Speed limits along the Ohio Turnpike and rural freeways in the state would be raised from 70 miles per hour to 75 mph under changes made Monday to the state’s transportation budget bill.
The proposed 75-mph limit would apply to the same stretches of highway in Ohio that had the speed limit raised two years ago, according to Senate Transportation, Commerce and Labor Committee Chair Gayle Manning, a North Ridgeville Republican.
The higher speed limit would only apply to vehicles weighing 8,000 pounds or less when empty, according to the revised bill.
If passed, Ohio would be the 17th state — and only the second state located entirely east of the Mississippi River — to have a rural speed limit of 75 mph or higher, according to the National Motorists Foundation.
The measure is one of a number of changes Manning’s committee made to the two-year transportation budget legislation. The revised bill must still be approved by the full Senate and the Ohio House.
Manning said that a 75-mph speed limit “would help people who are trying to get to work.”
The senator said that lawmakers found that the speed-limit increase to 70 mph along rural highways, passed two years ago, “has not caused any problems at all – actually, accidents have gone down.”
The Ohio State Highway Patrol doesn’t have an official stance on the proposed change, a patrol spokesman said Monday.
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