Governor Spurs Effort to Hike Freeway Speed

Gov. George Deukmejian teamed up with Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham on Tuesday to place the nation’s governors on record urging the federal government to allow states to raise the speed limit on rural freeways from 55 m.p.h. to 65 m.p.h.

It was the latest gain for a growing national movement to scrub the 55 m.p.h. speed limit, which went into effect in 1974 as a gasoline saving measure, quickly became a tool for saving lives and gradually has become all but ignored by motorists and highway patrolmen alike.

“There are numerous rural areas where it is perfectly safe to drive 65 m.p.h.,” Deukmejian told the governors at the windup of their annual winter conference. “And there are a tremendously large number of motorists who are exceeding the limit.”

He argued that many highway patrolmen deployed in a futile effort to enforce the 55 m.p.h. limit in rural areas could better be used to patrol urban freeways.

Deukmejian, unlike many of his colleagues, tends to shy away from becoming actively involved in issues at governors’ conferences. The speed limit, however, is something he feels deeply about. He sponsored a resolution at last summer’s Western Governors Conference that also called on Washington to raise the limit.

Mecham, Arizona’s freshman governor whose state has been fined $510,000 by the federal government for not enforcing the 55 m.p.h. limit, took the lead in pressing the issue at this governors’ conference. Deukmejian was Mecham’s chief supporter, seconding all his motions and speaking out on behalf of them.

Other than a criminal justice committee Deukmejian chaired Sunday that discussed the issues of drug abuse and immigration, the speed limit was the only subject in which he exhibited any interest during the three-day conference.

Away from the conference, however, Deukmejian met privately with U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter and Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige to discuss his April trip to European Common Market countries and with Vice President George Bush and California Republican members of Congress to talk about politics, particularly about his contemplated favorite-son presidential candidacy.

Aides to the governor said the Republicans gave a mixed review to the idea of a Deukmejian candidacy.

States technically can set their own speed limits, but if they choose not to enforce the 55 m.p.h. limit, they lose part of their federal highway funds. California would be docked roughly $38 million by Washington if it were to raise its limit.

A highway bill that includes a provision to permit a 65 m.p.h. limit on rural highways is pending in a congressional conference committee. The speed limit provision passed the Senate but was not included in the version of the highway bill passed by the House.

The governors’ resolution, pushed by Western states, initially died Monday in a committee chaired by a New England opponent, Connecticut Gov. William A. O’Neill.

Mecham and Deukmejian resurrected the measure during a full session of the governors on Tuesday by winning a rules suspension on a 25-6 vote. Then they got the resolution adopted on a 24-7 vote, the bare minimum required for the necessary three-fourths majority of those voting.

“I highly resent Washington’s attitude that it is more concerned about highway safety in Arizona than Arizonans are,” Mecham said.

Texas Gov. William P. Clements Jr. said, “You can’t even get across Texas unless you drive faster than 55 m.p.h.”

Nevada Gov. Richard H. Bryan equated trying to enforce the 55 m.p.h. limit with trying to enforce prohibition 60 years ago. Missouri’s John Ashcroft said, “We ought to be honest about this” and admit that no states really are enforcing the limit.

Connecticut’s O’Neill, in a final unsuccessful effort to kill the resolution, argued, “If 55 m.p.h. can’t be enforced, 65 won’t be enforced, and we’ll be going from 65 to 75 to 80.”