NY state Senator Moves to Raise NY Speed Limit to 70mph on Highways

By Yehudit Garmaise

New Yorkers may soon legally drive 70mph on the Thruway and other state highways if a new bill is passed that would increase the speed limit from 65 mph.

New York’s 65 mph speed limit on highways has been in effect since 1995, when Former Gov. George Pataki signed legislation that increased the state’s speed limit from 55 mph. 

Now, State Sen. Tom O’Mara, a Republican from Big Flats, has introduced a bill that would allow the NY’s Department of Transportation and Thruway Authority to increase the maximum speed limit to 70 mph: a speed limit that 41 out of the country’s 50 states have already adopted for rural interstate highways.

Most of the remaining nine states that have not yet passed 70 mph speed limits for rural highways stand in the Northeast.

In addition to New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont still enforce 65 mph speed limits.

“New York has failed to keep up with the rest of the country by not adopting a more efficient speed limit,” said state Sen. O’Mara, who is not the first New York legislator to attempt to raise the state’s speed limit. “This bill would correct this inefficacy by allowing for a 70-mph speed limit where appropriate.”

Over the years, there have been other attempts to increase the state’s speed limit on the Thruway and other highways. Bills have been introduced to raise the speed limit to 75 mph, but the state Legislature has not voted on those proposals.

While state Sen. O’Mara pushes to raise the speed limit on rural highways, Mayor Eric Adams, who continues his efforts to make the streets of New York City safer to slow down drivers by installing more speed cameras and improving dangerous intersections, reported this week that traffic deaths in the city have dropped by 9.5%.