WEST TEXAS – DRIVE LIKE HELL, YOU’LL GET THERE

By Bennett Owen

But don’t blink or you’ll miss a little Loving.

The Houston Chronicle reports Texas legislators are considering upping the speed limit to 85 MPH (136 KMH) in remote parts of the state. Read that, West Texas. 

The Lone Star State already boasts the fastest speed limits in the country and yet traffic fatalities are trending downward. Still, the article quotes a Sheriff who fears West Texans just can’t drive 85… “You put it up to 85, and they drive 5-10 mph faster they’ll be going close to 100.”  The piece also quotes a trucker who quips that, “out in West Texas or the Panhandle, they’re probably driving that speed anyway.” Read the article here.

Of course we all remember Montana’s short-lived experiment with “Reasonable and Prudent…” a speed limit that gave rise to The Montanabahn.  Am I reading in to this interview or is the Governor a bit wistful about its demise? 

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As for testosterone pumping, I once drove from Berlin, Germany to Innsbruck, Austria in 5 ½ hours. That’s the equivalent of doing the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

Of course, what Montana and West Texas have in common besides the need for speed, are massive reserves of crude oil, very long distances to cover and very few people.  West Texas boasts an average eight persons per square mile and towns like the aptly named Notree …

In Montana about 212 highway patrolmen cover more than 50-thousand miles of highways and interstates … and one of the worst driving hazards is road kill frozen to the pavement. Having done away with reasonable and prudent, one Montana legislator is trying out UNREASONABLE and IMPRUDENT as he tries to outlaw DUIs laws …

He is a tavern owner by the way. And the New York Times reports that cell phones play a part in one third of traffic accidents … ”inattention blindness” is the new term.

Stories like that make me want to “Boogie Back to Texas …” Speaking of speed is it the rosin or is this fiddler’s bow on fire?