Speeding Is Fast Becoming Popular and Confusing Topic

Speeding dominates this week’s letters, as it weighs heavy on the mind of Street Smart.

After all, your friendly Street Smart correspondent very recently learned that he only thinks he is Mario Andretti.

He further learned that zooming down a 50-mph stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway at 66 can earn you a quickie police-strobe tan, a 20-minute ulcer, a $130 fine and eight brain-crushingly dull hours in traffic school learning what speed limits really mean.

Speed limits are set to protect people’s lives, but the way the limits are set and enforced can be confusing:

Dear Street Smart:

One thing about drivers has bothered me a long time, and maybe you could help.

In a school zone, when it says, “25 MILES PER HOUR WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT,” I thought this meant from 7:30 to 4, Monday to Friday.

Most drivers are upset when I slow at 10 or noon or 2. Exactly what is the law? I believe most people do not slow unless children are in crosswalks.

Jeanne M. Dore

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Your instincts are right, and the drivers around you are wrong.

You quote a sign that shows why writing--a dicey enough business when left to professional writers--can become baffling or even dangerous in the hands of bureaucrats.

California law says this: The 25-mph school-zone limit applies “while children are going to or leaving the school either during school hours or during the recess period. And it shall also apply when passing any school grounds which are not separated from the highway by any fence, gate or other physical barrier.”

In other words, drop your speed to 25 or slower when school’s in session, even if you see no kids, says California Highway Patrol Officer David Cockrill. However, if a fence separates the school from the cars, you can drive the speed limit that is posted in the surrounding area during class time when kids are not entering or leaving school.

Dear Street Smart:

What is the difference between the “SPEED LIMIT” posted on city streets and the “MAXIMUM SPEED” posted on highways and freeways?

John Snyder

Newbury Park

Dear Reader:

Again, a spongy swamp of California laws strives to answer a simple question--how fast can I drive here?

Here’s what you need to know to avoid a ticket:

Maximum speed is the fastest you can go on a given highway, as posted. Some shotgun stretches of high-desert road are posted at 70 mph, but most freeways are limited to 65, and some to 55 or less. Drive faster, and you are guilty of speeding.

The speed limit--as posted--is the fastest that the local government authority has decided you can drive on a city or county road. Governments use speed-detecting gear to gauge the fastest speed that the slowest 85% of drivers travel in a given area, then set the limit near that.

The prima facie (Latin for “on the face”) speed limit is not always posted, so make these assumptions when you see no signs: 15 mph in blind intersections and 25 mph in residential neighborhoods and school zones.

Drive faster than the posted speed limit or prima facie speed limit, and you still have a chance of beating a ticket in court, says Cockrill.

“If you’ve got a nice, flat road, it’s clear weather, and it’s posted 50, you could travel at 55. If you were cited, it would be up to the officer to prove that 55 was not reasonable and prudent. But if you were traveling over 65 in a 50 mph speed limit zone, you’re exceeding the maximum speed limit. That’s cut and dried.”

Dear Street Smart:

My biggest peeve is on Johnson Drive between Telephone Road and the Ventura Freeway.

People drive way too fast in that stretch of roadway. It goes through a residential area, and especially between the hours of 5 and 8 a.m. on weekday mornings, it is like an absolute freeway. I guess people are in a hurry to go to work, and it’s amazing to see how they drag-race from one signal to the next. It’s not uncommon to see speeds in excess of 55 mph.

It was posted for a time at 35, and Ventura, in all its wisdom, decided, “Gee, we’d better increase it to 45.” I think a well-placed radar cop down there during those hours that I mentioned could make the city a lot of additional income.

Steve Ralphs

Ventura

Dear Reader:

Ventura was forced to raise the Johnson Drive limit because a Camarillo driver three years ago fought a traffic ticket all the way to the state Supreme Court.

The high court ruled that cities receiving federal highway funds must set speed limits to match prevailing speeds in any neighborhood. Unless speeding is causing an uncommonly high number of accidents in any given neighborhood, the court ruled that the limit should be set to the 85th percentile described in the answer to Mr. Snyder’s letter, above.

“I usually look for an accident rate 20% over the average,” said Ventura Traffic Engineer Nazir Lalani. But when a traffic study found the accident rate on Johnson Drive was not that high, Lalani said he was forced by law to raise the limit to 45 to match that 85th percentile.

“Once we do the survey, I have to sign a certificate of compliance, saying we found the 85th percentile and posted the limit as such,” Lalani said. “A copy goes to the court, and the judge will not uphold speeding tickets unless he has a copy of that document in front of him.”

NEXT WEEK: Killer potholes

Miffed? Baffled? Peeved? Or merely perplexed? Street Smart can answer your most probing questions about the joys and horrors of driving around Ventura County. Write to: Street Smart, c/o Mack Reed, Los Angeles Times Ventura County Edition, 1445 Los Angeles Ave., Room 208, Simi Valley 93065. Include a simple sketch if needed to help explain your question. Or call our Sound Off line, 653-7546. In either case, include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Street Smart cannot answer anonymous queries, and might edit your letter.