Tomorrow, West Texas will move a little faster

If you're headed out to West Texas soon, you might want to pack your helmets and racing gloves: Tomorrow, the speed limit on two stretches of interstate will increase to 80 mph, the fastest posted speed in the U.S. The higher speeds will affect 521 miles of Interstates 10 and 20, from Kerrville to just east of El Paso on I-10 and from Monahans to the I-10 interchange on I-20.

As Houstonist noted earlier, the increased speed limit seems to be the result of drivers speeding. Don't believe us? Just ask state Rep. Pete Gallego, who led the 80 mph push:

"I think the average driver is already speeding in that stretch of West Texas under the current law," said Gallego, D-Alpine. "It essentially legalizes the behavior that's already out there and I don't expect any change in safety. I really don't think there's going to be too much difference. We might see fewer traffic tickets, I suppose."

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"Where I live, there are such lonely stretches of highway that DPS might stop you if you're doing 66 in a 65 just to have somebody to talk to," Gallego said.

We've been to West Texas before, and we know it's lonely, but that's just a little creepy. Critics of the higher speed limit are complaining about people spending more on gas and getting into more accidents: "This will result in more deaths. The research is pretty clear about that," Insurance Institute for Highway Safety spokesman Russ Rader told the AP. "You get someplace faster, but at what cost?" But state transportation officials said fatalities on some stretches of West Texas highway dropped after the speed limit was increased to 75 a few years ago.

So all this has left Houstonist wondering about the state's policy of raising speed limits if most of the people on a certain road speed — think they'll do that everywhere? It sure would make it easier to get to the beach if the speed limit on the Gulf Freeway was increased to, say, 100. And someone moved all that traffic out of the way.