Kansas House Rejects Plan to Set Top Speed Limit to 80 MPH

Kansas House members are comfortable raising the speed limit on some highways to 70 miles per hour, but they aren’t ready to increase it to 80 on interstates.

The House approved a bill on a 106-19 vote Tuesday to allow the state’s secretary of transportation to increase the speed limits on non-interstate highways another 5 miles per hour, from the current 65. The measure goes next to the Senate.

The House’s action came after it voted 90-24 against a proposal from Republican Rep. John Bradford of Lansing to increase the speed limit on interstates to 80 mph from the current 75.

Bradford noted that seven other states have top speed limits of 80 or 85 miles per hour. But opponents cited safety concerns in rejecting his proposal.