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A travel sign in 2007 along Interstate 90 in South Dakota could get a new speed limit sign if lawmakers increase the limits on the state's interstates.(Photo: Katye Martens, USA TODAY)
PIERRE, S.D. — Motorists on South Dakota's interstates could push the pedal to 80 miles an hour if a bill that passed a state House vote Tuesday becomes law.
An amendment to Senate Bill 1 would allow drivers to go 80 mph on portions of the interstates instead of the current maximum speed of 75. The bill, which passed the House with more than three-quarters approval, will have to be reconciled with a version already passed in the state Senate, according to Sen Bernie Hunhoff, a Democrat from Yankton.
Initial reaction to the speed-limit amendment was mixed. Gov. Dennis Daugaard "is willing to consider it as an aspect of a highway funding package," his spokesman, Tony Venhuizen, said in e-mail.
Marilyn Buskohl with AAA of South Dakota said she was surprised and wanted to learn more.
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"My initial thought would be with the problems we've had with distracted driving, adding more speed to it probably isn't a good mix, just because your reaction time has to be quicker," Buskohl said. "But I'm just learning about this, so I want to reserve any further comments."
GOP Rep. Mary Duvall of Pierre, a prime sponsor of SB 1, doesn't believe the speed limit amendment should have been included in the roads bill. In looking for ways to raise money for road repair and maintenance, the House State Affairs committee pushed out a bill Monday that would limit gas-tax increases to 2 cents per gallon for three years though lawmakers on the panel hope to find more money in the session's final days.
“For the most part, people drive what they consider to be a comfortable, safe speed for the road they're on, considering the traffic and the weather conditions.”
Dave Kingham, Wyoming Department of Transportation
"I think it should be a stand-alone bill and live or die on its own merits and not be tied to what we're trying to do to find money for," Duvall said of speed-limit increase.
She first heard about the idea of moving to 80 mph on the interstates late last week.
"I guess the argument (for a higher speed limit) is the faster you go, the more gas you burn, and the more taxes you'll pay buying gas," she said.
Republican Rep. Brian Gosch of Rapid City, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, said cars are being made safer these days. If SB 1 passes and more money is available to maintain and repair roads, "it would be a benefit to the citizens to travel across the state and get from Point A to Point B in a more timely fashion."
Interstate 90 spans more than 400 miles across the state from about 10 miles west of Spearfish, S.D., to Valley Springs, S.D., about 15 miles east of Sioux Falls. A 5 mph increase in the speed limit would allow drivers to cross the state in five hours without stopping vs. 5 hours and 20 minutes at maximum speed. I-29 goes for more than 250 miles north-south through the state's eastern portion.
Other states that have passed 80 mph speed limits — Idaho, Texas, Utah and Wyoming — have had no loss of federal money, Gosch said. And he noted that studies done in Utah "have shown that fatalities have actually gone down."
"I don't know that that's related to 80 miles per hour, but they have gone down," he said.
Along Marion Road bridge in 2010 off Interstate 90 north of Sioux Falls, S.D.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Dave Eggen, (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader)
The highway with the highest speed limit in the USA is a 40-mile stretch of toll road Texas 130 between Austin and San Antonio.
When Wyoming's Legislature was debating an increase in speed limits a year ago, it looked to Utah and Texas, which already had increased to 80 mph in portions of their states, said Dave Kingham, who works in public affairs for the Wyoming Department of Transportation.
"Neither had seen any increase in crashes or fatalities on the sections they raised to 80," he said.
Since Wyoming has had only had eight months of increased speeds on I-80, -90 and -25, it's too early to tell whether it has led to more crashes or fatalities, he said. But officials know that most drivers already were going 79 mph on those interstates before the speed change.
Their traffic engineers will monitor those accident trends for a period of two or three years and determine whether the speed is appropriate or needs to be reduced, Kingham said. Asked if drivers will simply push their speed up another five miles an hour, say to 84, he said "not necessarily."
"For the most part, people drive what they consider to be a comfortable, safe speed for the road they're on, considering the traffic and the weather conditions," he said. "If people felt it was safe at 79-plus on these sections, they might keep it at 80 if that's a safe, comfortable speed to them."
Gosch said he believes an 80 mph speed limit would be more strictly enforced in South Dakota and that people driving 84 mph would be pulled over.
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In Utah, the speed limit increased to 80 mph in three phases in 2008, 2013 and 2014, according to the Utah Department of Transportation. Today, a little more than a third of interstates in Utah have speed limits of 80 mph.
A 2009 Utah study on stretches of Interstate 15 in that state found drivers complied better with an 80 mph speed limit than with the previous 75 mph limit. The study showed a 20% reduction in drivers exceeding 80 mph.
Data from a separate 2012 study of two portions of I-15 in Utah found an 11% to 20% drop in speed-related crashes, depending on which stretches were studied.
"People are driving at the speed at which they feel comfortable, and they are doing it safely and prudently," Robert Hull, director of traffic and safety for the Utah Transportation Department, told USA TODAY in June 2013.
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