Citing safety concerns, Oregon's governor last week vetoed a bill that would have ended the state's status as the slowest state in the West.

SB502 would have authorized the state Department of Transportation to raise the speed limit from 55 mph to 65 mph for trucks and from 65 mph to 70 mph for cars on rural stretches of Interstates 5 and 84.
The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Randy Miller, was surprised by the veto, because the bill had been worked out in a compromise with the governor's office. It originally had called for raising the speed limits to 75 mph for cars. But Gov. John Kitzhaber said legislators didn't approve all the funding he requested for more state troopers to enforce the higher limit.
Kitzhaber has been a staunch opponent of higher speed limits; he also vetoed a proposed increase to 75 mph during the last legislative session in 1999. Kitzhaber said many Oregon motorists already are driving at 70 mph, and that raising the limit likely would cause even faster driving and more crashes.
Miller predicted that in the next legislative session in 2003, a higher speed limit will be approved, saying a new governor would not "live in a fantasy land" like Kitzhaber. (Kitzhaber is on his second term and cannot legally run for a third.)