[Vision2020] Is Texas ready for 85-mph speed limit?

[Darrell Keim]

Can you drive a negative?

On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 12:28 PM, Donovan Arnold <
donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> No state should have a speed limit higher than their Governor's IQ.
>
> Donovan J. Arnold
>
>
>   *From:* Moscow Cares <moscowcares at moscow.com>
> *To:* Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, October 24, 2012 6:30 AM
> *Subject:* [Vision2020] Is Texas ready for 85-mph speed limit?
>
>     Courtesy of the Kansas City Star at:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/9hsu55n
>
> ------------------------------------
>  Is Texas ready for 85-mph speed limit?
> For drivers who feel the need for speed, Wednesday is a big day in Texas.
> A new 40-mile stretch of Texas 130 toll road bypassing Austin's east side
> will open with an 85-mph speed limit -- highest in the United States.
> "I think people will routinely pass me going 100. Regardless of the speed
> limit, there's always going to be people who want to go past it," said Jeff
> Gibeaux, a civil engineer in Lockhart who plans to take the high-speed road
> to Austin on occasion.
> While most states have raised speed limits gradually in recent years,
> Texas is going at it full throttle.
> Since 2002, the Texas Department of Transportation -- at the urging of
> state lawmakers -- has raised the speed limit to 75 or 80 mph on nearly
> 6,507 miles of road.
> Most of the increases have occurred since 2011, when a new state law
> broadened which roads qualified for higher speeds.
> The speeds are now posted not only in rural areas but also on major roads
> such as Interstate 20 and Interstate 35 just outside Dallas-Fort Worth and
> other major metro areas.
> On about 1 in 12 miles of Texas roadway -- including interstates, small
> highways and farm-to-market roads -- motorists may now legally travel at
> speeds once considered excessive and dangerous.
> Safety experts in the U.S. and Europe warn that fatalities and injury
> accidents are likely to rise. Texas' fatality rate is already higher than
> the national average, with 3,015 people killed on roads in 2011.
> "You need to take measures to counteract an anticipated increase in
> deaths," said Veronique Feypell de la Beaumelle, an analyst with the
> International Transport Forum, which publishes a road safety annual report
> with crash data from the U.S. and 31 other countries.
> But state officials say they don't necessarily expect more carnage. On the
> contrary, they point to statistics showing that fatalities are declining
> along some West Texas highways that were the first to get higher limits.
> They say their methods of studying a road before raising a speed limit are
> scientifically sound, although they are applied differently in various
> parts of the state.
> Less certain is whether motorists have the proper training, or the
> self-discipline, to drive safely on a high-speed road. State officials say
> they are developing ways to promote better driving habits.
> Last week, the Transportation Department began installing 3,400 signs
> reading "Left lane for passing only" on highways with a speed limit of 75
> mph or more. The same message was flashed on more than 700 electronic
> highway signs statewide.
> "We're going to have to teach Texans how to drive these safer speeds,"
> said Bill Meadows of Fort Worth, a Texas Transportation Commission member.
> Meanwhile, as lawmakers encourage the Transportation Department to raise
> speed limits in one county after another, researchers at organizations such
> as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety are taking issue with some of
> the state's guiding principles for determining when to raise a speed limit.
> State officials have said they generally believe that motorists will drive
> at a comfortable speed, regardless of the posted limit, so it's important
> to set limits near the thresholds at which people are already traveling.
> But that philosophy can conflict with a belief held by critics who say
> drivers go whatever speed they think they can get away with and often
> exceed posted speeds because they perceive them to be conservative.
> Economics are a factor, too.
> The new section of Texas 130 toll road is being built by a private
> developer known as State Highway 130 Concession Co. Llc., which is led by
> the U.S. arm of Spain-based Cintra. Texas 130 is part of the Austin area's
> Central Texas Turnpike System.
> The developer is spending $1.4 billion on the project for the right to
> collect tolls through Nov. 11, 2062. To protect its investment, the group
> is paying Texas an extra $100 million in return for setting an 85-mph
> limit, according to the contract.
> The idea is to attract more motorists to the road with the promise of
> higher speeds, which in turn generates more toll revenue.
> Speed studies
> State law requires the Transportation Department to perform a speed study
> before raising the limit on a stretch of road but lets the agency decide
> how to go about it.
> Two of the agency's top safety officials demonstrated the process for the
> Star-Telegram this month on a stretch of Texas 130 that is already open
> north of Austin. There, the limit was raised to 80 mph this year, and the
> road could be a candidate for 85 mph in the near future, they said.
> The first step in the speed study was for the pair of state employees to
> conduct a "trial run" of the 19-mile stretch. Darren McDaniel, a speed zone
> engineer for the department's Austin district, was given the task of
> driving the length of the road in a department pickup. Carol Rawson,
> director of the state's traffic operations division, sat in a passenger
> seat and took notes on McDaniel's speed.
> McDaniel purposefully avoided looking at his speedometer and focused
> instead on driving at a speed he felt comfortable with -- most of the time,
> he was going 80 to 82 mph.
> The two were helped in their work by a couple of gadgets installed in the
> truck: a digital instrument to help Rawson track the speed without having
> to continuously look at the dashboard and an inclinometer mounted on the
> dash that was programmed to sound an alarm if the truck took a curve with
> too much gravitational force.
> The duo also took notes on factors such as visibility on the road and the
> amount of clear space available on the shoulders and in the median, in case
> a motorist has to take evasive action.
> Texas highways are typically designed to accommodate speeds of at least 70
> mph -- the state's default limit until a speed study can be conducted, six
> months or more after a road opens to the public.
> But roads can be designed for higher or lower speeds.
> For example, a small portion of the planned Chisholm Trail Parkway in
> southwest Fort Worth is being designed for 50 mph to ensure that traffic
> goes relatively slowly through some old neighborhoods.
> And, as with the Texas 130 extension, roads can be designed to accommodate
> 85-mph limits from their first day open to traffic.
> The next step in the speed study was taking a sample of at least 125
> randomly selected cars to determine how fast people are traveling on the
> road -- typically known as an 85th percentile test.
> McDaniel and Rawson parked their truck on an overpass in Pflugerville near
> Austin and, using a laser gun like what police use to issue traffic
> tickets, they determined that 85 percent of the vehicles on this stretch of
> Texas 130 were traveling 83 mph or less.
> As a result, the road was a candidate for an 80- or 85-mph speed limit,
> they said.
> The idea is to set a speed limit so that 85 percent of motorists are
> obeying the law. Rawson said it's a commonly accepted standard in
> traffic-engineering circles that 85 percent of drivers are traveling at a
> safe, comfortable speed -- regardless of the posted limit.
> "Most people drive what's safe and prudent, because we know people aren't
> wanting to hurt themselves," she said.
> "They're not wanting to get into a crash. Most importantly, they want to
> get where they're going, so generally they're going to drive a speed that's
> reasonable, and that's what we're looking for."
> 'A moving target'
> A top official at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research
> organization that tracks collision data throughout the U.S., said placing
> so much weight on the 85th percentile standard is leading states such as
> Texas to raise speed limits beyond reasonable levels.
> "The 85th percentile is a moving target," institute President Adrian Lund
> said. "People do pay attention to the speed limit: They use it as a
> guideline and figure out how much faster they can go without getting a
> ticket. Gradually, you end up with the same number of people exceeding the
> speed limit that you had before. There's an assumption that the government
> is always conservative, so if 85 is the speed limit, then 90 and 95 must be
> safe, right?"
> Higher speed limits could hit Texans in the pocketbook, too. If accidents
> increase, the cost of auto insurance will go up, David Snyder, vice
> president of the American Insurance Association predicted in a 2011 column
> that ran in the Star-Telegram.
> Texas' fatality rate is already higher than the national average, and
> Texans pay some of the highest insurance rates.
> Lawmakers' mandate
> In April 2011, a state House transportation committee approved a bill that
> gave the Transportation Department power to raise the speed limit to 75, 80
> or 85 mph on thousands of miles of the highway system, as long as a speed
> study was conducted on at least one place in each segment of roadway.
> The bill, which eventually became law, also eliminated lower speed limits
> for trucks and for all traffic at night.
> The lone vote against the bill was from Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas.
> "When you've got as many inexperienced drivers on our highways as we do,
> the last thing you want is people going 75, 80, 85 mph," Davis said this
> month in an interview. "I thought the whole notion of raising the speed
> limit that high was crazy."
> The bill passed without comment, although Davis said it was clear in the
> Capitol hallways that the measure had plenty of support -- particularly
> among rural lawmakers who were hearing from constituents that they wanted
> to legally drive faster.
> "It probably started with the rural representatives," Davis said. "But
> these speed limits are in urban centers, too."
> Support for higher speeds tends to be particularly strong in cities that
> stand to benefit economically from the lure of traffic, although projects
> such as the Texas 130 extension can also brew controversy.
> About 30 miles southeast of Austin, the new Texas 130 extension leads to
> Lockhart, a city of about 13,000 that is known for its barbecue joints.
> Residents aren't too happy that the speed limit on the frontage roads of
> U.S. 183 running parallel to the Texas 130 extension has been lowered from
> 65 to 55 mph.
> State officials have said the lower limit is needed because commercial
> development is springing up along the frontage roads, creating a safety
> issue for motorists pulling in and out of driveways.
> But many residents say the real motivation is to force traffic onto the
> 85-mph toll road.
> And on the toll road, there is little opposition to the 85-mph limit.
> "We're thrilled about it," said Wendy Ramsey, owner of Wendy R Gift Shop
> on the town square. She regularly drives 80 mph on the portion of Texas 130
> that's already open and, beginning Wednesday, she fully expects to drive 85
> mph on the new part of the toll road.
> "There's so few cars on 130 at this point," she said, "that right now it
> seems safe."
> ---------------
> Other states have gradually raised speed limits, but Texas is doing so at
> a fast pace, thanks largely to a 2011 law.
>
> [image: 1li9zB.St.58.jpeg]
> ------------------------------------
>
> Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares"
> http://www.moscowcares.com/
>
>  Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students.  The college
> students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."
>
> - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
>
>
>
>
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