Speed Limits Complaints

An Oregon Speed Limit Sign

I'm about to complain about speed limits. And this time it's not because they are often set too low. Well mostly not because.

Recently, because of a bad crash on Interstate 84 in Oregon, I found myself on Washington Highway 14, which runs along the north shore of the Columbia River. It is only two lanes (one in each direction) and there are no passing lanes. 

The speed limit there is 65 mph for passenger vehicles (hereafter "cars") and 60 mph for trucks. To have the truck speed limit below the car speed limit on a two-lane highway is, I think, dangerous. That pretty much forces car drivers to slow down a lot or pass the trucks. Passing is an inherently dangerous situation. But 60 mph is the Washington State truck speed limit no matter the road. I'm sure if I complained to the Washington State DOT, they'd lower the car speed limit to 60. The WSDOT loves to lower speed limits almost as much as they love roundabouts.

I also drove in Oregon. Oregon does it differently. The truck speed limit is 5 mph less than the car speed limit down to 60 mph car speed limit. Between The Dalles and Portland on Interstate 84, the speed limit in Oregon is 65 mph for cars and 60 mph for trucks, the same as on Highway 14 in Washington (at least the beginning of it from I-82 to Highway 97). Which I think is ridiculous to have the speed limit that low on an interstate highway. Oregon only raised the speed limit on parts of I-84 in 2016. Before that all of I-84 was 65/60 which was horrible. (It was 55 mph in the bad old days of the NMSL*, which was heinous.) It's now 70/65 from The Dalles to the Idaho border.

However, drivers in Oregon pretty much ignore speed limits anyway. Which is becoming the situation in Washington, too. 

I-84 goes to 80 mph in Idaho. The truck speed limit in that part of Idaho is also 80 mph according to my research. (When I was last there, the truck speed limit was 70 mph). 

Have you noticed any inconsistent speed limits especially between states? Let me know in the comments below.

*NMSL is the National Maximum Speed Limit that imposed a 55 mph speed limit on the whole nation. It was passed in 1974 in an attempt to conserve oil. In 1987 it was raised to 65 mph on "rural interstates" (which means we had 13 years of nation-wide 55 mph speed limits even on the 73-mile stretch of interstate that is almost completely straight between Ritzville and George, Washington). In 1995 it was repealed completely.