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 Even still, why on EARTH is MoDOT citing that outdated IIHS study??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 Even still, why on EARTH is MoDOT citing that outdated IIHS study??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 Even still, why on EARTH is MoDOT citing that outdated IIHS study??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!