The Texas highway department will start changing speed limit signs along Houston-area freeways within the week, officially ending the much maligned, politically unpopular 55-mph speed limit,
according to a story in the Houston Chronicle.
The Environmental Protection Agency this week signed off on the proposal to do away with the limit -- the final step in a process that began almost as soon at the lower limit went into effect this spring.
For the few drivers still traveling at the posted limit, though, it would be wise to wait until Texas Department of Transportation road crews actually begin posting the new 60 and 65 mph signs -- 3,200 in all -- before hitting the gas. The posted limit is still the limit. The 55-mph limit, which went into effect in May, was initially part of the federally mandated plan to get the Houston-Galveston region into compliance with national air quality standards by 2007. The thinking, based on scientific models, was that driving slower meant less pollution.
The measure was vilified from the start and drew heated negative response from drivers in the eight-county area under the "environmental" speed limit. New scientific modeling later showed the reductions in pollution from the lower limit were not that significant, at least not significant enough to warrant the aggravation of driving 55 mph and the heat it was placing on politicians.
In June, commissioners with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality voted to suspend the 55 mph limit until 2005, when Houston's clean-air plan is due for re-evaluation, and reinstate the 70 mph limit for cars and light trucks, but not heavy vehicles more than 10,000 pounds.
Safety concerns and legal issues forced the agency to again change course in September, dropping the dual speed limit proposal in favor of one setting the limit at 65 mph on roads where it used to be 70 and 60 on roads where it used to be 65.