A Kansas House panel voted March 16 in favor of a bill that would bump up speeds on rural interstates in the state to 75 mph.

The measure, already approved by the Senate, now heads to the full House for debate.

The current speed limit on separated, multilane highways outside cities is 70 mph. The bill – SB384 – wouldn’t change the 65-mph limit on urban interstates.

State Sen. Robert Tyson, R-Parker, told local media a higher speed limit in Kansas would tend to attract to Interstate 70 drivers who otherwise would travel Interstate 80 through Nebraska.

Tyson said I-80 carries 50 percent more traffic than I-70 in Kansas, resulting in more truck stops, restaurants and entertainment sites. He said people traveling from states east of Kansas have an incentive to detour around the state because most western states have 75 mph speed limits.

“We need to do this for economic development in Kansas,” Tyson said.

A spokesman for the Kansas Department of Transportation said his agency in general supports the bill.

“We do not believe that raising the speed limit 5 mph would be detrimental to safety,” David Church, chief of the Bureau of Traffic Engineering for KDOT, recently told The Kansas City Star. “Crashes are normally associated with the variation in traffic speeds instead of the absolute speed.”