As of this month, North Dakota has increased interstate highway speed limits from 75 mph to 80 mph on its many long, straight stretches of open road. At the same time, the limit was brought down to 70 near some population centers. I like this concept.
For my coastal elitist friends reading this, yes, ND has population centers. Specifically, in this case, we’re talking about Dickinson, Grand Forks, Jamestown, Medora, and Valley City, as confirmed by the NDDOT to the local publication, the Argus Leader. (But of course, the state’s population is pretty sparse—only about 800,000 humans are living across its 70,698 square miles, making it the fourth-least-densely populated state in the union.)
ND is also adjusting speeding fines (via House Bill 1298). Where the limit is 65 or higher, you can be ticketed $20, or $5 per mph (whichever is greater), and there’s an extra $20 fee for speed clocked more than 16 mph over the limit. So if police catch you at 97 mph in an 80 zone in North Dakota, that’s a $105 penalty.
Fines went up a little bit on slower roads, too—where the limit is less than 65, it’s $20 or $3 for each mile per hour over the limit, whichever is greater.
At the risk of sounding elitist myself, that sounds like a pretty modest fee for high-speed highway travel. But the real pain you feel as a motorist in America is the insurance hikes you’re hit with after a traffic stop. That can be a rant for another day.
I have mixed feelings about speed limits and their enforcement. Where I live in rural New York, speed limits are preposterously low and arbitrarily enforced, creating inconsistent speed deltas and traffic stops in dangerous areas. However, the IIHS spent a long time studying speed limits a few years ago and concluded that a 5 mph increase in limits does indeed lead to more fatalities.
Whether a 5 mph increase in some spots, but a 5 mph decrease in others, will cancel that out in North Dakota remains to be seen, I guess.
But practically speaking, the idea of being able to travel swiftly on long, open straightaways through open country while reducing speeds through junctions and settlements makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve driven all the way across the USA, and I say bring on the American autobahn. Just keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel when you’re covering 117 feet every second.
With North Dakota’s limit change, there are now nine states with 80 mph speed limits. Idaho, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming all have spots where you can legally do 80, and Texas has a few where the limit is as high as 85.
Got opinions on speed limits? Let’s talk about it, my email is [email protected].
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