A return to fast

The Nevada Senate last week voted to raise the state's highway speed limit to 85 miles per hour.

Sen. Debbie Smith of Washoe County said she opposed the measure because people tend to do the speed limit and then some, which would mean some drivers doing more than 85. Sen. Pat Spearman of Clark County agreed with Smith and added that the National Transportation Safety Board has released a study showing Nevada's small county highways—where high speeds are routine—are twice as dangerous as its urban highways.

But the measure passed 15-6. Senate Bill 191 is sponsored by Sen. Don Gustavson, whose district includes Esmeralda, Humboldt, Lander, Mineral and Pershing counties, and parts of Washoe and Nye.

Gustavson said state highway officials have flexibility in where 85 zones are posted. “You won't see this through the spaghetti bowl,” he said.

Until 1973, Nevada didn't even have a highway speed limit, instead requiring “safe and reasonable” driving. One exception was part of World War II when the Legislature imposed a 35 mph speed limit to reduce wear on tires and save rubber, a crucial and scarce war commodity because natural rubber sources were controlled by the Axis powers and production of synthetic rubber did not become sufficient until late in the war. (By coincidence, on the same day that the Senate voted on an 85 mph limit last week, the capital newspaper, the Appeal, carried an item in its “This day in history” feature on the 1943 Legislature's enactment of the 35 mph limit.)

During the 1973 oil embargo, the Nixon administration imposed a national speed limit of 55 mph on states to save fuel, threatening to withhold highway funding unless states complied. When the crisis eased, the National Safety Council wanted the national speed limit retained for other reasons. Once imposed, every state was stuck with it. On long, flat, straight, dry highways that crossed western expanses like Nevada's, the double nickel was a major grievance. In 1981, the Nevada Legislature protested by making speeds between 55 and 70 an offense only for “energy wasting.” Only above 70 could drivers be ticketed for speeding. Law enforcement agencies mostly ignored the 55 to 70 speeders. “We don't write energy wasting tickets,” said a Douglas County sheriff.

The 1980 Republican National Convention adopted a plank proposed by Nevada delegate Cliff McCorkle that called for repeal of the speed limit, but Ronald Reagan's subsequent victory that year did not result in change.

In 1987, Congress enacted, and Reagan signed, a 65 mph speed limit, still holding onto federal authority to decide the issue.

On July 1, 1986, acting on a 1985 enactment of the Legislature, Nevada raised the speed limit to 70 and tentatively posted it on a section of Interstate 80 near Fernley. The Federal Highway Administration promptly said it would pull $100 million in highway funds from the state, and the state dropped the 70.

In February 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a Nevada challenge to the legality of the national speed limit.

Then in 1995, Congress enacted—and President Clinton signed—a repeal of federal speed limits, restoring authority over the issue to state governments.

In December 1995, a 70 mph speed limit was posted on state highways. The state never went back to the wide open days.

Utah has raised its limit to 75 and, on certain stretches, to 80.