The highway safety Nazis have messed with my daily commute

The BBQ Pit
1

All summer I had to drive an alternate route to work because the gobmint was expanding Highway PD, my regular route. It was one of those typical midwestern county highways, one lane in each direction, straight as an arrow, and running out among the farmlands. But Madison has grown outward to swallow up some of that farmland, and somebody decided it was time to redo the road for the higher volume.

They more than doubled the width. They but in a grass median strip with lights and a second lane in each direction. They even put in a dedicated left turn lane at every intersection. Really a very nice job, design-wise.

And when the re-opened it, they LOWERED the speed limit. It’s true there are many more homes and people in the area now, but they are not at much risk from this road. There are shallow ditches that ran on each side, no trees or shrubbery, and homes are set well back. There aren’t any blind spots that kids can pop out of suddenly and run into the road.

The speed limit is now 40, down from 45, which was already too low. I suppose I should feel lucky. There’s one road in town, Packers Avenue, that’s 6 lanes across through a pretty empty industrial area, and the speed limit there is 30.

Before the “fix”, I commuted on the road at a pretty steady 50 for about 4 miles, almost half my commute distance. Now, many of the other drivers are actually sticking at or close to the new posted limit, meaning my speed has dropped down to about 43 for 4 miles for safety’s sake. So my one way commute time has incresed by just about exactly… one minute, from 13 to 14 minutes.

To those of you who would claim I am ranting over a totally insignificant inconvenience, I say, “This is AMERICA, dammit! Home of the petty gripe delivered through high-speed internet connections.” Think about waiting for a page to load, and what a minute seems like then.

Okay, so it’s not the actual friggin’ time increase. It just the idea of all these resources used by the state to SLOW traffic. It just ticks me off.

2

Yeah, that’s interesting. I would’ve expected an increase to 50.

Couple of my own stories. I was driving on one of the smaller secondary or tertiary roads near my house with a speed limit of 30. Of course, no one ever did 30, most did at least 35 or 40. Anyway, I went to run some errands about 10 AM, and when I finally got back on that road a few hours later, the speed limit was suddenly 35. It took three speed limit signs to convince me that the city really meant it.

Also, with the completion of the I-25/I-40 interchange rebuild, the speed limit in the city went from 55 to 65. It is now theoretically possible to drive through the entire state at a speed no less than 65 and you could probably get away with 75. This is a good thing, in my opinion, as I still can’t believe there used to be a national 55 limit. Congress must’ve never driven out of the Beltway and actually in the western states.

3

I hate Nazi analogies. Until you’re told to go into the gas chamber, find another analogy.

4

And I hate Nazi-analogy Nazis…

just kidding. Actually, I agree with you - using the word as a generic synonym for “anal about people” cheapens the word.

5

There is an area nearby (West University) that is a notorious speed trap. Almost everyone, including myself, who has received a speeding ticket did so in this area. The limit is 30 miles an hour. Almost everwhere else in that area it is 35-40. Having said that I feel more areas should have the limit set at 30 mph. I also feel that there should be much more traffic calming measures such as speed bumbs, tighter corners, stop signs etc. I would also like to see more areas where cars are banned.

Roads are unfriendly enough and discourage people from walking, biking and the like. Of course there are also some areas where only cars should be and one should be able to travel faster. But where cars compete with pedestrians, children, animals ect. they should be forced to slow down, one way or another.

6

I live a block off one of the major roads on this side of the river. The limit on said road is 30, though it looks like it could be a 45 road with no problem – nice wide lanes, etc. There ARE houses along it, though, which probably are a good part of the reason for the lowered limit.

The REAL reason, though, is because it’s a major speed trap. I’ve seen WAY THE HELL too many cops writing tickets along here to go over 30, EVER. They like to sit by the side of the road and wave people over. Most of the time when I see them out there a single cop will have two or three people at a time stopped, and if you come back a few minutes later, there are two or three OTHER people pulled over It must be a major money-maker for the parish. What I don’t understand is why people don’t just slow down. It’s not like it’s a surprise that this road is a speed trap, is it?

7

It might be adjusted upward in a year or so.

They built a nice, wide road like you describe in my hometown–except it cut through an industrial area on the outskirts of town, connecting a residential road (speed limit 25) and a highway (speed limit 55). They set the speed limit at 30. Turns out they did this because they got federal money for the project, and were thus required to set the speed limit this low for a year.

When the year was up, they put it up to a much more reasonable 45.

So, it might be the case with your road, too. Maybe by next year, it will be 55.

8

Yeah, right - I weep for your 14-minute commute! Try moving to Chi-town and THEN we can talk traffic (and FIBs).

I do have a Madison traffic anecdote for you. My Hubby was on his way to the lab (grad school) and found himself stopped by a minor fender-bender at the intersection of Midvale and University. The comely young lass in a brief red dress whose car had been struck was leaning into her car to retrieve something as Hubby’s light turned green, and he tells me that he thought to himself “That’s going to be trouble” at the exact same moment that he heard the crash and tinkle of yet another fender-bender caused by the…uh…distraction (of course, HE was paying STRICT attention to the road).

9

A straight-forwrd letter to the appropriate government offical that is CC’d to the local newspaper is definitely in order.

10

For classic speed traps, there’s nothing like New Rome, Ohio.

11

Sure there is…Summersville, WV.