The next speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives said he wants proposals to raise Iowa's speed limit to 70 or 75 mph to be considered during the General Assembly's session, which starts in January, The Des Moines Register reported Dec. 1.

"Iowans obviously want a higher speed limit. It is only the Iowa Legislature and the governor that haven't figured that out yet," state Rep. Christopher Rants (R-Sioux City) told the paper.

A poll from December 2001, the most recent on the topic, showed that 53 percent of Iowa residents want the speed limit raised, up from 46 percent in a February 1998 poll. But even more Iowa residents are voting with their gas pedals.

A new study shows that during the three months that ended Sept. 30, 89 percent of motorists on Iowa's four-lane freeways and expressways violated the 65-mph speed limit, 20 percentage points more than what the state DOT shows for the same period in 1995. Seventeen percent of the motorists this year were driving faster than 75 mph.

Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, has opposed increased speed limits, and some lawmakers from both parties contend traffic deaths would increase, The Register said. Iowa and Oregon are the only states west of the Mississippi River in the continental United States with 65-mph maximum-posted speeds. Motorists legally can drive at least 70 or 75 mph in every other state west of the Mississippi.