{"id":4411,"date":"2014-01-09T01:21:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T01:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2014-01-09T01:21:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T01:21:22","slug":"amarillo-pushes-its-pedal-to-the-metal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=4411","title":{"rendered":"Amarillo pushes its pedal to the metal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Amarillo’s City Council members — four of them at least — might need an intervention of sorts.<\/p>\n

They’ve become suddenly obsessed with speed. I don’t get this decision in the least.<\/p>\n

The council voted 4-1 to increase speed limits on Interstate 27 from Hillside Road to Bell Street to 65 mph. Brian Eades, a physician when he’s not making city policy, was the lone “no” vote. I feel compelled to mention Eades’s profession because — even as an ob-gyn — he has a keener sense, it seems, of the health risks involved in this decision.<\/p>\n

Council member shouldn’t need to be reminded that the stretch of highway where it’s going to be legal to drive 65 mph isn’t exactly in the middle of nowhere. It remains a fairly heavily traveled stretch of highway. As Dr. Eades noted, “This is not a low-volume traffic area. I think they’re being too aggressive in setting faster speed limits to the public’s detriment.”<\/p>\n

The Texas Department of Transportation recently boosted speeds to 75 from Bell to the southern city limits. That area, too, can see heavy traffic volume.<\/p>\n

The city acted on a recommendation from my old buddy, Amarillo Police Capt. Jeff Lester, who said a 65-mph speed limit between Hillside and Bell would make for an easier transition to the 60 mph limits north of Hillside for motorists coming in from the 75-mph race track south of the city on Interstate 27.<\/p>\n

Whatever.<\/p>\n

I just cannot quite fathom this need to boost speed limits along an increasingly urban interstate highway.<\/p>\n

As I’ve noted many times in the past, these speed limits aren’t being followed as it is. Post a 60 mph speed limit and drivers will push it to 65 or faster; 65 gets pushed to 70 and beyond; and 75 gets pushed to — gulp! — 80.<\/p>\n

What’s the rush?<\/p>\n\n

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Amarillo’s City Council members — four of them at least — might need an intervention of sorts. They’ve become suddenly obsessed with speed. I don’t get this decision in the least. The council voted 4-1 to increase speed limits on Interstate 27 from Hillside Road to Bell Street to 65 mph. Brian Eades, a physician … Continue reading Amarillo pushes its pedal to the metal<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[288,325,4357,4606],"class_list":["post-4411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amarillo-city-council","tag-amarillo-police-department","tag-speed-limits","tag-texas-department-of-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}