Higher speed limit ups the odds on road dangers

Signs went up this week announcing that nearly 800 miles of Pennsylvania highways, including one in Monroe County, will have a 70 mph speed limit. That is a fourfold increase in mileage over the previous 70 mph roads in the commonwealth.

Leslie Richards, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation secretary, said he is comfortable with the change.

"Before moving ahead, we looked very closely at a number of factors, such as speed and traffic data and the physical characteristics of the highways," he said.

Among the eight highways which now have speed limits of 70 mph is a 21-mile stretch of Interstate 380 from I-84 in Lackawanna County south to exit 3 in Monroe County.

Two stretches of I-80 are included:

• A 190-mile stretch from the Ohio border east to mile marker 190 in Clinton County.

• A 52-mile stretch from mile marker 195 in Union County to mile marker 247 in Columbia County.

PennDOT employees also installed curve warning signs and new speed-reduction warning signs in advance of areas where the speed limit drops from 70 to 55.

Turnpike Commission chairman Sean Logan warned motorists that this should not be considered a license to speed. "In fact," he said, it is as vital as ever to drive sensibly, to avoid distractions and to buckle up."

In addition to these highways, look for higher speeds on virtually the entire stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in coming years. "After we convert the remaining segments of our system, we will have 493 miles posted at 70 mph," said Turnpike CEO Mark Compton. This means that about 90 percent of the 552-mile turnpike system will have the higher posted speed.

Areas of the turnpike now posted at 55 mph will remain there, including work zones, the five tunnels and mainline toll plazas, such as Mid-County, which connects to the Blue Route.

Areas that didn't qualify had crash histories, heavy traffic or characteristics that did not lend themselves to safe conditions for the increase.

The Transportation Funding Plan, adopted in 2013, allowed the increase to 70 mph once safety studies were reviewed. The turnpike and PennDOT raised the limit in three pilot areas on the turnpike, I-80 and I-380 in August 2014. The studies showed no significant increase in speed or spikes in crashes in the pilot areas, officials reported.

Motorists should be concerned that at these higher speeds, they need to be more alert than ever. As we all know, many motorists go up to 10 mph over the posted limit, because urban legend has it this is the fudge factor allowed by the state police. That would mean an eye-popping 80 mph.

Others say that to be on the safe side, drivers should not go more than 6 mph over the posted limit. For their part, state police will say only that motorists should abide by the posted speed limit and that anyone caught exceeding it is subject to being cited. Critics of the higher speed cite several reasons to be wary:

• The increase in speed can lead to more severe crashes and possibly more deaths, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

• Faster speeds increase noxious emissions which pollute the air, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

• Fuel economy takes a hit. The faster a vehicle goes above 50 mph, the more fuel it consumes.

• Not only will cars be going faster, but so will trucks, increasing the potential for more catastrophic crashes.

There are 20 states which already allow drivers to travel at 70 mph in areas; 12, including Maine and a number of western states, have a 75 mph limit, and four states - Texas, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah - allow 80 mph speeds on some wide-open stretches of their roads. A few stretches in Texas have an 85 mph limit.

A study conducted by the National Motorists Association concluded that higher speeds do not increase accidents. It found that a safe scenario is when 85 percent of the vehicles are traveling at about the same rate of speed.

"Establishing posted speed limits in accordance with the 85th percentile speed is one of the most important traffic safety rules," said Gary Biller, president of the NMA. "By doing so, the differential speed among vehicles on the road is minimized. It is differential speed that can be a major factor in causing accidents."

But the Advocate for Highway and Auto Safety found nearly one-third of all car crashes that result in death are because of speeding. When a state increases its speed limit, it increases the speeds driven on the posted road, and for drivers this increases the risks of being involved in a deadly crash, the organization insists.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com