The state of Texas has a maximum speed limit that goes as high as 85 miles per hour, but only on certain highways. The maximum speed on federal highways, state highways, roads that are maintained by a city, and toll roads can have maximum speeds of 70 miles per hour. On county roads, the maximum posted speed is usually never higher than 70 miles per hour.
According to Texas law, there is a general legal speed limit up to 70 miles per hour for any rural roads that are numbered by the state or federal government. It doesn’t matter whether the roads are two-lanes, four-lanes, a freeway, or another road.
For roads that are outside an urban area that aren’t federal or state highways, the speed limit is set at 60 miles per hour, and 30 miles per hour for roads through an urban area.
Additionally, Texas law does allow speeds up to 75 miles per hour on any numbered state highway or city-maintained road and is one of the only states to have this speed limit on two-lane roads and highways.
Current speed studies taken by the Texas Department of Transportation allowed speed limits to be increased to 75 miles per hour on between 1,400 to 19,000 roads. The speed limit of 70 miles per hour has become extremely rare on Texas interstate highways.
Maximum speeds of 80 miles per hour on I-10 and I-20 in certain Texas counties are permissible according to Texas law because these counties have a low population density. The Texas Transportation Commission is able to set a speed limit of up to 85 miles per hour on any state highway system that is “designated to accommodate travel at that established speed or higher speed,” and an engineering and traffic investigation finds that speeds that high are “reasonable and safe.”
As of now, one of the only roads in the United States with a speed limit of 85 miles per house is a 41-mile part of Texas State Highway 130 from north of US-183 south to I-10 near Seguin and through the midsized city of Lockhart.
If you are driving in Texas, it’s vital that you adjust your driving to match road and traffic conditions, regardless of the posted speed limit. In some parts of Texas, separate night speed limits are used. These speed limits begin 30 minutes after the sun has set and end 30 minutes before the sun rises.
Speeding in the state of Texas is considered a Class C Misdemeanor. If you pay a citation for a Class C misdemeanor, that will result in a conviction on your record. While these charges are the least serious and don’t carry any legal disability or disadvantage, they still may cause problems in your life that you wouldn’t expect. You may want to consider reaching out to an experienced attorney for assistance in matters like this.
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