BY BROOKE KANSIER
LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS — Jan. 6, 2017
Drivers may be able to go a bit faster on a number of Michigan roads — including U.S. 10 and M-37 — under a law signed Thursday.
In west Michigan, a stretch of U.S. 10 roughly from Custer to Reed City, and the portion of M-37 north of U.S. 10 are being considered.
The law requires a speed safety study to review candidate roads. If the studies support a change, speed limits on rural highways will increase from 55 to 65 mph and freeways from 70 to 75 mph.
Portions of U.S. 131 in Wexford and Osceola counties and M-115 in Manistee and Benzie counties are also being considered.
While supporters of the law say the change will increase safety by making traffic more uniform and that rural highways have speed limits that are too low, the increase is a controversial move among local law enforcement.
“You have to remember the makeup of the areas in which those speed limits are being raised,” said Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole. “On the eastern end of our county, there’s a lot of farmland. So you’d be introducing heavy machinery into traffic going 110 feet per second.
“I don’t see that as a positive influence out there.”
Brooke Kansier 