More NJ Hwys Get 65 MPH Speed Limit

Concluding that faster cars don't cause more traffic deaths, the state is raising the speed limit to 65 mph on 125 more miles of New Jersey highways. New Jersey raised the speed limit for 475 miles of roads in 1998.

The higher speed limit will be extended to parts of 11 more highways starting Saturday.

The longest stretch will be 35 miles of Interstate 287 between Edison and Morristown. Routes 24 and 280 will get 65 mph speed limits for the first time, while Interstates 78 and 80 will have their 65 mph speed limits extended farther east.

Some critics fear the faster roads could endanger motorists.

"We can only hope there isn't a huge corresponding increase in the number of fatalities," Bill Margaretta, president of the New Jersey State Safety Council, told The Star-Ledger of Newark in Tuesday editions. "We're going to be watching the statistics very closely."

But the New Jersey Department of Transportation spent three years studying the impact of the higher speed limit on the roads where it was imposed in 1998, and determined that traffic fatalities did not increase.

Maria Errico, driving along I-78 in Somerset County, said the new limit was more realistic.

"People pay more attention when they drive a little faster," said Errico of Basking Ridge. "Most people are driving 80 (mph) anyway."

The new 65 mph zones are:

-9.2 miles of Route 18 in Monmouth County from north of Route 138 to Route 36.

-8 miles of Route 24 from Morris Township to Summit.

-About 4.5 miles of Route 55 in Gloucester County.

-Almost 8 miles of Route 78, from Route 24 into Newark.

-About 11 miles of Interstate 80 from 287 to west of Route 23.

-Almost 4 miles of Route 195, between Routes 295 and 130.

-A 7.5-mile section of Route 280 from Parsippany to West Orange.

-Almost 35 miles of Route 287, from Route 1 in Edison to Morristown.

-Two sections of Route 295, including a 5-mile zone in Gloucester County and 1 mile in Mercer County.

-Almost 9 miles of Route 95 in Mercer County, from the Delaware River to Interstate 295.

-About 23 miles of the Garden State Parkway in Cape May County.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News