Speed Limits on Rise in Santa Ana : Roads: Per state law, city has changed maximums to match drivers’ rates-- sometimes despite accidents.

For much of the last decade, a stretch of 17th Street with a 35 mph speed limit resembled an expressway, with the speed of most drivers rising from 41 mph in 1987 to 47 mph in 1997. So Santa Ana did what has become a common practice in California: It raised the speed limit.

Now, motorists there are permitted to drive 40 mph along most of the street, even though it’s the site

of more than two dozen accidents a year.

The city, which has the highest pedestrian fatality rate in Southern California, has raised the speed limits on dozens of its major roads in the last few years--including in some of Santa Ana’s most accident-prone areas.

On a one-mile stretch of Warner Avenue, for example, the number of accidents has nearly doubled since the city hiked speeds about two years ago, records show.

Cities across Orange County and California have gradually boosted some speed limits over the last decade, saying a little-known state law gives them little choice.

The rules generally require that limits be set at or near the speed traveled by 85% of motorists. An exception is made for areas that have major safety problems, such as roads near schools or with numerous accidents.

Citing the law, Orange raised the speed limits on 75% of its streets in 1994 despite protests from residents who feared it would cause more accidents.

In the next four years, the number of serious accidents across the city rose 21%, according to an analysis of state accident records.

Many traffic engineers--including the state’s experts--believe that California’s methodology makes sense and enhances public safety. Most motorists, they say, are safe drivers and travel at appropriate speeds; therefore, speed limits should reflect driver behavior.

But others say the regulations are inherently flawed, essentially permitting motorists to set rates by “putting their right foot on the gas pedal.”

“The problem with the California law is that it binds the hands of traffic engineers,” said Richard Retting, a traffic engineer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “This policy encourages speed and requires that engineers set speed limits high when drivers drive fast. That’s probably not the safest policy.”

Cities reevaluate their speed limits every five years, changing them if surveys indicate a shift in car speeds and accident rates.

If a speed limit is out of date or set lower than the “85th percentile,” judges can throw out speeding tickets issued on the road.

Speed Limits Rise Despite Fatalities

The regulations don’t always result in speed limit increases. In some congested areas and narrow streets, speed limits have decreased.

But it’s the rising limits that are sparking concern.

In some cities, like Newport Beach, officials have gone so far as to maintain the lower speed limits on certain streets but forgo issuing speeding tickets, which would likely be tossed out by a judge anyway.

Santa Ana has experienced more speed increases than any other Orange County community in recent years. Since 1987, about 70 of the city’s 177 speed limits on nonresidential streets have been modified, nearly two-thirds of them upward.

About a third of all fatal pedestrian accidents in the last three years have occurred on streets where limits were increased.

On a portion of Warner Avenue, four people were injured in the 17 months before the increase, and seven more during the following 17 months, the last period in which data was available. Total accidents during this period jumped from 14 before the increase to 27 afterward.

On a portion of 17th Street, three pedestrians suffered injuries in the 17 months before the limit was raised in 1997; after the increase, four more people were struck by cars, one of them fatally. The total accident rate, however, remained basically unchanged.

On one stretch of West 1st Street, the city raised the speed limit from 35 to 40 mph even though it had the highest pedestrian fatality rate in the city. Two people died and two were severely injured in the 17 months before the speed-limit jump. In the subsequent 17 months, two more died and another three suffered severe injuries. Overall, however, the number of accidents dipped during the period--from 65 to 60. This “low accident rate,” according to city records, justified the increase.

Pedestrian safety groups question why officials would raise limits on streets where accidents are a chronic problem.

“Traffic engineers still only think of moving cars and don’t recognize that streets are also for people,” said Gloria Ohland, a spokesperson for the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a Washington-based consortium of environmental and community groups that has studied the situation in Santa Ana.

“They should at least slow the traffic down, at least since this law allows an escape clause,” she said. “I think they should reexamine that quickly.”

Residents along 17th Street hold similar views. “They should have kept the limits like they were,” said Karina Perez, 22, who lives just off the thoroughfare.

Speeds on the street reach their peak outside of Perez’s apartment. She places her baby’s crib along an interior wall in fear that a car may someday crash through the building.

“Even though it’s a major street, people and children live around here.”

On Speed Limits, ‘the Law Is Clear’

Crossing the street is also a major problem, say pedestrians, because there are no crosswalks and people are reluctant to walk a quarter-mile to use a signal.

That a 49-year-old man was struck and killed by a car in front of a nearby taco stand earlier this year came as no surprise to residents.

“It’s getting very dangerous to cross the street, but they don’t even put in a stop sign or a crosswalk,” said resident Eugenia Ramirez.

City officials strongly defend their actions, however. They say speed limit hikes on major streets have prompted very few formal complaints. Furthermore, the city’s actions simply comply with speed zoning regulations that don’t provide much leeway in setting rates.

“We really can’t do much because the law is clear on how to set speed limits,” said Ruth Smith, an associate traffic engineer.

Even though pedestrians have been injured or killed on West 1st Street, as well as other roads with higher limits, engineers say that the accident rates are still not high enough to justify rate reductions. Engineers say they do not shy away from lowering limits if accident rates do reach a high level as defined by state guidelines.

The guidelines include a formula to determine whether a street has too many accidents, though critics contend the rules make it far too difficult to win an exemption.

According to the 1997 speed survey report, limits were reduced by 5 mph on six streets where engineers cited high accident rates. Among the streets affected were: Bristol Street between Edinger and Segerstrom avenues; Edinger Avenue between Fairview and Bristol streets; and Broadway between Edinger Avenue and Main Street.

T.C. Sutaria, the city’s traffic engineer, said lowering limits wouldn’t necessarily lead to slower speeds. Most drivers, he said, are oblivious to posted limits, preferring to drive at a rate with which they are comfortable.

Lowering limits would make violators out of the majority of motorists.

“If you artificially decrease the speed limit, then there may not be compliance,” he said.

The biggest problem with keeping speed limits artificially low, officials said, is that courts will simply not honor speeding tickets.

California is one of only a few states that allows motorists to challenge speeding violations on nonresidential streets. In most states, posted rates are considered absolute limits and, in general, cannot be fought in court.

But California motorists can argue that the speed traveled, even if above the posted limit, is safe for the existing conditions. They can also raise questions about the accuracy of police radar results. Sometimes, the arguments are successful.

“Most of the time, the safe speed is the speed limit,” said Cheryl L. Leininger, a court commissioner in Santa Ana. She added, however, that in some instances exceeding the limit “doesn’t necessarily mean that it was unsafe for the conditions at the time.”

Leininger, who has heard “thousands” of speeding cases, said she upholds the majority of citations and that most are for driving more than 10 mph over the limit.

State law prohibits police from using radar to enforce limits on streets with artificially low speed limits, which are considered speed traps. Radar is the primary method used by police to catch speeders, so officials in some cities have opted to not ticket rather than raise speed limits to enforceable levels.

“There are some streets where police can’t give tickets,” said Jim Brahler, an associate civil engineer in Newport Beach. “Residents would rather have less or no enforcement than raise the limit.”

Limits do not represent the upper ceiling on speeds in many cities. A Times survey of local police departments found that motorists are usually given a 5 to 10 mph “cushion” before they are issued tickets. This is done, police say, to limit successful court challenges.

But as part of their effort to crack down on speeders, Santa Ana police have narrowed a cushion that once reached as high as 12 to 15 mph.

“We’re no longer doing that,” said Cpl. Eric Mattke. “We’re holding them closer to the limit. If someone is going 30 or 40 mph in a 25 [mph zone], they’re getting a ticket.”

Times staff writer Ray F. Herndon contributed to this report.

Faster Pace

Because of a law requiring speed limits to be at or near the speed traveled by 85% of motorists, some cities in the county have raised speed limits in recent years. Santa Ana, with one of the highest pedestrian accident rates in the state, is one of those cities.