70 mph on the interstate? Now we're getting somewhere

Allow me to gloat.

Last month, after a quick dinner and concert in downtown Richmond, I steered my way onto I-64 and back to my house in Norfolk. Door to door, I made it home in record time, and I did it following the rules of the road.

Don't hate me.

And when my mom drove from Richmond to my house for Thanksgiving, she navigated the highway so easily that she stopped in Colonial Williamsburg to kill time before her scheduled arrival. (Insert your favorite NASCAR/"Was Jimmie Johnson driving?" joke here.)

Unusual circumstances? Not especially. Luck? Absolutely.

Will I get stuck at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel for six hours the next time I'm on I-64 as karmic payback simply for writing the previous sentences? It's all but assured.

But until then, wow, 70 miles per hour feels really good.

Earlier this year, Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly put an emphasis on the higher speed limit, and last week McDonnell announced that 61 percent of Virginia's interstates now have the 70 mph maximum.

From a public safety standpoint, it's too early to say whether the faster pace is a success or has turned Virginia into a horde of Pennsylvania drivers.

But from a simple, do-you-want-to-tear-the-stuffing-out-of-the-passenger-seat-every-time-you're-in-the-car perspective, the change has been incredible.

Sure, to an amateur, the difference between 65 and 70 may be unnoticeable. Over a 100-mile trip, that's less than 10 minutes saved, 10 minutes that quickly can be given back to tunnel congestion or merging lanes.

But the open road feels that much more picturesque and all-around more open as the car climbs up to a speedy 70, rather than maintaining a plodding 65. The four-door Corolla becomes a Ferrari. An errand up the interstate becomes a demonstration of the marvel of modern technology. Zoom zoom.

We are going somewhere.

And depending on drivers' interpretation of what "speed limit" means, we are going somewhere fast.

The Wall Street Journal published a story in March called "Why 70 miles per hour is the new 55." At times, construction and traffic have become such a part of life in this corner of southeastern Virginia that it felt like simply moving was the new 70.

Now, 70 has changed the expectations of drivers. Seventy furthers the idea that it's possible to drive along I-64 north of Newport News without having to take a week off work. It makes the East Coast's most populated cul-de-sac that much closer to the rest of the country.

But more importantly, it gives drivers the feeling that we're actually moving, that each mile is going faster than when John Smith and the English explorers first made their way through the area.

If the state and federal money for construction, for new bridges, for extra lanes, for the third and fourth and fifth crossings, isn't going to materialize until long after Hampton Roads is underwater, well, then the wind lashing your face, with the windows down and the radio up, at 70 mph is the next best thing.

I was back home from Richmond in 1 hour and 28 minutes, gripping my pillow and covers instead of the steering wheel.

If only the speed limit change would solve the problem at the tunnels.

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com