Dear Dr. Gridlock:
You wrote that “The Maryland State Highway Administration has not reduced the 55 mph speed limit [on a portion of the Capital Beltway where construction is in progress]. So to get a citation from the camera, drivers will have to be doing at least 67 mph through the narrowed, shifting lanes of the work zone .” (My emphasis.)
Anyone who has driven the Beltway over the past 10 to 15 years has encountered the mayhem that accompanies the major construction projects in Virginia and Maryland. Even under the best of conditions, 55 mph is too high a speed for these zones, especially in bad weather or during hours of darkness, which can include rush hours in the winter.
When speeds are reduced in any way — construction, weather, traffic volume — why are drivers given a 12 mph “free pass” to speed? I wonder why law enforcement agencies and the media condone violation of the posted speed limit, and may even facilitate it?
— David Rabadan, Annandale
It’s more than fair for drivers to get $40 tickets from an enforcement camera when, bypassing several warning signs, they choose to exceed the posted speed limit by at least 12 mph. Yet it’s rare that I hear from a driver like Rabadan who thinks that Maryland’s safety effort is too easy on speeders.
I don’t believe highway officials are in any way looking to give speeders a “free pass.” Rather, they are vigilant about the safety of both motorists and road crews.
But how does the state decide what’s a safe speed in a work zone? Sometimes, the speed limit is reduced. Sometimes — as is the case with the Intercounty Connector work zone on Interstate 95 and the newer work zone on the Capital Beltway’s Northwest Branch bridge in Silver Spring, the speed limit remains as it was before the work began.
David Buck, spokesman for the State Highway Administration, told me that the department’s construction and traffic engineers review the environment for every work zone. They take into account anticipated lane reductions, lane widths and traffic shifts through the entire project. They look at sight distance, examine whether merging ramps require a slower speed and study what drivers are expecting to encounter and how they might react to changes in a construction zone.
On the Northwest Branch bridge, which is undergoing an extensive rehabilitation, sight distances are good, Buck said. There are no on- or off-ramps in the immediate vicinity and no dramatic lane shifts, he said. Drivers would expect to cross the bridge at the Beltway speed limit of 55 mph.
Under that set of circumstances, a reduction in the speed limit in that area would not enhance safety.
Buck contrasted the highway environment at the Northwest Branch bridge with another bridge project on the Baltimore Beltway. There, the traffic splits around a work zone and ramps nearby. At that location, the speed limit has been reduced from 55 to 50 mph.
Of course, the Northwest Branch bridge is on the northern arc of the Beltway, one of the most congested portions of a congested highway. Beltway rush-hour conditions have their way of moderating speeds. During a recent rush-hour drive, the “Your Speed” digital display by the roadside told me I had achieved 26 mph, or 41 mph short of what it would take to trigger the camera.
About the buffer
But there’s still the other question about Maryland law, and it affects the use of speed cameras in school zones as well as work zones.
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
Please explain why it’s all right to go less than 12 mph over the speed limit at Montgomery County schools before getting a ticket? This has been driving me crazy for years. I doubt that it’s okay to go 12 miles over the speed limit anywhere else.
— Ruth Darmstadter, Bethesda
Say a driver is going through a 25 mph school zone. The driver has to hit 37 mph to trigger a camera. That extra speed would make a big difference to whatever else might get hit in the school zone. The District doesn’t advertise any such buffer speed for its cameras.
But advocates for the Maryland cameras met more political resistance and had to take several runs at the General Assembly before getting the statewide law passed in 2009. An original provision for a 10 mph buffer got raised to 12 mph.
Still, we have a law. I think the effects on driver behavior are quite visible, and many communities would like to add cameras.
Dr. Gridlock also appears Thursday in Local Living. Comments and questions are welcome and may be used in a column, along with the writer’s name and home community. Write Dr. Gridlock at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or
e-mail
.
The Post Most: LocalMost-viewed stories, videos and galleries int he past two hours
Loading...
Comments