Speed limits on Oklahoma turnpikes will jump from 75 to 80 miles per hour and on certain state highways from 70 to 75 miles per hour following passage of House Bill 1071.

Rep. Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, is the House author of House Bill 1071. Sen. John Michael Montgomery, R-Lawton, is the Senate author.

Pae, serving his first term in the Legislature, said he worked with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol on the language of the bill and gained their support. He joked the bill had become known as the Pae-Way Bill.

“While we wanted to increase the speed limit on our turnpikes and state highways, we also worked to ensure the safety of Oklahoma drivers,” Pae said. “We will use traffic and engineering studies that take into consideration things such as traffic density and infrastructure quality to determine where we could safely increase these speed limits.”

Pae said the speed limits in the bill will be implemented “gradually, sensibly and safely.”

Pae also worked with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation to include language in the bill pertaining to traffic studies to keep the state in line with federal regulations so we can continue to receive federal highway dollars.

This was Pae’s first bill to be signed into law.