Father Orthoduck and his wife are still unpacking and busy, so this will be a very short post to let you know that we arrived safely. Now, we arrived in Alabama, not in Texas. However, Father Orthoduck has driven across Texas and can verify that the above comic has some truth to it, particularly if you go across central Texas. It is a never ending state. As a result, some Texas speed limit laws are slightly different than in the rest of the nation. The below is from Wikipedia.
Texas is the only state that does not prescribe a speed limit for each road type. Any rural road—two lane, four lane, freeway, or otherwise—that is numbered by the state or federal government (United States Numbered Highways and Interstate Highways) has a 70 mph (113 km/h) statutory limit. The law allows reducing the 70 mph limit only if a study recommends a different limit.
Texas law generally has 60 mph statutory limits for all county roads.
Toll road authorities may post speed limits up to 70 mph. While the Harris County Toll Road Authority would normally fall under the 60 mph county rule, an exception allows it to post up to 70 mph limits on its tollway system.
Although very few farm to market roads carry a speed limit above the statutory 70 mph, FM 1788 (Andrews County), FM 1776 (Pecos-Ward County), and FM 1053 (Pecos and Crane counties) all have daytime passenger vehicle speed limits of 75 mph.
Father Orthoduck will note that his experience is that many rural Texans see the speed limit signs as being the minimum speed that should be kept on those roads. As a result, it appears that Texas has decided to save money on troopers by simply acceding to rural demands.
Texas statutorily allows the Texas Department of Transportation to post 75 mph (121 km/h) speed limits in counties with average populations of fewer than 15 people per square mile. The same statute also allows 80 mph (129 km/h) speed limits on I-10 and I-20 in certain counties named in the statute, all of which happen to be rural, in west Texas, and have a low population density. Daytime truck limits are capped at 70 mph, and nighttime speed limits remain 65 mph for all vehicles. (Nothing prohibits nighttime speed limits from being raised to 70 mph, but the Department has not elected to do so.) . . .
Because Texas law allows 75 mph speed limits on any road numbered by the state or federal government, it is the only state with 75 mph limits on two-lane roads. Several west Texas two-lane roads carry 75 mph limits, including portions of US 90. No other state has a limit higher than 70 mph on any two-lane road.
Father Orthoduck salutes the Texans and their HUGE state. (He wonders whether anyone from Alaska will reply.)
I got a ticket at 3:00 in the morning within 2 miles of the New Mexico Texas border when the speed limit dropped “after dark” to from 70 to 60mph in Texas. No mercy, podnah.
Nope, not in Texas. It is that dropping speed limit that gets that out-of-towner money flowing in.