a 70-mph speed limit on any road nor make such limit automatic, due to the requirement for traffic and engineering studies. The Virginia Department of Transportation began studying Interstate highways with 65-mph speed limits during April 2010 to determine which roads should receive the 70-mph limit and announced that the studies would be conducted in three phases over a period of several months, with the initial phase focusing on 323 miles of highway with "no significant levels of crashes and congestion". As of July 1, 2010, VDOT increased the speed limit to 70 mph on a portion of one highway (I-295 south of I-64). On October 20, 2010, Governor Bob McDonnell announced that by the end of 2010, VDOT would post 70-mph speed limits on 680 miles of Virginia Interstates located outside of urban areas, representing 61 percent of Virginia's total 1,119 miles of Interstate highways. While the statute allows for speed limits up to 70 mph on urban Interstates, as of March 2015 VDOT has declined to post a limit higher than 65 mph on any urban highway other than I-295 in Richmond. The statute also allows 70-mph speed limits on routes other than Interstates. Initially VDOT declined to consider any such routes for the higher limit, but in early 2012 VDOT posted a 70-mph limit on a portion of US-29 near Lynchburg. Other Virginia statutes prescribe exceptions to the general rules set forth above. The notable aspect of Virginia's current speed limit laws is that the Department of Transportation has no authority to raise speed limits above the statutory limits unless the General Assembly passes a statute permitting the change. Since the National Maximum Speed Law was repealed in 1995, such statutory exceptions were largely confined to a highway-by-highway basis, as evidenced by the list of 60-mph exceptions in Va. Code § 46.2-870. Notably, Virginia's reckless driving statute provides that driving 20 mph over the speed limit, or in excess of regardless of the posted speed limit, is grounds for a reckless driving ticket. Thus, in a 70-mph zone traveling 16 mph (since July 2020) over the speed limit is prosecutable as a misdemeanor with penalties of up to a $2,500 fine and/or 1-year imprisonment. Virginia law does not prescribe a fixed minimum speed limit, although a statute does authorize the posting of such limits where traffic and engineering studies indicate that they would be appropriate. Virginia is