The Idaho Senate Transportation Committee is currently debating Senate Bill 1133—a bill that gives the Idaho Transportation Department authority to raise the speed limit on state highways and interstates to 75 mph. The bill would also remove the 65-mph limit on vehicles with five or more axles operating at a gross weight of 26,000 pounds.
In other words, let it rip.
The bill would, of course, pertain to sections of U.S. Highway 20—the valley residents' path to Boise—and Highway 75 between Bellevue and Twin Falls.
So, what's the difference in travelling 75 versus 65 mph?
For every 100 miles you travel, figure on picking up 12.6 minutes. For a trip from here to Boise, that comes to about 19 minutes. From here to Twin Falls, figure six minutes (the speedway would likely start at the intersection of Highway 75 and U.S. 20.)
For all that, we get the likelihood of more accidents, more violent accidents and, eventually, higher insurance premiums. We would also get the pleasure of negotiating 400 miles of Idaho highways with big rigs barreling along at 75 mph.
As any high school physics student can tell you, the kinetic energy of any object goes up with the square of its velocity. Raise the speed limit by 15 percent, as the bill does, and big, metal vehicles move around with 33 percent more energy—energy that goes into breaking bones and lives in the event of a crash.
Obviously, the trucking lobby is pushing this bill. After all, time is money.
True enough. But time is life, too, and he who spends more of it with loved ones wins.
