A remote stretch of desert interstate could become ‘America’s autobahn’
Americans love driving fast cars fast. It’s the mystique of white-knuckling a sports car to its limit that made the German autobahn and Paul Walker famous.
An Arizona lawmaker wants to give drivers the green light to drive as fast as they deem “reasonable and prudent” on some of the state’s long, straight stretches of paved road, saying the lack of a speed limit will actually reduce deadly crashes. A traffic safety advocate said the bill invites catastrophic wrecks that could lead to higher insurance premiums for the state’s slowpokes.
State Rep. Nick Kupper, R-Surprise, joined fellow lawmakers at the Capitol this week for the opening days of the state’s legislative session. He’ll be pushing for his Reasonable And Prudent Interstate Driving, or RAPID, Act. If successful, it could lead to the removal of daytime speed limits on a number of interstate highways across Arizona.
“I’ve spent a decent amount of time in Germany with the military, driving up and down the autobahn and know how it works,” Kupper told Straight Arrow News. “We need to have an honest-to-God pilot program in our nation because there are so many empty, flat, great, well-taken care of Western roads in this country that there’s no reason to have a set limit.”
The bill, if enacted, would start with a pilot program along a sparsely populated stretch of Interstate 8 that lies west of the Valley metropolitan area and along the southern edge of Kupper’s district. After gathering data, the state’s Department of Transportation could give drivers on other qualifying highways the chance to burn rubber.
The bill would also enhance fines for left-lane lingering motorists that pose a safety threat should a Corvette ZR1 approach from behind. HB 2059 would issue $500 tickets to drivers hanging out in the left lane when not passing a slower driver for the first offense and $1,000 for the second time in the same year.
Yellow flag
Rick Murray, president of the National Safety Council’s Arizona chapter, pointed to decades of data showing higher speeds lead to more frequent and severe crashes and fatalities.
“A study of 25 years of speed limit increases found that a mere 5 mph increase in the limit resulted in an 8% increase in fatality rates on those roads,” he told SAN. “Arizona is already one of the deadliest states to drive in.”
An analysis of 2024 U.S. Department of Transportation data shows Arizona is fifth-deadliest state in terms of roadway fatalities.
Murray said the proposed bill represents a “dangerous departure from proven traffic safety standards” and predicted more people would die on Arizona highways if this bill is enacted.
Not the first state with the need for speed
Montana and Nevada were the first states to formally open some of their highway speed limits. The states carried the same “reasonable and prudent” standard on many of their roadways from 1955 until President Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act in 1974, which blanketed the country in a 55 mph speed limit and cut federal funding to states that didn’t enforce it.
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Texas State Highway 130 has the nation’s highest posted speed limit at 85 mph.
Only Montana reverted back to its high-speed ways in 1995 when former President Bill Clinton signed legislation repealing Nixon’s law. But the “Montanabahn” didn’t last. The state’s Supreme Court ruled the speed suggestion unconstitutional after a 1998 lawsuit from a driver ticketed for driving 85 mph said the ambiguity of a non-speed limit didn’t afford drivers due process. A 75-mph speed limit was posted in 1999 — the same limit posted on Arizona’s rural highways.
Arizona’s constitution doesn’t have the same provision requiring specificity that struck down Montana’s speed-limit-free roads.
Kupper dove into Montana’s traffic data from the years without a speed limit and found evidence that the lack of a clear speed limit had actually lowered traffic fatality metrics there.
“In a derestricted zone, their vehicle fatality rate per vehicle-mile traveled was actually lower than it was when they didn’t,” Kupper said. “If it’s safer, you get the combination of freedom and safety.”
Absent a speed limit, Kupper said most drivers cruise along between 75 and 80 mph.
Insurance costs
Arizonans pay an average of $2,644 a year for full-coverage automotive insurance, according to Bankrate. That cost is 2% less than the national average, and much less than the state’s neighbors to the west, California and Nevada. Murray said any legislation that pulls speed limits from roads would likely send that cost higher.
“Whenever claims go up, insurance goes up,” Murray said. “So it’s likely we will see even higher premiums in the future if this passes.”
While Arizona drivers are known for being notoriously aggressive, Cars.com lists the state’s average top speed on rural interstate roads as 68 miles per hour. More than a dozen states have higher average speeds.
The RAPID Act was first read in the House on Monday and assigned to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
