PHOENIX ÷ A decision made by the state Legislature yesterday could shave six minutes off your next trip to Phoenix.
A bill allowing the Arizona Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit on stretches of interstate outside urban areas, from 75 to 80 mph, passed unanimously out of the Senate Natural Resources and Transportation Committee.
The bill originally would have boosted the speed limit on sections of interstate and state highways with speed limits of 65 mph up to 70 mph and raised the excessive speeding level up from 85 to 90 mph.
But amendments gutted the bill and changed the mandated increases into a single optional speed increase for areas of rural interstate like the stretch between Tucson and Phoenix.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, said ADOT and Department of Public Safety officials asked him to make the changes in the bill.
"The way I see it, the roads are built a lot better than they were. I remember when I was a kid having 85 mph speed limits here in Arizona, and we have much better roads and much better cars than we had then," Verschoor said.
A fact sheet for the original bill provided by ADOT stated that raising the speed limits would cost the state Highway Fund $350,000 to $500,000 to print new speed limit signs.
Verschoor said he doesn't believe that people who drive 5 mph over the speed limit to avoid being ticketed will speed even faster with a raised limit.
"What most people do are 80, who I talked to. Most people felt comfortable with that. They'll admit at 80 mph or 82 mph people will go flying by them, but we're not going to change the excessive speed limit. So if they're over (85 mph), they're still going to get hit with an excessive speed limit," Verschoor said.
Implementing the new speed limits could take time as ADOT would have to launch engineering and speed-zoning studies incrementally over applicable portions of the interstate to measure width, curvature and other factors that limit safe speeds, said ADOT spokesman Matt Burdick.
While ADOT has not taken a position on the bill, Burdick said they might be open to it if the engineering studies pan out.
"As long as it is within the parameters we are required to meet · we don't have any opposition or support one way or the other," Burdick said.
Jenna McKnight, pre-business freshman, said she hopes the speed limit is changed.
"I could get to Phoenix faster," she said.
Nick Gerakos, an undeclared freshman, said he thought the proposal was a good idea.
"Most people are speeding anyway," he said.
The potential speed hikes would affect Arizona's five interstate freeways: I-10, 1-19, I-8, I-17 and I-40.