The Virginia Department of Transportation has recently changed the speed limit on the 460 Bypass to 65 mph up from 55 mph for certain stretches.
The change will impact 460 from I-81 until just before the Southgate Drive traffic light and again from just past that light an additional four miles. Approximately 12 miles will be affected.
The change is a result of Senate Bill 408 that passed through the General Assembly back in 2004. That particular law enables VDOT to conduct engineering surveys to make sure the speed limit is appropriate.
According to the VDOT press release, "VDOT examined the alignment of the road, spacing of interchanges, design speed and crash history to determine that 65 mph was an acceptable speed for the Route 460 Bypass around Christiansburg and Blacksburg."
"The new law allowed us to look at certain roads to see if the speed limits needed to be changed. In the case of 460 Bypass around Christiansburg and Blacksburg, we found no safety reasons why the speed limit couldn't be increased," said VDOT's Jason Bond.
Bond said that the motivation for doing it was simply to find the most appropriate speed limit given safety concerns.
Also according to the press release, signs were to go up by Aug. 1, weather permitting. The signs were posted well before that date.
The speed limit change comes as welcome news for many Blacksburg residents and Virginia Tech students.
"I'm really psyched that the speed limit has increased," said first year veterinary student Greg Swieter. "I always feel like I have to hit the brakes as soon as I get off of I-81. I'm going so slowly that it feels like I'm crawling. Now I can just keep on cruising."
Of course with the high cost of gasoline, fast driving is costing motorists extra. That combined with the higher speed limit will likely decrease the number of speeding tickets issued on 460.
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Thank god. 55 was like slow motion after coming off 81.
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That's great, but some lighter vehicles travelling Westbound may actually catch air on the concrete bridge over Yellow Sulfur Rd. just before the S. Main exit. The lack of grading on that curve always jarred me at 65 (umm...I mean 55), so imagine what it will do my suspension at 75 (err...I mean 65)!
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...which raises the question, at what speed will people actually get pulled over? 70? 75?
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To this statement: "Of course with the high cost of gasoline, fast driving is costing motorists extra. " Check your sources CT... In general, the optimum speed is around 50 to 65 miles per hour
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"What are all the Pigs going to do now? Must have been a budget cut? " Notice it is still 55 at the southgate intersection. This just reeks of speed trap. But I've driven on the 460 w/ the new 65 speed limit, its so much better, except for the fact that a lot of people aren't looking at speed limit signs so they're still going 55 X.X
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So where can I go to get my refunds for tickets on 460?
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To the anonymous poster: I don't understand your point about the 50-65 observation. The author is saying that people will be less inclined to drive over 65 because it will reduce mileage.
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Can we drop the ticket I got for going 63 and lost my license???
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I wonder if the big 12-car pileup that happened over the weekend at the South Main-460 interchange going toward Christiansburg had anything to do with the higher speed limit...
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I doubt it, John. Probably had more to do with people not paying attention, like most accidents.
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