Current state speed limit increase proposals

[ElishaGOtis]

https://www.kq2.com/news/news-politics/2026/04/30/missouri-house-approves-speed-limit-bill-with-additions/

Missouri House approves speed limit 75 bill with some changes, sent back to Senate.

Excuse me... some MAJOR changes... the speed limit thing is mostly the same, but it got lumped in with some transportation omnibus https://www.senate.mo.gov/26info/pdf-bill/House/HCS-SB/SB1408.pdf

[Plutonic Panda]

Missouri lawmakers are warning about an increase in fatalities and horrible car wreck from raising the speed limit from 70 miles an hour to 75:

https://www.kfvs12.com/2026/05/01/modot-warns-safety-risks-lawmakers-consider-raising-rural-speed-limits/

[ElishaGOtis]

Missouri lawmakers are warning about an increase in fatalities and horrible car wreck from raising the speed limit from 70 miles an hour to 75:

https://www.kfvs12.com/2026/05/01/modot-warns-safety-risks-lawmakers-consider-raising-rural-speed-limits/

Misleading headline. MoDOT warns about this, not the lawmakers. This is something they've brought up before. Even still, why on EARTH is MoDOT citing that outdated IIHS study??

I kinda see their point regarding an automatic default limit increase without a study (personally would have preferred raising or eliminating max allowed speed compared to default), but even then, they still have the authority to post a lower limit if it becomes a hazard.

I'm curious to see if this actually passes in the week remaining...

[vdeane]

Misleading headline. MoDOT warns about this, not the lawmakers. This is something they've brought up before. Even still, why on EARTH is MoDOT citing that outdated IIHS study??

It seems to be taken as gospel outside of roadgeek/driving enthusiast circles.

[ElishaGOtis]

Misleading headline. MoDOT warns about this, not the lawmakers. This is something they've brought up before. Even still, why on EARTH is MoDOT citing that outdated IIHS study??

It seems to be taken as gospel outside of roadgeek/driving enthusiast circles.

Even then, I'm surprised that an engineering-based agency would significantly rely on / emphasize this study instead of the amount of research and guidance from the FHWA, ITE, AASHTO, and other states. There even exist valid engineering arguments against increasing the limits (especially above the design speeds), but instead it was this non-engineering one... maybe it's just a matter of opinion in this regard?

[kphoger]

I think it's funny that anyone would suggest that increased traffic deaths/accidents is a possibility that had just—what?—not crossed their minds until now?  Like, Oh, yeah, we hadn't thought of that!

[ElishaGOtis]

https://www.kq2.com/news/news-politics/2026/04/30/missouri-house-approves-speed-limit-bill-with-additions/

Missouri House approves speed limit 75 bill with some changes, sent back to Senate.

Excuse me... some MAJOR changes... the speed limit thing is mostly the same, but it got lumped in with some transportation omnibus https://www.senate.mo.gov/26info/pdf-bill/House/HCS-SB/SB1408.pdf

Senate & House agreed to changes!!   

If approved by Governor, Missouri will join the 75 club!! 

[ElishaGOtis]

There are a bunch of states that legally can increase freeway speed limits, but for one reason or another don't. AFAIK, excluding states that have a weird cap for freeways but no cap for other roads (i.e. Arizona, Wyoming) or caps for roadways that don't exist (i.e. Mississippi toll roads), these include:

• Alabama (none if approved by Governor)
• Alaska (admin code cap 75)
• Delaware (none except DE-1 at 65, except if VSL)
• DC (technically none but it's super urban)
• Florida (turnpikes only, technically none if rule adopted, of which can technically also override the 100mph criminal speed provision)
• Hawaii (technically cap 80, but that's the criminal speed threshold)
• Indiana (none)
• Iowa (it appears none?)
• Louisiana (none)
• Massachusetts (none except I-90 at 65)
• Michigan (none except for min mileage at 75)
• Minnesota (none)
• New Jersey (none except fines doubled at 65mph)
• North Dakota (none if public hearing and joint police approval gained, EXTREMELY RARE)
• Oklahoma (none)
• Rhode Island (none)
• South Carolina (none)
• Utah (freeways only, cap similar case to Hawaii where criminal speed is 105)
• Vermont (technically none, but AFAIK VTrans only defines design speeds up to 55 and allows posted limits 10 above design speeds)
• Washington (cap 75)
• West Virginia (none, legislature asked WVDOT to look into 75 over 10 years ago but nothing happened, yet...)

Will also add that Texas has the only-once-used cap of 85 if designed for such.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Of these states, do y'all think any of them would go around raising some limits (even on a single roadway)?

UPDATE: Apparently Ohio also has no cap, except for the Governor...