Itchy Drivers Test Higher Speed Limits

From where patrol officer David Kajiwara sat astride his CHP motorcycle, there was a newfound bravado on the freeways Sunday.

“Seems like [the speeders] are more flagrant out there today. I’ve got people just passing right by me,” he said, shaking his head as he neared the end of his morning shift in the west San Fernando Valley area, “and they don’t usually try and do that.”

Welcome to the new revved-up age of California driving, post-55 style.

The speed limit went up to 65 miles an hour on the first of thousands of miles of state freeways Sunday, and work crews had barely begun affixing the new “sticky six” decals over the left half of the “55” markers before some motorists got itchy to test the new limit.

California Highway Patrol officials had no statistics on whether driving rates or speeding tickets were markedly different, saying only that the first day was fairly quiet and uneventful as Sunday drivers in many areas appeared to keep the traffic flow close to the limit.

But there was a Catch-22 to the undoing of 55: The speed limit doesn’t go up until the signs go up.

So for some patrol officers, such as Kajiwara in the West Valley, patrolling the 405 and 101 freeways Sunday, the new law reached warp speed with surprising force, and with some misunderstandings by drivers.

Kajiwara had given out about 15 speeding tickets toward the end of his eight-hour shift, and he said many more deserved the same treatment. “Nobody’s paying any attention to the signs,” he said.

The signs he meant were mostly the old 55 signs; the confusion may have been understandable.

Caltrans began changing some “55” signs Sunday morning, offering photo opportunities for the news media to chronicle the passing of a slower age that began more than two decades ago under pressure of the gas shortage. Pop star Sammy Hagar, who groused in a 1980s hit that “I Can’t Drive 55,” even helped to change one sign Sunday along the 101 Freeway in Santa Rosa.

But state officials do not expect to get to all the signs until today. And until the new limit is actually posted on any given stretch of road, CHP officials cautioned, the old speed limit remains in effect.

A total of 2,800 miles in California will be raised to 65, including nearly 300 miles in Los Angeles County. Some congested areas of the Southland will remain at 55 mph, while changes in other stretches will be considered over the next several months.

Many drivers and CHP officials said they believe that the new limit would simply reflect the reality of the roadways, legalizing what many motorists have been doing for years anyway.

“Hallelujah! I think it’s the best thing they could have done,” said Ventura resident Gregory Johnson as he drove in Ventura County on Sunday with his son, Dylan, 5. “Everybody’s going 65 [miles an hour] anyway. . . . It won’t change the way I drive. I just won’t get a ticket for going my regular speed--65.”

But some motorists acknowledged misgivings, voicing agreement with national safety experts who predict that higher speeds will mean more fatalities on the roadways.

The whole thing boils down to preelection year politicking, believes Barry Smith of Encino, who was filling his tank at a Woodland Hills gas station. “I don’t think some people can handle it. They won’t be in as much control [of their vehicles.]”

Said Willie Donovan, a professional truck driver whose car died on the Ventura Freeway on Sunday and who was rescued by the CHP: “They shouldn’t have done that. I think there’s going to be more accidents. . . . I just feel sorry for those who get hurt.”

Some drivers weren’t even aware that a new speed limit, approved in California and most other parts of the country after Congress allowed the states to decide the issue for themselves, was taking effect.

One Glendale woman, doing a brisk 72 along the Foothill Freeway as she returned home from shopping in Pasadena, told CHP Officer Abe Cho that the new limit had nothing to do with her pace.

“I normally don’t go fast,” explained the woman, who did not want to be identified. “But one guy was chasing me. I wanted to get away from him.”

Cho let her off with a verbal warning, and some other CHP officers appeared to be doing the same during the first day’s transition. The woman was thankful. “I want to kiss him!” she said as Cho returned to his patrol car.

But CHP officials promised that the new limit will be strictly enforced with tickets--not just warnings--effective immediately. Of course, the old limit was strictly enforced under official policy as well, yet patrol officers acknowledge that only the most Scrooge-like of their colleagues nabbed motorists at 57 or 58 miles an hour.

For drivers who had felt comfortable cruising at 65 mph or so without fear of attracting a patrol car in the rear-view mirror, does the new limit mean they can now confidently crank the cruise control up another 10 miles an hour?

CHP Officer Rob Lund has this blunt advice: “Don’t try and find out.”

Said CHP spokesman Ernie Garcia: “If you’re going 66, you’re in danger of getting pulled over. . . . I’m not saying we’re going to catch everyone, but I would not encourage anyone to test the speed limit. We intend to enforce it.”

If nothing else, patrol officers say, the law is sure to add a new line atop the list of Speeders’ Excuses. Now along with the old standards (“I was keeping up with the flow of traffic,” “I’m late for a meeting/a party/a game,” or “I had to go to the bathroom”) comes the latest: “But I thought the speed limit was 65 now.”

In Orange County, CHP Officer Ron Stott already heard that line at one of his Sunday stops.

“I said, ‘Yeah, but you’re doing 80,’ ” Stott recalled. To which the man replied, “Well, that’s pretty close.”

Times staff writers Jeannette DeSantis, Linda Friedlieb and Greg Miller contributed to this report.