Come on New Jersey, Speed This One Thing Up With Our Roadways

I cannot be the only one feeling this frustration on our roadways.

Seriously, all of the speed limits.

Before I go on my rant about the experience so far, let me preface it by saying, yes, excessive speed is dangerous but what does that even mean?

I’m a native of the northeast, I worked in New Jersey when I was younger.  I’m very familiar with 80, 78, the parkway, and some of the turnpike.

These are all very heavily populated roadways, but so were the roads in and around the state where I just moved from over 5 months ago.

I spent the last five years living in Texas.

I’ll be the first person to say, with all the things I loved about Texas, there were a lot of things flawed in Texas.  Like a massive power outage during the coldest winter blast in decades, yup, I was there for that.  No power for 4 days, no water for 2, and it dipped into the negatives.

The one thing they did get right, was their roads.  Not only were they well maintained, but the speed limits actually make sense.

This last weekend, I was traveling north to the in-laws, and the Garden State Parkway, and the speed limit goes from 55 to 65, down to 55, and in some sections, did I see 45?  Really?  To me, and listen, I could be completely wrong, but that’s where you are going to see the most accidents.

People are traveling in excess of the speed limit in the northern stretch (even the southern stretch where it drops to 55 heading south near Toms River.)

So, to me, you’re going to have the people slowing down to obey but others that are whipping around the slower cars to maintain their 70+ miles per hour.

Hear me out, one thing I learned in Texas, is you can have 6 lanes (on one side) with a speed limit of 70, and in one section, 85 miles per hour.  Yes, 85 miles per hour.

That, my friends, is called the Austin bypass.  You pay a nice toll to travel on it but it is well worth it.

Side roads, back roads, and even two-lane highways through town see speed limits from 50 to 65 miles per hour.  Could you imagine doing 65 MPH down route 70?

On some side roads, going through the hill country, a stretch between San Antonio and Austin of hills, we’ve seen limits as high as 75 MPH.

Driving through Houston, forget it, if you're in the left lane, your right foot should never come off the accelerator.  I'm pretty sure people who drive there are primed and ready for NASCAR.

Am I asking for a 100 MPH speed limit on the Garden State Parkway?  No, but consistency throughout the entire parkway?  Yes, absolutely.

It should never drop below 65 but stretches from 65 to 75.