Speed Limit Signs Provide No Real Barrier to Mock One

Consider the sound barrier.

Consider that mystical pinpoint in space where a speeding vehicle tops the hellacious velocity of its own noise.

The barrier lurks everywhere, invisible, mysterious and unapproachable except by those few humans privileged enough to ride several million dollars worth of jet flames straight through it.

Pioneer test pilot Chuck Yeager and Thrust SSC driver Andy Green cruised through the wall just the other day aboard exotic jet-powered vehicles, guaranteeing themselves years of bragging rights, widget-endorsement contracts and raw glory.

Meanwhile, we mortals just poke along the freeway at less than one-tenth that speed, guaranteeing ourselves another humdrum drive, another day’s wages and yet another equally boring trip home.

Depressing, ain’t it?

Must we all be law-abiding drones? Slaves to foolish authority? Mindless drones? Why can’t we all just stomp the gas, peg our speed needles and boogie?

There’s a reason we’re supposed to stick to the speed limit, but Street Smart’s too demoralized by this topic to even remember what it is.

Oh wait, that’s right: Breaking the limit means a police-strobe tan and a traffic school nap at best or, at worst, a blazing wreck and facial reconstructive surgery.

Hey, at least you’re not one of those poor saps who paid $200,000 for a fire-breathing, 12-cylinder, 200 mph Bugatti that he has to drive at 64 mph all the time because it attracts speeding tickets like your paycheck attracts the tax man.

Dear Street Smart:

After another trip spent passing cars chugging along at 55 in the second and third lanes, I started wondering if some of those drivers simply didn’t realize that the speed limit went up to 65 in many places more than a year ago.

Then I got to thinking: I can drive for miles and miles on the 101 in the Conejo Valley without seeing a single speed limit sign.

Could it be that all those slowpokes are just playing it safe because they’re not sure if the speed increase applies to that particular stretch of road? Is there a reason Caltrans (or whoever’s responsible) is so stingy with speed limit signs?

Julia Palotay

Newbury Park

Dear Reader:

Street Smart wishes he could be clairvoyant. Wouldn’t it be great to know what the other drivers are thinking?

Except, of course, the ones who are already plainly telegraphing their thoughts with glares, hand lingo and that comical flapping-their-lips-without-making-any-noise thing they do, which invites you to smile innocently and shout back whatever you please because they’ll never hear you.

Caltrans has rules. One calls for workers to install speed limit signs approximately every five miles in urban areas, and another requires them to post the signs every 10 miles in rural areas.

In spring 1996, when the government finally saw fit to raise the national speed limit back to 65 (THANK YOU, from the bottom of Street Smart’s stressed-out heart), Caltrans stuck up 150 new speed limit signs throughout Ventura and Los Angeles counties, says Caltrans spokeswoman Pat Reid.

Another Caltrans rule would probably deem “Use Left Lane to Pass Only” as unfit for a sign because it is too wordy and unclear to meet federal guidelines, Reid says.

And she notes, “In urban areas, there is a continual problem with signs being destroyed or removed by vandals.”

Street Smart was a 14-year-old boy once, but for the life of him he cannot recall what was so all-fired cool about owning a stolen street sign. Now that’s depressing.

Dear Street Smart:

My question is about those 55 mph signs that hang underneath the 65 mph signs, directed at trucks and vehicles with trailers.

Ever since the speed limit has been changed, if I drive slower when pulling my boat or camping trailer, I get honked at and cut off. I don’t understand why these signs are up, since the CHP does not enforce this on truckers who seem to be doing at least 70 mph.

Is this trailer speed limit supposed to be for pickup trucks and autos or is it just not enforced regularly?

Don Grenier

Moorpark

Dear Reader:

The trailer speed limit is designed to keep cars and trucks--which are harder to stop than normal when hauling trailers--from rolling out of control and into trouble.

“We do enforce it,” says Officer David Cockrill of the CHP’s Ventura headquarters. “In fact, I just stopped somebody yesterday for towing another vehicle. Not only was he doing 65 miles an hour--this was out on the 126--but he was also towing in the No. 1 lane, which is illegal. We are out there enforcing that.”

CHP officers are, obviously, never exactly where you want them.

They’re either standing at your window writing you a ticket for doing something boneheaded that you deny, or they’re off handling some other bonehead’s speeding ticket while you’re being chased and harassed and terrified and almost forced off the freeway into a ditch by that horrible little punk in the lowered Acura.

But we digress.

In fact, the CHP actually does yeoman’s work. They chase deadly drunks, nab life-threatening daredevils and mere scofflaws alike, guide traffic and help victims after horrible wrecks, and generally keep a lid on our destructive automotive id. And they do it all on a state budget allocation.

Cut ‘em some slack, everybody.

Dear Street Smart:

Re the problem with motorists driving 63 mph in the No. 1 (fast) lane. Why not just replace California’s “Slower Traffic Keep Right” signs with “Use Left Lane to Pass Only” signs, as is done in some Southern states?

Vince Burns

Santa Paula

Dear Reader:

You are not the first loyal reader to suggest this fairly sensible alternative.

Cockrill agrees that some folks may think that if they are driving at 63, they are hardly “slower traffic.”

And at that speed indeed they are not the slower ones on the Conejo Wall, where fully loaded tandem big rigs must lumber up the grade at 15 mph.

Keeping the left lane clear for passing vehicles might work just fine in the Deep South and Midwest, where motorists are fewer and less edgy, but it might make it more difficult in Southern California, he said.

Rush hour would be the hardest time to make that rule stick, as motorists cram themselves into any available space at top speed. And that leads us toward next week’s topic:

MOTORING MORONS AND ROAD RAGE.

Peeved? Baffled? Miffed? Or merely perplexed? Street Smart answers your most probing questions about the joys and horrors of driving around Ventura County. Write to: Street Smart, Los Angeles Times, 93 S. Chestnut St., Ventura 93001, or call our Sound Off line, 653-7546. Include a simple sketch if needed to help explain. In any case, include your full name, address, and day and evening phone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries, and might edit your letter.