Comments about ‘Lawmakers approve 80 mph speed on 3 more stretches of Utah highway’

The average mid-sized sedan gets 35% worse gas mileage at 80 mph as it does at 55 mph. In other words, at today's $3.35/gallon gas prices, going that fast is the equivalent of paying $4.52/gallon. Is that really what we want? Slow down!

I ride a motorcycle and am already terrified of the drunks (text-cell phone)drivers on our roads. Hand held device use while driving is equivalent to DUI. I am somewhat disappointed that legislature has not addressed this. So now we allow hand held device use and driving at 80, sounds like a lethal cocktail to me.

The locations mentioned are pretty rural and I believe already have 75 mph limits. The average speed on the interstates locally, bogs down to a near stop at times during rush hour. Fuel economy goes out the window at that point, plus it contributes to the poor air quality in the valley.
Individual vehicle economy may go down, but shorter destination times offset part of that by removing the vehicle from the highway sooner.
55 was a political ploy of the Nixon administration to appease environmentalists of the day. It's been proven over and over not to have achieved the desired results.

This is great news. It just decriminalizes what is already going on. It is safer when all of the cars travel at the same speed. I once had a traffic engineer tell me that speed does not kill, differential in speed kills. There was a time in this country when there were no posted speed limits, just drive at a comfortable speed. Frankly, because of traffic, this is already accomplished.

Why is I-70 from Green River to the CO border conspicuously left off the list?

"It is safer when all of the cars travel at the same speed."

When does that ever happen? Allowing an 80-mile-an-hour speed limit will not accomplish that. Some, like myself, would travel 3-5 over that limit; while most others will travel closer to 10 over that limit. No one will really be driving the same speed. However, I wish, as one poster insinuated, that speed limits were done away with so that driver's like myself, who try to stay within the "unwritten" rule of five over the speed limit, would not get a ticket if they tried to stay up with most traffic. Personally, I didn't always drive this way, but now enjoy not having to always worry about there being a police officer or highway patrol catching me speeding. Now I drive the limit and watch others slam on their brakes at the first sight of an officer, and then proceed to drive well below the speed limit until the officer disappears, then speed back up again. It's quite a funny sight!

I think we should ticket the "slow" drivers in the left lanes! That would be a problem solver. Passing Utah drivers on the right get's old!