SALT LAKE CITY — Utah HOV lane users who would like to legally drive faster won't get their wish.
That's because the Utah Highway Patrol quickly put the brakes on HB264 Thursday, a proposal to allow the Utah Department of Transportation to raise express lane speed limits to 75 mph along parts of the Wasatch Front.
"We have a great concern with 75," UHP Superintendent Col. Daniel Fuhr told House Transportation Committee members. "People will not travel (just) 75 mph. They're going to push the envelope as they always do."
With a higher HOV lane speed limit of even 70 mph, "you would see traffic at 80 almost immediately," Fuhr added.
He cited concerns for both public safety and trooper safety should the bill pass.
Motorists following too closely to each other is the primary cause of accidents along the I-15 corridor, Fuhr added.
Faster speeds would raise the distance a vehicle travels once the driver decides to hit the brakes to 300 feet, a dangerous level in that area, Fuhr said.
The bill's sponsor Ken Sumsion, R-American Fork, said he made the proposal to entice more drivers into the HOV lanes during midday hours when, because of decreased traffic, Express Pass tolls are only 25 cents.
That UDOT electronic toll payment system is just breaking even, Sumsion said.
The committee effectively pulled Sumsion's proposal over, voting to refer the bill back to the House Rules Committee for "possible" interim study.
Email: lbrubaker@desnews.com