Committee advances bill allowing limited speeding to pass on two-lane highways

Representative Shepherd, sponsor of House Bill 205, told the House Transportation Committee the bill would allow drivers on two-lane highways with posted speed limits between 55 and 65 miles per hour to exceed the limit by 15 mph when using a passing lane to complete a pass.

“So what this does if you have a 2 lane highway with the speed limit between 55 and 65 or in between. You're allowed to go 15 miles an hour over the speed limit to pass only. And you can do that in the marked passing lane as well as the regular,” Representative Shepherd said during opening remarks.

Shepherd told the committee that the change was meant to address situations on two-lane roads where passing safely can be difficult and said the measure applies only to passing maneuvers in the passing lane. He also referenced earlier work by another legislator that expanded passing allowances on two-lane roads.

Mike Kane, representing AAA, asked the committee to send the bill to the amending order and offered a proposed friendly amendment. Kane said he and AAA read the bill as potentially allowing the 15-mph exception on interstate highways because of wording in the draft and asked that the bill explicitly exclude interstate lanes. Kane read a sentence he sought to add: “for the purpose of this subparagraph passing lane shall not apply to any lane on the interstate highway.”

Shepherd said he had heard the concerns and that the committee could address the wording without delaying the bill. Representative Crane moved to send House Bill 205 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation. The committee approved the motion by voice vote.

No formal roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript beyond the voice vote and the committee chair’s announcement that the motion carried.