An 80 mph speed limit? Please, no.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Despite warnings from safety advocates, a group of lawmakers wants Ohio to join 32 other states that have raised speed limits to 70 mph or higher on certain roads.

State Rep. Dan Dodd, a Democrat from Hebron, says Ohio should allow drivers to catch up with the rest of the country. He’s a main sponsor of a bill getting its first hearing before a House transportation committee on Wednesday.

The plan already faces opposition from the State Highway Patrol.

Lt. Shawn Davis says the main contributing factor in fatal crashes continues to be people driving too fast.

Ever since Congress repealed a national speed limit law in 1995, the trend has been for states to keep pushing speed limits higher. Texas and Utah have an 80 mph limit on some roads.

A speed limit of 70 is about as high as I can see anyone needing to go. A few years ago, local LEOs (law enforcement officers; I've been watching too much NCIS, I guess) told us one of the main safety problems on Interstate 64 is speed differential, that is, people traveling different speeds.

And there is a thought in West Virginia that the actual speed limit is 9 mph above the posted limit, so if West Virginia went with a plan like this, people would go 89 right and left.

Can you imagine a guy like me doing 70 and being passed constantly by people doing 90 or higher, and then we all come up on a couple of people doing 65 in the left lane?

Not that this would happen in Ohio. Unlike West Virginia, in Ohio the posted speed limit is assumed to be the maximum allowable speed, and it's enforced. but 80 is still too high.

Let me add another reason: How many cars out there do you think have the tires, brakes and shocks to handle 80 mph for long distances?

How many people would get off an interstate highway where they had gone 80 mph and then get on two-lane Route 7 and do something close to 80 without thinking, because 80 would be the new default speed people would drive? Not likely? Then go up West Virginia Route 2 between Huntington and Point Pleasant sometime. Drive 55 and see how many times you are passed or tailgated.

And yeah, we need a bunch of 17- and 18-year-old kids driving 80 mph in their daddies' cars.

This is why I avoid I-64 whenever possible.

Deep six 80. Please.