Texas to open fastest US highway with 85 mph limit - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Texas is a state that prides itself on superlatives.

In the case of speed limits, it will soon have bragging rights. The Lone Star State will soon open a stretch of highway with the highest speed limit in the country.

The Texas Transportation Commission has approved the 85 mph speed limit for a 41-mile-long toll road near the Interstate 35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio.

The road runs several miles east of the interstate between two of the state's largest metropolitan areas. And while some drivers may be ready to test the new limit, others ask if it is safe.

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.

Most highways in the U.S. top out at 75 mph, and there are no longer any roads in the U.S. with no speed limit like Germany's autobahn. Some highways in rural West Texas and Utah have 80 mph speed limits.

The Texas Legislature last year approved 85 mph limits for some new stretches of road. The strip of toll road northeast of San Antonio will be the first to allow that speed when it opens in November.

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