Texans will soon be able to really put the pedal to the medal.
A stretch of toll road that's under construction between Austin and San Antonio will have a speed limit of 85 mph.
It will be the highest speed limit in the country!
The 41 mile stretch of highway will open for traffic by November.
"I would love it," Austin resident Alan Guckian said. "Sometimes it's fun to just open it up."
But while some drivers will want to test their horsepower and radar detectors, others are asking if safety is taking a backseat.
"The research is clear that when speed limits go up, fatalities go up," said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He said higher speed limits get people to their destinations faster, "but the trade-off is more crashes and more highway deaths."
A 2009 report in the American Journal of Public Health studied traffic fatalities in the U.S. from 1995 to 2005 and found that more than 12,500 deaths were attributable to increases in speed limits on all kinds of roads.
Texas is one of only two states with speed limits on some of its highways that are 80 mph. The other state is Utah.
We're asking Facebook fans on this Friday if they feel this speed limit is too fast? Would you feel safe on the roadways here in Michigan if the speed limit was increased? Chime in now!
