Caltrans Racing to Ready Higher Speed Limit Recommendations

Dear Street Smart:

I am sure all your readers are interested in increasing our freeway speed limits to realistic levels now that President Clinton has signed the transportation bill removing the 55 m.p.h. restriction. Gov. Wilson has signed a bill authorizing speed limits of 65 m.p.h. and 70 m.p.h. However, I have gathered from recent reports that Caltrans is only planning to raise the limit on rural freeways. Is that true?

Patrick H. Quilter

Laguna Beach

Not so, said Jim Drago, a Caltrans spokesman in Sacramento. In fact, the department expects to release a list later this week of the freeways recommended for higher speed limits.

“The most obvious candidates for higher speed limits are [urban] freeways,” he said, “and that’s what we’re focusing our attentions on initially.”

Currently, Drago said, Caltrans officials are studying 2,000 miles of freeway statewide, many of them in urban Orange County, as they consider increasing limits from 55 m.p.h. to 65 m.p.h.

“The kinds of things we’re looking at,” he said, “is what maximum speed was it designed for, have the engineering features of the road been modified, what’s the average speed being driven on it now and what is its accident history?”

Drago said the department staff is “working like beavers to get this thing done.”

The state also is considering increasing the speed limit to 70 m.p.h. on 1,384 miles of rural freeway where the limit is now 65 m.p.h.

None of those, Drago said, are in Orange County.

Dear Street Smart:

I was recently driving on the Santa Ana Freeway and a Highway Patrol car turned on its lights and siren, passed me, pulled into the car-pool lane and sped away.

I wondered what to do if the patrol car, or any emergency vehicle with signals flashing, should pull up behind me while I am in the car-pool lane.

Do I pull over to allow the vehicle to pass, crossing the double yellow line and risking a fine, or do I wait for the emergency vehicle to pass me?

Melville Singer, M.D.

Orange

By all means pull over, said Steve Kohler, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol.

“Whenever you see an emergency vehicle behind you,” he said, “you should pull to the right even if you are crossing the double yellow lines. If you are doing it at the direction of an emergency vehicle, you’re not going to get a citation.”

In fact, Kohler said, it is not at all unusual for CHP officers to use the car-pool lanes during emergencies, especially in Orange County, which has one of the highest concentrations of such lanes in the country.

“Usually,” he said, “we’ll be in the farthest left lane because when people see our red light they should know to move to the right. Where would they go if we were in the right lane? It would be unsafe for everybody.”

But in moving to the right, you should watch for traffic, Kohler warned. “You don’t want to just swerve to the right,” he said. “One thing people don’t do enough of is look in their rearview mirrors.”

Dear Street Smart:

When I am approaching a freeway overpass from a side street and need to get onto the freeway, I almost always end up having to cut across several lanes of traffic to get to the on-ramp because I couldn’t figure out which side of the street had the turn lane for the freeway entrance.

I see signs saying, “such-and-such Freeway North,” etc., but not telling you whether you will be making a transition from the right lane onto the freeway or whether you’ll need the left lane.

My question to you: Is there some sort of way of figuring out which lane you will need to be in to access the on-ramp?

Michael White

Fullerton

Unfortunately, no, the CHP’s Kohler said.

“I know what you’re talking about,” he said. “Sometimes you think you’re going to the right, but then you’re in the wrong lane.”

When finding yourself in such a situation, Kohler suggested, try taking another run rather than making an unsafe lane change.

“Obviously, you want to look as far ahead as you can,” he said. “But if you discover that you’re in the wrong lane and it’s too late to change--there are cars beside you--go on past the overpass, turn around, come back and try it again. A crash will slow you down a whole lot more than going over and coming back.”

Such unclear signs are inadvertent, said Caltrans spokesman Drago.

“Our standard is to make our signs as clear as possible to drivers as to where they should be and to give them enough opportunity to safely get into the appropriate lane,” he said.

Locations offering anything short of that, he said, should be reported to Caltrans for evaluation and correction.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition.