Committee hears bill to raise speed limits on widened highways; safety advocates urge rejection

The House Transportation Committee heard testimony on House Bill 312, a proposal from Representative Jedidiah Hinkle to raise posted speed limits by five miles per hour on national highways that have been expanded from two lanes to four lanes. Representative Hinkle said the change would apply both during the day and at night and is meant to address an inconsistency that left some widened stretches unable to use earlier statutory passing allowances.

Hinkle, the bill sponsor, told the committee the 2017 law allowing drivers to exceed the posted speed by 10 mph while passing was written for two‑lane roads and shorter designated passing zones; when those stretches were later reconstructed as continuous four‑lane sections north of Townsend, they lost that statutory allowance. "This bill increases the speed limit on national highways that have been expanded to 4 lanes for passenger…