the fastest posted speed limit in the United States is on the 41-mile stretch of Texas State Highway 130, a toll road southeast of Austin, it has a posted speed limit of 85 mph

The state spent time thoughtfully selecting this corridor and building it with a wide footprint, few side accesses, and clear lines of sight. The 85 mph speed limit was officially sanctioned in 2012.

https://www.eldiario24.com/en/americas-speed-record-driving-highway/24775/

frankly, it's time for logical rational thinking to come to bear on the overlooked aspect of typical average ordinary commuter cars in 2025, vs the cars that speed limits were referencing when the speed limits were set. 

Example, a 1940 Ford, Chevy, Pontiac, Plymouth, Nash, Studebaker, Packard, etc were common cars in 1952. 

The interstates were built in 1948-52 when suspensions and brakes, sucked. Steering wasn't engineered very well either, the amount of slop in steering boxes was still getting adjusted by a set screw. Tires were bias ply garbage, brakes were manual, not power, steering was manual, not power

So, speed limits that we have today haven't changed much in 75 years, (from 1950-2025) but cars have come so far from what they were, more than the difference between the best race cars in 1950 and commuters of 1950. In my opinion, a basic Honda right now could outperform a 1950 Gran Prix car. A Dodge Hellcat right now can easily outperform a top fueler of 1950. A Hyundai Stinger would beat a race 1955 Corvette. 

So what is the basis for setting a speed limit on the interstate when they were made? Braking distance? Steering? 

How can the speed limit based on standard 1940s cars and semis (lets not forget them!) logically be applied to vehicles like a commuter car, like a Camry, or a Volvo semi, when vehicles on the road today are on average, 15 years old, have radial tires with double the contact patch of a 1950s commuter, with better rubber compounds, and better tread pattern for steering and braking... 

And in the 70s the oil crisis drove the speed limits down for gas/oil - but that no longer applies based on the oil glut of 2020 that brought a barrel of oil to -35, every oil container in the country was full, and can be any time the oil companies go back to full output. 

Why shouldn't the speed limit outside of city limits be 85 or 90 for commuters? 

Not that I think many people are driving long distance on interstates, obviously few people drive between cites in the interstates, most people drive under 14000 miles a year, and a round trip for me to Vegas from San Diego is 700... that's just one days driving. Most people are not road tripping to other big cities for SEMA. 

But when getting from A to B, especially for cargo transportation, when everything we order on Amazon is getting moved by semis, and the airlines are in chaos, and the FAA isn't paying the air traffic controllers, it would be better to not be limited to 65 or 70 mph when getting across midwest states - no, I'm not talking about Rhode frickin Island, or Hawaii. I'm talking about California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, north and south Dakota, Nebraska, etc etc. getting 10 or 20 miles farther every hour adds up when you're driving 5 hours straight.

5 hours at 20 miles more per hour, takes a 350 mile trip from a 5 hour trip to a 4 hour trip. That's math.