Highest speed limit on an undivided highway?

[relaxok]

Just curious what it is.. highest speed limit on a plain old 2 or 4-lane highway with nothing but a double yellow separating them.

Fast roads like that scare the crap out of me.. US-101 in Washington state in the Olympic National Park area, I'm pretty sure is 65 for a large part of it and is just 2-lane (1 each way) - with tons of logging trucks taking the route.  If I was a regular visitor to the area, I would be SURE that that's how I would die..  

Any place where it's higher?

[Kacie Jane]

I'm about 99% sure the speed limit on 101 in Washington is 60, not 65.

That being said Montana has several two-lane highways with a speed limit of 70, and I've heard rural Texas might have ones with 75.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

US 30 in Nebraska is 65 or 70 MPH.

[deathtopumpkins]

Western Texas has quite a few 2-lane roads with 75 mph speed limits, many of which aren't even really long enough or of high enough quality to even reach that speed though.

[roadfro]

Just curious what it is.. highest speed limit on a plain old 2 or 4-lane highway with nothing but a double yellow separating them.

Don't just think about double yellow lines here...

There are miles and miles of U.S. Highways in Nevada that are two-lane highway separated by broken yellow lines (and, increasingly often, centerline rumble strips). A high percentage of these are signed with 70 mph speed limits.

[Kniwt]

Western Texas has quite a few 2-lane roads with 75 mph speed limits, many of which aren't even really long enough or of high enough quality to even reach that speed though.

Here's FM 1053 just outside Fort Stockton. Not the best angle, but you can see the signage.
http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=&ll=30.952882,-102.860382&spn=0.001847,0.002749&z=19&layer=c&cbll=30.953108,-102.860117&panoid=spkvrR3fj5u_--P9gcX2ZA&cbp=12,70.36,,0,5

[corco]

I'm about 99% sure the speed limit on 101 in Washington is 60, not 65.

It might be 65 south of Aberdeen, maybe. and then between Sequim and Port Angeles, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the reverse-direction leg is mostly 55, actually. Then there's the super annoying and really long 35 MPH stretch around Lake Crescent

US 30 in Nebraska is 65 or 70 MPH.

It alternates 55-60 from Wyoming to Grand Island, then I think it's mostly 65 from Grand Island to Iowa. It's definitely never 70 (except maybe the Fremont bypass, but I don't think so- but that's a freeway anyway).

That being said Montana has several two-lane highways with a speed limit of 70, and I've heard rural Texas might have ones with 75.

All but US-93 from what I've seen/heard

[Scott5114]

Two-lane highways default to 65 MPH in Oklahoma. Don't think I've seen any undivided highway higher than that here, though.

[english si]

70mph, not that you'd reach it. Currently carries a 20mph advisory speed limit for loose chippings, which there aren't any of.

Standard roads in the UK have a national speed limit of 60mph (for cars, 40mph for trucks) on undivided roads and 70mph (for cars, 50mph for trucks) on divided roads. However motorways are dealt with separately in the legislation and have a 70mph speed limit (for cars, 60mph for trucks, though the EU-wide 90km/h speed limiters means that they can't reach that). This means that a single-carriageway section of motorway has a limit of 70mph. The only problem is that there are no places where you can reach that speed without having to slow down after a few seconds - here's the longest bit of undivided motorway status road, it's about 1000ft between two roundabouts.

Scotland makes it explicit here, rather than implied, with 70mph signs.

[vdeane]

You people out west are lucky.  The highest you see in NY on non-freeways is 55mph, even on roads that could use a faster limit (like NY 12 between Alexandria Bay and NY 37)

[algorerhythms]

You people out west are lucky.  The highest you see in NY on non-freeways is 55mph, even on roads that could use a faster limit (like NY 12 between Alexandria Bay and NY 37)

In Maryland it's typically 50 mph, with a few rare 55-mph exceptions (such as US 219).

[Chris]

Anything over 55 mph in Europe is rare, but not uncommon. Germany for instance has a general non-urban limit of 60 mph. There are also two-lane roads in Sweden and Hungary where 70 mph is allowed. In the Netherlands, 90% of the non-urban roads are limited at 40 mph.. (37 mph to be exact) We really got overboard with it.

37 miles per hour limit...

[corco]

Wyoming's blanket speed is 65 on rural roads. On some roads, that seems way too slow- you can comfortably go 85 down WYO 487 or US-191 from Rock Springs to Pinedale, even if it is just two lanes (ignoring deer).

Then pretty much every super narrow random paved cowpath has a 65 MPH speed limit, and cruising at 65 is comfortable unless you encounter another car, in which case it becomes kind of scary, because the roads are narrow and often deteriorated towards the margins. Fortunately it's rural Wyoming so you never encounter another car.

[Tom]

Until the so-called "energy crisis" of 1973-74, the highest speed limit on 2-lane roads in Michigan was 65 in the daytime and 55 at night.

[agentsteel53]

I have seen 110kph (68mph) in both Sweden and Mexico.  Mexico's two-lanes with good shoulders and visibility earn the 110, just like the four-lane dual carriageways with similar features.  I do not know what Sweden's regulation is, but the road was of similar quality to Mexico's standard I just described.

I believe* the Alaska Highway in British Columbia has a few sections of 110 as well.  Two lanes, wide shoulders, good visibility.  This seems to be a recurring international standard, and it corresponds fairly well to the US's 65 and 70 mph limits out west on that style of road.

(* it might be 100, though..... in any case, the road sure isn't patrolled much.  We made it from Seattle to Anchorage in 31 hours of driving - 2360 miles - through judicious use of the "floor the shit out of it" technique, 115mph, passing six or seven mining or logging trucks at a time.)

in Texas, they strictly believe that each and every one of their roads is wide enough to handle its level of traffic, and therefore the rural speed limits are set by county.  Any road in a county of sufficiently low population density will earn the 75mph limit given a basic engineering study.  If the road appears well below standard, it must be because it is never used.  If it's flat and has decent visibility, 75 it is.

(the 80mph on interstates is a special law above and beyond the standard engineering studies that explicitly mentions a dual-carriageway limited-access road.)

[agentsteel53]

Until the so-called "energy crisis" of 1973-74, the highest speed limit on 2-lane roads in Michigan was 65.

before said crisis, I know Nevada and Montana had no speed limit at all on their rural roads, and I believe some other states did as well.  (western Nebraska randomly comes to mind.)  However, anyone driving at absurd speeds was subject to a reckless driving charge.  90 was probably tolerated; 130 not so much. 

(which is how it is in Montana these days, interestingly enough!)

[agentsteel53]

That being said Montana has several two-lane highways with a speed limit of 70, and I've heard rural Texas might have ones with 75.

All but US-93 from what I've seen/heard

there is 70 on US-93.  Of all places, it's coming across Lost Trails Pass from Idaho - one of the more grueling stretches of road!

to be fair, it is a four-lane undivided highway there, not two.  But I think it retains the 70 as it drops to two lanes when the terrain levels out.

[national highway 1]

In Australia rural freeways & two lane highways are 110 km/h (68 mph), urban freeways are 100km/h (62 mph), while on remote outback desert highways it is 130km/h (80 mph)

[agentsteel53]

remote outback desert highways it is 130km/h (80 mph)

does this include two-laners?  if so, we may have a winner!

[Kacie Jane]

I'm about 99% sure the speed limit on 101 in Washington is 60, not 65.

It might be 65 south of Aberdeen, maybe. and then between Sequim and Port Angeles, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the reverse-direction leg is mostly 55, actually. Then there's the super annoying and really long 35 MPH stretch around Lake Crescent

According to WSDOT's log, the speed limit on 101 never goes above 60.  However, it also says the bypass around Sequim is 45, when it's actually 55.  So it's possible the speed limit info isn't updated as reliably and there's a 65 mph section hiding somewhere, but I don't recall any north of Aberdeen/Olympia.  (Never been on it south of Aberdeen)

I think there are 65-ers elsewhere in Washington though.

[Mr. Matté]

NJ's highest two-lane road's S.L. is a frighteningly high 55 on three roads (NJ 70, 72, CR 539 all in the Pinelands).

[agentsteel53]

I do not remember any 65 on US-101 in Washington.  I do, however, remember 65 on US-12 in the eastern part of the state, including a three-lane section of a climb that allowed me to behold the spectacle of a truck passing a slow vehicle in the passing lane, the two of them coming opposite to me, and then a third vehicle encroaching into my lane, heading up the hill, to pass them both ... with poor me having to ride the right shoulder and hang on for dear life.

Gordon's Trucking, BTW.  that was the third vehicle that crossed into the downhill lane and attempted to make me the fly on its windshield.

[corco]

I think there are 65-ers elsewhere in Washington though.

There's several 65s. SR 26 is 65 for pretty much its whole length, US-395 has lots of 65 MPH stretches where it's off freeway, I think 24 is 65, 97 heading from Wenatchee north is 65, I think 28 has 65 stretches. There's probably a bunch I'm forgetting, but generally the two digit east-west roads and US routes in eastern Washington have 65 stretches (20 may be an exception-it's been a couple years). US-12 alternates back and forth from 60 to 65, if memory serves correctly.

[Kacie Jane]

I do, however, remember 65 on US-12 in the eastern part of the state, including a three-lane section of a climb that allowed me to behold the spectacle of a truck passing a slow vehicle in the passing lane, the two of them coming opposite to me, and then a third vehicle encroaching into my lane, heading up the hill, to pass them both ... with poor me having to ride the right shoulder and hang on for dear life.

Huzzah! Thank you!  

I knew I had seen it in person somewhere, and had ruled out 101 and SR 20.

But as corco said, I imagine it would be far more common out east.  But SR 20 and US 12 (driving to Montana and back respectively, same trip) was the only time I've found myself on two-laners in that half of the state.

[agentsteel53]

now that I think about it, 395 has a couple as well.  South of 90 in the same area.  And I believe WA-21 near Lind too, which I submit is the most abandoned highway in the state.  I remember stopping in front of an old barn around 6pm one day and taking photos for two hours with no one driving past.