New Jersey Speed Limit Report

Speed Limits

The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJ DOT) three-year study of their 65 mph speed limit has been released. The study supports expanding the 65 mph speed limit to cover approximately 75 percent of limited access highways.

After the NMA led the repeal of the 55 National Maximum Speed Limit in 1995, New Jersey State Chapter Coordinator Steve Carrellas began the battle to increase New Jersey's maximum limit. This resulted in the legislature passing a bill at the end of 1997 to allow the NJ DOT to increase the limit to 65 mph or higher on all limited-access highways. Governor Whitman conditionally vetoed the legislation and called for an 18-month trial period with the 65 mph limit on 475 miles of highway. That trial resulted in another 18-month study that now calls for expanding the 65 mph limit further.

Which leads us to the present. The announced additional miles would bring the total number of limited-access highway miles at 65 mph to about 600.

You can download the report (3.65 mb) in PDF format here.

NOTE: Estimated time to download this PDF file with a 56k modem is 8.5 minutes. You will also need Acrobat Reader to view the plan which you can download here for free.

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The NMA's Position

Speed limits should be based on sound traffic-engineering principles that consider responsible motorists' actual travel speeds. Typically, this should result in speed limits set at the 85th percentile speed of free-flowing traffic (the speed under which 85 percent of traffic is traveling). These limits should be periodically adjusted to reflect changes in actual traffic speeds.