65-M.P.H. Limit Passed by Assembly, Sent to Governor

The Assembly voted final legislative passage and sent to Gov. George Deukmejian on Friday a bill increasing the maximum speed limit to 65 m.p.h. on 1,157 miles of rural California interstate freeways.

Deukmejian, a strong advocate of the bill, is expected to sign the measure into law next week. Motorists on designated freeways will legally be able to drive at the higher limit as soon as new roadside signs are posted. This could occur in some parts of the state as soon as next weekend, officials indicated.

Officials of the state Department of Transportation said that erecting new 65-m.p.h. signs and modifying existing signs to reflect the new speed limit will take a week to 10 days to complete statewide.

Department spokesman Chuck Mastin said posting the new speed limit will be done on an incremental basis. In some cases, he said, motorists might be traveling legally at 65 m.p.h. in one direction of a freeway while those headed in the opposite but unposted direction will be restricted to 55 m.p.h.

After the posting is completed, said Highway Patrol Commissioner James Smith, officers will enforce both limits--65 m.p.h. on the selected rural roadways and 55 m.p.h. in urban, suburban and non-designated rural freeways.

The new maximum speed will not apply to trucks or to cars pulling trailers. They will continue to be held to 55 m.p.h.

The bill, by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), went to Deukmejian on a 62-3 vote of the Assembly. Earlier, the Senate had approved it 34 to 0.

The action by the Legislature followed enactment by Congress last month of a national 65-m.p.h. speed limit law for certain back-country freeways. A 55-m.p.h. speed limit was imposed nationally in 1974 to conserve gasoline during the Arab oil embargo.

However, studies have consistently shown that the 55-m.p.h. limit, while increasing traffic safety, has been routinely ignored by most American drivers on country roadways. CHP spokesman Kent Milton said that, for instance, the average speed on long, lonely Interstate 5, which runs the length of California, is 62.5 m.p.h.

Designate Highways

As the Katz bill sped through the Legislature, CHP and Caltrans planners reviewed roadways proposed for the 65-m.p.h. limit and on Friday announced the following as meeting federal requirements:

- 472.5 miles of Interstate 5 from the Oregon state line to Bakersfield, except for a curving 60-mile stretch between Dunsmuir and Redding and in the metropolitan areas of Sacramento and Stockton.

- 132.9 miles of Interstate 8 between El Cajon and the Arizona state line.

- 154.7 miles of Interstate 10 from Beaumont to the Arizona line.

- 180.5 miles of Interstate 15 from Escondido to Corona, from San Bernardino to Baker and the last five miles to the Nevada line.

- 154.7 miles of Interstate 40 from Barstow to Arizona.

- 12.9 miles of Interstate 205 near Tracy.

- 15.6 miles of Interstate 580 from Interstate 5 to Interstate 205 near Livermore.

- 33 miles of Interstate 505 from Vacaville north to Interstate 5 near Dunnigan.

One major east-west freeway, Interstate 80, which runs from the Nevada line north of Lake Tahoe to San Francisco, will not receive the higher speed limit. It is has too many curves in the Sierra Nevada and foothill regions and runs through too many populated areas, officials said. Motorists now routinely drive over 70 m.p.h on this major interstate.

However, “a lot of people using Interstate 80 from Nevada are going to have to hit the brakes at the California state line,” Mastin said.

Milton, of the Highway Patrol, said it is doubtful that the higher speed limit will cause the transfer of traffic officers from the rural areas to the cities. Instead, he said, officers in rural areas will shift “their emphasis, say, back to drunk driving.”

“If the rural situation goes like we think it will go, the need to emphasize speed enforcement will diminish a little bit because most of the people will be complying with the law,” he said.

Speed Stays Steady

Milton said the CHP doubts that drivers already rolling along at 65 m.p.h. as their normal cruising speed on the designated freeways will merely add another 10 m.p.h. when the higher limit takes effect. He said studies show that motorists’ speeds in 1972-73 on rural freeways when the limit was 65 or 70 m.p.h. were almost exactly what it is today, 62.5 m.p.h.

Caltrans expects to install 300 new speed limit signs and to modify 300 existing signs and post them every 10 miles, Mastin said. He said this will result in twice as many signs as there are currently and cost about $75,000.

In addition, Mastin said, the 55-m.p.h. limit for trucks will be posted about 300 yards beyond the new passenger vehicle speed limit signs. “We want to reinforce to the truckers that the 65 limit does not apply to them,” he said.