Illinois may increase speed limit 70

[kkt]

Changing speed limits will do nothing to fix that.  You cannot fix behavior using new laws.  It's that's simple.

Sure you can.  That's what laws are for, to change people's desire to do socially unacceptable things.  55 mph national speed limit, people caught on.  Some of them, it took a couple of tickets.

They did?  More like most of the states just ignored the 55 mph crappola and ticketed only for speeds above 65 or 70.

The ticket point moved from 70 mph to 60 mph.  It was enforced pretty vigorously for the first 7 years or so.  Then the fuel shortages ended (for a while) and the new Reagan administration was not going to be quick to withhold highway funding just because of lax speed enforcement.

That's a dramatic overgeneralization. Many states in the west continued enforcing at 70, giving very cheap, energy wasting tickets that weren't even moving violations to those that chose to go between 55 and 70. As you might suspect, officers didn't bother wasting their time to pull people over on those grounds very often.

States didn't start changing the tickets to "energy violations" until the early 80s, when 55 had already been the law for 7 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/26/travel/practical-traveler-the-55-mph-speed-limit.html

[vdeane]

Changing speed limits will do nothing to fix that.  You cannot fix behavior using new laws.  It's that's simple.

Sure you can.  That's what laws are for, to change people's desire to do socially unacceptable things.  55 mph national speed limit, people caught on.  Some of them, it took a couple of tickets.

People got the idea the speed limits have nothing to do with safety.  And in many states, they're still right!

[dave069]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

[SSOWorld]

If nothing else has happened by now it will not happen - ever.

[Mrt90]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I just assumed the Lake Co. portion of I94 would not change to 70, but remain 55 south of 132 and 65 north of 132.  I drive that route every day so I will post if it gets changed.

[rlb2024]

Changing speed limits will do nothing to fix that.  You cannot fix behavior using new laws.  It's that's simple.

Sure you can.  That's what laws are for, to change people's desire to do socially unacceptable things.  55 mph national speed limit, people caught on.  Some of them, it took a couple of tickets.

They did?  More like most of the states just ignored the 55 mph crappola and ticketed only for speeds above 65 or 70.

The ticket point moved from 70 mph to 60 mph.  It was enforced pretty vigorously for the first 7 years or so.  Then the fuel shortages ended (for a while) and the new Reagan administration was not going to be quick to withhold highway funding just because of lax speed enforcement.

That's a dramatic overgeneralization. Many states in the west continued enforcing at 70, giving very cheap, energy wasting tickets that weren't even moving violations to those that chose to go between 55 and 70. As you might suspect, officers didn't bother wasting their time to pull people over on those grounds very often.

States didn't start changing the tickets to "energy violations" until the early 80s, when 55 had already been the law for 7 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/26/travel/practical-traveler-the-55-mph-speed-limit.html

One of my co-workers got an "energy wasting" ticket on US 93 south of Kalispell, MT in the summer of 1979.  He was doing about 85 mph when he was stopped (speed limit was 55).  $5 fine, nothing on his record.

[hobsini2]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I-88 is 70 mph west of Route 56.

[kkt]

Changing speed limits will do nothing to fix that.  You cannot fix behavior using new laws.  It's that's simple.

Sure you can.  That's what laws are for, to change people's desire to do socially unacceptable things.  55 mph national speed limit, people caught on.  Some of them, it took a couple of tickets.

They did?  More like most of the states just ignored the 55 mph crappola and ticketed only for speeds above 65 or 70.

The ticket point moved from 70 mph to 60 mph.  It was enforced pretty vigorously for the first 7 years or so.  Then the fuel shortages ended (for a while) and the new Reagan administration was not going to be quick to withhold highway funding just because of lax speed enforcement.

That's a dramatic overgeneralization. Many states in the west continued enforcing at 70, giving very cheap, energy wasting tickets that weren't even moving violations to those that chose to go between 55 and 70. As you might suspect, officers didn't bother wasting their time to pull people over on those grounds very often.

States didn't start changing the tickets to "energy violations" until the early 80s, when 55 had already been the law for 7 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/26/travel/practical-traveler-the-55-mph-speed-limit.html

One of my co-workers got an "energy wasting" ticket on US 93 south of Kalispell, MT in the summer of 1979.  He was doing about 85 mph when he was stopped (speed limit was 55).  $5 fine, nothing on his record.

Interesting, thanks for letting me know.

[SSOWorld]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I-88 is 70 mph west of Route 56.

ISTM that if it was reduced at the county line, that isn't much further in.  Chicken-shits.

[peterj920]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I just assumed the Lake Co. portion of I94 would not change to 70, but remain 55 south of 132 and 65 north of 132.  I drive that route every day so I will post if it gets changed.

Does the speed limit really matter on that part of I-94?  Even though it's signed at 55, a person driving 70 would be the slowest guy on the road.

[Joe The Dragon]

The full Tri-State Tollway needs to be 70. other when it's jammed up you can easily do 60-75.

[Mrt90]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I just assumed the Lake Co. portion of I94 would not change to 70, but remain 55 south of 132 and 65 north of 132.  I drive that route every day so I will post if it gets changed.

Does the speed limit really matter on that part of I-94?  Even though it's signed at 55, a person driving 70 would be the slowest guy on the road.

You may be right on the weekends and during non-peak times, but at the times that I'm driving on it I'm lucky to be averaging 40mph, and hardly anyone goes faster than 70 because they know they'll be forced to slow down (maybe stop) shortly anyway.

[peterj920]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I just assumed the Lake Co. portion of I94 would not change to 70, but remain 55 south of 132 and 65 north of 132.  I drive that route every day so I will post if it gets changed.

Does the speed limit really matter on that part of I-94?  Even though it's signed at 55, a person driving 70 would be the slowest guy on the road.

You may be right on the weekends and during non-peak times, but at the times that I'm driving on it I'm lucky to be averaging 40mph, and hardly anyone goes faster than 70 because they know they'll be forced to slow down (maybe stop) shortly anyway.

Just to make clear, I'm not opposed to raising the speed limit on the Tri-State and I'll admit that usually when I drive it, it's at night or on the weekend.  But I do notice that traffic is faster in the 55 zone in Illinois than the 65 zone in Wisconsin, probably because Wisconsin enforces the speed limit more than Illinois does on the Tollway when I drove that stretch multiple times.  Have not been on 94 south of Milwaukee since it was signed at 70 in Wisconsin yet to see if there is a difference in average speed.   When traffic is moving, the slowest person in the 55 zone is driving 15 over and no one drives anywhere close to the speed limit. 

[dave069]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I-88 is 70 mph west of Route 56.

I-94 was supposed to become a 65 north of Deerfield Road. So I-88's 70 zone starts at the split with 56 now? I thought they were going to keep it a 65 between 47 and 31. Last fall the 70 started once I passed 47.

[ET21]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I-88 is 70 mph west of Route 56.

I-94 was supposed to become a 65 north of Deerfield Road. So I-88's 70 zone starts at the split with 56 now? I thought they were going to keep it a 65 between 47 and 31. Last fall the 70 started once I passed 47.

88 is 55 east of Orchard Road, 65 between Orchard Rd and IL-47, and 70 west of IL-47

[dave069]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I-88 is 70 mph west of Route 56.

I-94 was supposed to become a 65 north of Deerfield Road. So I-88's 70 zone starts at the split with 56 now? I thought they were going to keep it a 65 between 47 and 31. Last fall the 70 started once I passed 47.

88 is 55 east of Orchard Road, 65 between Orchard Rd and IL-47, and 70 west of IL-47

That's what I thought the zones were. Although the tollway said they were extending the 65 zone to IL-31 and I-88 between IL-31 and I-294 would be 60.

[US 41]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I just assumed the Lake Co. portion of I94 would not change to 70, but remain 55 south of 132 and 65 north of 132.  I drive that route every day so I will post if it gets changed.

Does the speed limit really matter on that part of I-94?  Even though it's signed at 55, a person driving 70 would be the slowest guy on the road.

You may be right on the weekends and during non-peak times, but at the times that I'm driving on it I'm lucky to be averaging 40mph, and hardly anyone goes faster than 70 because they know they'll be forced to slow down (maybe stop) shortly anyway.

Here's my experience with Chicago (driving from Indiana to Milwaukee). Usually everyone is doing 80 and then you have to slam on your brakes because every car in front of you starts moving at 20 mph. I typically take 94 through Chicago because the toll road is usually congested too and 94 is free. Why pay for the same traffic problems? Whenever 94 and 41 split off I typically take 41 to Wisconsin, again to avoid tolls. I don't think US 41 is that bad. Of course it takes longer that way then on 94, but the tolls are kind of expensive. I remember something like $1.50 at each toll booth and that was several years ago.

[hobsini2]

Anyone see higher tollway speed limits yet? As of last Friday I-94 is still 55 at least up to IL-137. I'm also pretty sure I-90 between Elgin and Rockford hasn't been raised to 70 yet.

I just assumed the Lake Co. portion of I94 would not change to 70, but remain 55 south of 132 and 65 north of 132.  I drive that route every day so I will post if it gets changed.

Does the speed limit really matter on that part of I-94?  Even though it's signed at 55, a person driving 70 would be the slowest guy on the road.

You may be right on the weekends and during non-peak times, but at the times that I'm driving on it I'm lucky to be averaging 40mph, and hardly anyone goes faster than 70 because they know they'll be forced to slow down (maybe stop) shortly anyway.

Just to make clear, I'm not opposed to raising the speed limit on the Tri-State and I'll admit that usually when I drive it, it's at night or on the weekend.  But I do notice that traffic is faster in the 55 zone in Illinois than the 65 zone in Wisconsin, probably because Wisconsin enforces the speed limit more than Illinois does on the Tollway when I drove that stretch multiple times.  Have not been on 94 south of Milwaukee since it was signed at 70 in Wisconsin yet to see if there is a difference in average speed.   When traffic is moving, the slowest person in the 55 zone is driving 15 over and no one drives anywhere close to the speed limit. 

I was on 94 last night between Chicago and Milwaukee. Most people were doing 70-75 in the 70 except in the construction zone by Wis 20. It was interesting to see a lack of troopers in Racine and Kenosha Co like there normally is going both up and down.

[SSOWorld]

Rail discussion moved to https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=15905.0... please take it there.

[dave069]

Weren't the speed limit increases in the suburbs supposed to be up by now? Does anyone know what the deal with that is? I haven't heard anything in the news about it so I assume everything is still 55.

[ET21]

Weren't the speed limit increases in the suburbs supposed to be up by now? Does anyone know what the deal with that is? I haven't heard anything in the news about it so I assume everything is still 55.

Suburbs I believe are to remain the same. I read somewhere about maybe pushing the Tri-State to 65, but don't remember where

[dave069]

I-88 parts of I-294 and the northern section of I-355 were all supposed to become 60mph zones. I-94 through Lake County was supposed to become a 65 as well. They said the postings would be done by late June or early July. Its August and nothing has been changed.

[02 Park Ave]

The speed limits would probably have been changed already if Rod Blagojevich was still in office.

[SSOWorld]

Quinn vetos, Rauner cuts the funding.  Go fib-iure

[dave069]

The speed limits would probably have been changed already if Rod Blagojevich was still in office.

Rod Blagojevich was against higher speed limits though. When he was governor Illinois had a 65/55 split speed limit on rural interstates for cars and large trucks. Every time the legislature passed a bill to do away with the truck speed limit he vetoed it. He would have never let 70 on rural interstates through let alone anything over 55 near chicagoland.

Quinn vetos, Rauner cuts the funding.  Go fib-iure

The Tollway is also user-funded. Personally, I think the old and the new teams of directors just don't want to do it for whatever reason.