California senator aims to remove speed limits to build America’s autobahn

California could do away with speed limits in certain situations if a new bill introduced by an Orange County-area senator moves forward.

State Sen. John M. W. Moorlach proposed Senate Bill 319 that would not only add two lanes to Interstate 5 and State Route 99, which connect the Los Angeles area to the Bay Area, but also would eliminate speed limits on those lanes in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

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Moorlach’s bill cites idling cars as larger greenhouse gas emissions producers than high-speed runners, although the senator has not offered much evidence to support that point. 

The bill may not have gained much traction had Gov. Gavin Newsom not pulled the plug on most of a planned high-speed rail connection between the state’s two largest metropolitan areas. As a result, the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act that the previous governor had planned to use to pay for high-speed rail is stuck in a holding pattern that could, theoretically, be diverted to pay for new highway construction.

The bill faces a mountain of obstacles from safety advocates. The IIHS told Jalopnik that the proposal is “dangerous in the extreme.” 

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