aforementioned MD 200/ICC (60)
-US 340 (65)
-US 13/50 Salisbury Bypass (65)

[capt.ron]

Arkansas uses 60 on their "5 lane freeways" that are in rural areas. But to this day I have YET to see a 60 on a 2 lane highway in Arkansas. Arkansas still insists on 55 for their 2 laners and it doesn't matter if it has shoulders or not, straight as an arrow or curvy. I'm not talking about super 2's or anything like that (65 mph is used on some of the S2's like AR 530 and formerly 549 -- Bella Vista bypass prior to it being I-49).

[JayhawkCO]

Two spots I've seen in Colorado:

1) South of downtown Denver on I-25
2) US160 just west of Walsenburg

[kphoger]

Two spots I've seen in Colorado:

1) South of downtown Denver on I-25
2) US160 just west of Walsenburg

Here are a few I've personally driven:

CO-47 around Pueblo is 60 mph. 
US-50 west of La Junta is 60 mph.
US-550 south of Montrose is 60 mph
It also resumes 60 mph south of Ridgway.

[Flint1979]

60 isn't a common speed limit in Michigan. Most of the rural two lane highways are 55 mph, in the northern part of the state they are 65 mph in several places. The freeway speeds range from 55 mph to 75 mph, I can't think of a stretch of highway in Michigan that uses 60 mph, some I would think are 65 mph and most are 70 mph. The only highways that have a 75 mph speed limit are US-10, US-131, US-127, I-69 and I-75. If I am forgetting one mention it these are the only highways I've seen 75 mph posted on.

[hobsini2]

Some of the Suburban Chicago Expressways have a posted 60. They first popped up on I-290 between I-90 and I-294. After that, ISTHA adopted the 60 MPH for I-88 & I-355 in DuPage County.  The shocker is that I-90 from Arlington Hts Rd heading west and I-355 south of I-55 is a posted 70 despite being truly suburban tollways.

[sprjus4]

60 is almost unheard of in Georgia. The only 60 zone I know of here is I-20 through central Atlanta. The 2-lane maximum is 55, urban freeways and rural divided highways are generally 55 or 65, and rural freeways can be up to 70.

US-41 has long 60 mph zones south of Atlanta.

[LilianaUwU]

In Québec, 60 km/h is a fairly uncommon speed limit, as the limit will usually be 50 or 70 km/h. As for 60 mph (100 km/h), only freeways go that fast, and some urban freeways go even lower.

[Hobart]

I haven't been there, but if I remember my useless trivia right, 60 miles per hour is the highest signed speed limit in Hawaii, reserved for interstate highways.

[sprjus4]

^ The Daniel K. Inouye Highway, a high quality two lane road, is posted at 60 mph.

https://hidot.hawaii.gov/blog/2017/02/06/speed-limit-to-increase-from-55-mph-to-60-mph-on-portions-of-daniel-k-inouye-highway-saddle-road/

[oscar]

I haven't been there, but if I remember my useless trivia right, 60 miles per hour is the highest signed speed limit in Hawaii, reserved for interstate highways.

Part of HI 200 on the Big Island, completely redone but still a non-freeway, also has a 60mph limit.

Other than D.C., Hawaii was the last holdout for keeping the hated 55mph National Maximum Speed Limit. It took a botched introduction of a speed camera program (when uniformed police officers make obscene gestures at the cameras, that's a sign you really screwed up)  to get 60mph limits in Hawaii.

[zachary_amaryllis]

Two spots I've seen in Colorado:

1) South of downtown Denver on I-25
2) US160 just west of Walsenburg

CO 115 between COS and Penrose

[Pink Jazz]

In Arizona, the only road that I know of with a 60 mph speed limit is SR 238 west of Maricopa (it was increased from 55 mph in 2018).