• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Crime / Courts / House will debate speed limit again

House will debate speed limit again

March 24, 2005 By admin

The speed limit will be “up” for debate again next week in the Iowa House. Previous attempts to raise Interstate highway speeds to 70 miles an hour have failed, but one who isn’t giving up is House Speaker Christopher Rants. Rants says “Iowans are proving on a daily basis that they want to drive 70 miles an hour.” In an effort to broaden support for higher speed limits, the house added higher fines for speeding. Rants says he not only agrees, he won’t raise one without the other. If we’re not going to “catch the speed limit up to what Iowans want it to be,” he says, we shouldn’t raise fines for speeding. Rants says we’re not going to raise fines on speeders if we’re not going to “modernize” the speed limit. Republican Senate Co-President Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny says that could be the incentive needed to pass the bill in the Senate. Earlier this year the Senate transportation committee defeated a broader speed-limit bill, but Lamberti says an interstate-only bill may have a better chance. So the house version is to be debated by a committee on Monday, then by the full House next Thursday. Lamberti says the more stuff they put into the bill, like four-lane divided highways, raising speed limits to 70 or 75…the harder it’ll be to pass. He notes “This seems tob e about as bare-bones a speed limit as you can get.” Republican House Majority Leader Chuck Gipp of Decorah says the bill shouldn’t have much impact because Iowans already are driving that fast. Gipp says Missouri’s 70, Iowa’s 65 and Minnesota’s 70 but says people who’ve studied it say people don’t change their speeds when they drive across the state lines. He says people already know what speed they’re comfortable with and there’s no reason to assume people will go faster if the speed limit’s increased. The bill directs money from the higher fines to go toward new patrol cars and county clerk-of-court offices. They’re now under a series of furloughs ordered because of inadequate funding for the state court system.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Crime / Courts Tagged With: Legislature, Republican Party

Featured Stories

Abortion opponents call for ‘life at conception’ law to ban all abortions

Bill would limit placement of solar arrays on farm ground

Marquette casino moving to land, leaving only 2 casino boats in Iowa

Reynolds signs her ‘school choice’ bill into law

Governor Reynolds touts 2024 Iowa Caucuses in Inaugural Address

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

UNI looks to end skid at Evansville

No. 11 Iowa State visits West Virginia

Fast start boosts Drake at Murray State

No coaching changes coming for Iowa football

Iowa State names new receivers coach

More Sports

Archives

Copyright © 2023 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC