DES MOINES, Iowa - A state lawmaker says his proposal to raise the speed limit simply modernizes the law to match current driving patterns.
Republican Representative Chris Hagenow of Urbandale is still trying to move his bill forward even though it was tabled by a House subcommittee earlier this week. He contends it would simply modernizes the law to match current driving patterns.
"The only people that are driving the speed limit are the people that are getting cussed at by the people who are flying around them in the left hand lane," said Hagenow. "That's more of a danger than the folks that are going the five or 10 miles an hour over that they already are."
The sub-committee that postponed the proposal cited cost and safety concerns. Hagenow says slower traffic creates a safety hazard in itself.
He also stressed that his proposal could safely apply to many roads across Iowa. "The way it has to be drafted is the maximum speed limit on highways and interstates," Hagenow said. "So it doesn't require that the speed limit go up five miles everywhere. But when you get out of town, when you're driving either across I-80 or another two lane highway someplace that, you get out in the clear, that would go up five miles an hour."
Although Hagenow's proposal has now been tabled, it could reemerge later on in the current Iowa legislative session that still has several months left.