2015: Your tax dollars at work deep in the heart of west Texas

[Palmetto]

Here's the thing about the back roads in Texas: you can make excellent time on them. Example: Port Mansfield over to Raymondville on TX186 has a speed limit of 75. There's roads like that all over the state now.

 

[MARC Rider]

Here's the thing about the back roads in Texas: you can make excellent time on them. Example: Port Mansfield over to Raymondville on TX186 has a speed limit of 75. There's roads like that all over the state now.

Yeah, I know, I drove over a good number of them on my journeys. The only problem is when the speed limit is posted at 75 and the area is getting built up and there's starting to get a lot of traffic, especially at the cross roads, and entrances to new businesses and stuff.

Then there's TX 130, a toll road that bypasses Austin, with an 85 mph speed limit, which I think is the fastest legal speed limit in the US. My little rental car had trouble getting up to speed on that one.

 

[Palmetto]

I've driven that a coupla times, and I was getting passed. Hard to believe. I-10 and I-20 in West Texas are 85 too.

 

[Bob Dylan]

I've driven that a coupla times, and I was getting passed. Hard to believe. I-10 and I-20 in West Texas are 85 too.

Those are the Legal Speed Limits! You'll get your doors blown off if you drive @ that Speed!

And the Toll Roads around Austin are becoming Clogged with Traffic, which is causing them to deteriorate, so Construction is ongoing resulting in Slower Speeds and Closed Lanes!

 

[MARC Rider]

I've driven that a coupla times, and I was getting passed. Hard to believe. I-10 and I-20 in West Texas are 85 too.

I drove I-10 out to Fort Stockton, and then I-10 back from Van Horn to Ft. Stockton. I seem to remember the speed limit was 80, which is why when I drove TX 130, I noticed the 85 mph limit.

Speed limits in the United States by jurisdiction - Wikipedia

Wikipedia seems to back me up -- TX 130 (and only part of it) is the only road in Texas with an 85 mph speed limit. I-10 and I-20 are 80 mph. Of course, lots of cars drive faster.

 

[MARC Rider]

Those are the Legal Speed Limits! You'll get your doors blown off if you drive @ that Speed!

And the Toll Roads around Austin are becoming Clogged with Traffic, which is causing them to deteriorate, so Construction is ongoing resulting in Slower Speeds and Closed Lanes!

So TX 130 is now clogged with traffic? That's a change, When I was last out there in 2017, it was pretty empty (not surprising, I seem to recall the toll was pretty stiff), at least the stretch from I-10 to north of Lockhart. That's why we were testing there, less traffic to interfere, yet close enough to the lab that everyone could go home every night.

 

[railiner]

Prior to the 1973 oil embargo, and the subsequent "double nickel", 55 mph national speed limit, Nevada, outside the cities had no speed limits. Neither did Montana, during daylight hours. When driving my '72 Monte Carlo between the Las Vegas city limits, up I-15, and the AZ state line, heading to and from Denver, I used the floorboard as my "cruise-control"...

 

[flitcraft]

Here's the thing about the back roads in Texas: you can make excellent time on them. Example: Port Mansfield over to Raymondville on TX186 has a speed limit of 75.

That assumes you have a car capable of going that fast. When we relocated from New Orleans to Seattle, we drove the southerly route through Texas--being February with no snow tires--in a 12 year old Dodge Dart with its engine on its last legs. We couldn't go over 45 miles an hour or it would boil over. There were tumbleweeds moving faster than we were! I remember looking forward to Fort Stockton for what seemed like forever, only to get there and find it just a wide spot in the road with some chain motels and eateries. Engine finally died in Portland and we spent a day getting a 'new' one from an auto junkyard. Good times!

 

[flitcraft]

I really enjoyed your report and your photos! Thanks again for posting it.

 

[Bob Dylan]

So TX 130 is now clogged with traffic? That's a change, When I was last out there in 2017, it was pretty empty (not surprising, I seem to recall the toll was pretty stiff), at least the stretch from I-10 to north of Lockhart. That's why we were testing there, less traffic to interfere, yet close enough to the lab that everyone could go home every night.

Yep, remember the old saying " Build it and they will come!"

Even though everyone claims to Hate Toll Roads down here, they fill up fast as they are built thanks to the Gridlock and the Terrible Drivers on the "Free Roads"!

I got a Warning ticket about 15 years ago on I-10 Outdide of Ft Stockton from the DPS Trooper ( Highway Patrol). I was going 105, he said to keep it under 90 and I'd be OK.( this was when the Speed Limit was still 70)

I saw maybe 5 Vehicles between Ft Stockton and the Alpine cutoff to Highway 90, cruise control on 90!