Legislation that could raise highway speed limits to 75 mph in some parts of Washington was signed into law yesterday by Gov. Jay Inslee, according to the Spokesman-Review.
The bill will take effect in July and authorizes the Washington State Department of Transportation to raise speed limits above 70 mph in areas where studies show doing so would be “reasonable and safe.”
Using his first veto of 2015, Inslee struck out a section of the bill that presumed that the increases would be reasonable in at least some locations, stressing that without a recommendation from traffic safety officials, the speed limit won’t be increased.
The Department of Transportation will work with the Traffic Safety Commission and the Washington State Patrol to study whether the speed limit could be raised without compromising safety.