New Speed Limits, but Same Old Pedal to the Metal

This is one of those times that you’re not going to agree with me.

How do I know? Because most of you are flying by me on the freeway. Even when it rains, as it was last Tuesday night, numerous cars on the Santa Ana Freeway easily sped by me as I observed the 55 mph speed limit. Even when I cheated and went 65--it was cheating until Sunday, when they raised the limit--I was passed as if my old BMW was an old Rambler.

What’s the hurry?

Like I said, I don’t think many of you will agree with me. But listen to Art Gomez, 40, a Caltrans maintenance worker from Lancaster. “You have the posted speed limit [at 55] and drivers will go faster,” he says. “I don’t know why they need to go that fast, but they do.

“And they don’t slow down in the rain, especially the first rainstorm [of the season] when the rain mixes with the stuff on the roadway, like oil, rubber and diesel fuel, that can make it really slippery.”

He has an idea for you speed merchants out there: Be careful, be alert, be mindful of other drivers and hey, don’t drive so fast.

*

Beginning Sunday, a new speed limit took effect in California. More than 2,800 miles of freeways and expressways saw their speed limit rise from 55 to 65. On some roads, like Interstate 15 from the other side of Barstow to Las Vegas, the speed limit will go to 70 after the first of the year.

With some key exceptions, among them the Pasadena, Hollywood and Artesia freeways, the speed limit on L.A.’s freeways is now 65.

The major reason for lowering the limit to 55 in the early 1970s--uncertain Middle East supplies of oil--doesn’t seem to be relevant anymore. Even the unanticipated bonus of fewer highway fatalities due to the 55 limit didn’t stop the clamor for faster speed limits.

Given my own experience the other night, which to me seems to be occurring with alarming frequency, I wondered if I was alone if my feelings.

So to find out, I took a ride Saturday, the day before the speed limits changed, to chat with Gomez and his colleagues, the men and women of the Department of Transportation who repair and maintain our freeways.

They’re a hardy bunch. They have an undying love for their work and display an extraordinary knowledge of each highway they work on. Gomez, for example, knows the Antelope Valley Freeway, the freeway that goes to Palmdale and Lancaster, like the back of his hand. Vince Moreno, another veteran of freeway maintenance, loves the Pasadena Freeway, our oldest. “It’s neat,” he says.

But they’re also resigned to the knowledge that drivers won’t slow down. No matter what the posted speed limit is, motorists will inevitably go at least 10 mph faster.

There are risks that come with the job too. Each of the workers I talked to had a story about a close call. Gomez’s partner on Saturday morning, Mark Johnson, 38, of North Hills, said that just the other morning, his Caltrans truck was on the 14 when it was struck by a motorist who fell asleep. Nobody was hurt, but it was another one of those close calls.

Regina Crawford, a 15-year Caltrans worker who took a break from some landscape work on the Golden State Freeway near Griffith Park to chat, noted the practice all roadside crews keep in mind: “You keep one eye on the work you’re doing and the other on the traffic.”

About the time I was chatting with Gomez and Johnson on the Golden State near Pacoima, a distress call came over the radio.

A hit-and-run driver had clipped a Caltrans repair crew vehicle that was about to close a lane on the Santa Monica Freeway near downtown L.A. A call had been put out for the Highway Patrol.

“Oh no,” one worker said. Three Caltrans workers have been killed on L.A. County freeways since 1990; speed was a factor in each of them.

Highway crews follow a published set of guidelines on how and when to close lanes. But motorists angry over the inconvenience seem intent on not following Caltrans’ instructions. “Once, in closing a lane, a driver tried to drive through anyway,” said Don Snowden, an eight-year veteran of Caltrans from Long Beach. The driver smashed through two barriers and hit a Caltrans truck parked to protect workers on the shoulder, among them Snowden.

It turns out no one was injured in Saturday’s mishap on the Santa Monica. The repair work proceeded. But Caltrans workers, who sometimes talk in a fatalistic tone, admit that the next time, they might not be as lucky.

*

I drove to the site of the Santa Monica accident anyway, where Caltrans worker Larry Martinez of West Covina told me that it was the same old story. The driver who clipped the large Caltrans truck wasn’t paying attention.

Driving at a safe speed is just as important as paying attention, the 25-year veteran of Caltrans work explained. “I wish people would drive at 55,” he said.

But he knows you speed demons won’t pay attention, either to him or to the new posted speed limits.