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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEvery time I come back to Indiana, I am reminded of the absurdly low speed limits on Indiana’s urban interstates. I have lived in two other states besides Indiana, and in both states, a highway such as Interstate 465 would easily have a speed limit of 60 mph, if not 65 mph. Instead, it’s stuck with a speed limit of 55 mph because Indiana law sets a default speed limit on urban interstates of 55 mph, as it has ever since the national speed limit was enacted by Congress in the early 1970s.
Indiana is one of only a few states in the union that still have such a low speed limit on these types of highways set in law.
The Indiana Senate recently approved a bill to eliminate the lower speed limit for trucks on rural interstates. The state Legislature should take this opportunity to increase the default speed limit from 55 mph to 65 mph. Furthermore, it should also change the law so that highways that are not part of the interstate system but are built to interstate standards, are treated the same for speed limit purposes.
It is time to throw off this relic of the national speed limit era.
—Jay Neel, Houston
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