Ride 85mph Legally

[Redfish Hunter]

The higher speed limits that Texas assigns to its straight boring interstates does make for an ideal Saddle Sore 1000 location. Especially if GixxerJasen and his friends from TwoWheeledTexans are BBQing in San Antonio.

 

[Bounce]

Here in Arizona, the legal speed limit on the rural Interstates is 75 MPH - BUT, the highway patrol will not ticket unless clocked at 86 MPH. So, go for it.

I wouldn't bet any money (or points on my license) on that!

OK, YMMV, but I have regularly passed DPS cars with their radar operating at +7 or +8 MPH over the limit with no adverse reactions. A few times I was even +11 or +12 MPH over and their reaction was to flash their lights as a warning to slow down - which I did. But so far (knock on wood) no performance awards.

And, while I have been paced for a while by a statey in some western state at about 95, waved at, and left in the dust, I don't use that experience to advise people that they can depend on such. I have also been stopped for +2 or +3 elsewhere. In the end, the limit is the limit and depending on the mood of an officer is a crap shoot. How fast can you afford to go?

 

[dcarver]

How fast can you afford to go?

As fast as my guardian angel can fly?

 

[jmdaniel]

I've heard that this particular toll road is getting the treatment first because we spent a butt ton of money building the road and no one is using it. Since it's a toll road, if no one uses it, then the money doesn't come back. Evidently one of the news organizations down there did a test and drove both 35 and the new road and managed to save less than 10 minutes on it, but paid through the nose to drive the new road. So, this makes it a little quicker, and gives people incentive to go pay to drive that fancy new road.

"We" didn't spend squat on the new road. Who did? A company from Spain. Gas taxes haven't been raised since 1991, so we farm out road building to foreign firms, who then recoup their investments via the tolls. On a very related note, tolls in the Austin area are being raised.

It's not that thrilling. Straight and flat. With grandkids in Laredo I've been on it a couple times now. It does shoot you around a bunch of traffic tho. And the toll cameras do see your tag @90. They'll just mail you a bill if you forget to stop at the booth..

You haven't been on this section, it only opened last week. The toll cameras can also see your toll tag at 200+, as they did test runs last week with the ridiculously fast Corvette and Cadillacs that are being sold today, (forget the exact models, too lazy to look them up).

Um.....watch out for pigs on the new highway....

Pigs?! The two legged ugly one?

Four legged feral hogs; two of them hit last week. Take one of those out at 85 on a Feejer, and your days of riding, (and probably fogging a mirror), will be over.

 

[Bounce]

Four legged feral hogs; two of them hit last week. Take one of those out at 85 on a Feejer, and your days of riding, (and probably fogging a mirror), will be over.

Yep. Been some folks lost or seriously hut when they hit either feral hogs or javalinas along River Road. In many cases the hogs made it and the rider didn't. Let's not forget those antagonistic ladders either.

Bottom line? **** that "guardian angel" superstitious bullshit. Don't out ride your sight line and carry the burden of your safety on your own shoulders. Always remember that 90+% is for the track. Keep some in reserve for the uncontrolled environment of public roads.

 

[Redfish Hunter]

Bottom line? Don't out ride your sight line and carry the burden of your safety on your own shoulders. Always remember that 90+% is for the track. Keep some in reserve for the uncontrolled environment of public roads.

But that "burden is SOOO heavy. And if I am carrying it, who can I blame with my problems?

Of all the things I don't want to hit, a hog is close to the top of that list. Down here in Swampy Flatlandistan, there are plenty of deer and hogs, but deer are not as solid as a hog. Believe it or not, an alligator would not be any fun either.

 

[Fred W]

Brings up an interesting thought. Probably too much to hope for, but here goes anyway...

In Northern New England all of the interstates go North-South, the general idea being that all the tourists (and traffic) come from those directions (both the big cities to the south and the Canuckies to the nord). The furthest north East-West interstate is I-90 (the Mass Pike). There is talk of a private East-West highway being built up north, and the builders/owners/operators would collect tolls for it's use. Sounds like Tehas has been doing this for a while now.

My question is: Do the private owners have the right to set their own speed limits on a privately owned, limited access roadway?

And a separate issue, wouldn't the private owners be liable for every accident that takes place on their private turnpike? How do they avoid that?

 

[jmdaniel]

My question is: Do the private owners have the right to set their own speed limits on a privately owned, limited access roadway?

And a separate issue, wouldn't the private owners be liable for every accident that takes place on their private turnpike? How do they avoid that?

No.

No, it's not their land.

From Wikipedia:

State Highway 130 is a component of the Central Texas Turnpike System, much of which was thought likely to be incorporated into TTC-35. Segments 1-4 of SH 130 were built by Lone Star Infrastructure in the Austin metropolitan area as an eastern relief route for Interstate 35.On June 28, 2006, Cintra-Zachry reached a $1.3 billion agreement with the state to build segments 5 and 6 of SH 130, which could have represented the alignment of TTC-35's highway component between Interstate 10 at Seguin east of San Antonio and U.S. Highway 79 near Taylor, Texas. According to the "Facility Plan of Finance," $412 million of financing for the project would be a federally-guaranteed loan under the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act, while the remaining financing would be from equity put forward by Cintra-Zachry and bank loans from private lenders. Per the agreement, TxDOT would receive between 4.65% and 50% of toll revenues depending on the performance of the facility, with a smaller share due to TxDOT if TxDOT does not authorize posting of daytime speed limits of 80 mph (130 km/h) or higher along the route.

The Cintra-Zachry Preliminary Financial Plan showed the expected toll revenue to be collected for Segment 5 and 6 at $14.9 billion over 50 years. The Preliminary Financial Plan for Segment 5 and 6 also showed $12.4 billion in earnings before taxes for the developer.