Aggressive driving + speed = danger

With each passing year, speed limits have been increasing across the nation, including here in Pennsylvania. Paired with an alarming spike in aggressive driving incidents, motorists are facing greater dangers than at any time since the automobile was invented.

Pennsylvania’s speed limit went from 65 mph to 70 several years ago on some sections of the turnpike and rural interstates. The speed limit is 85 on some Texas highways, 80 on some roads in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming and 75 in 12 states. As for states contiguous to Pennsylvania, only Ohio and West Virginia have stretches of 70 mph roads, while the others — New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware — are 65.

I wondered whether there was a specific definition of what constitutes aggressive driving. Actually, it covers a wide spectrum of unsafe driver actions. As I researched the topic for this column, I found that aggressive driving is defined differently from state to state since the federal government leaves enforcement to the states.

Just 15 states have addressed the problem by name in legislation. Eleven have adopted laws specifically defining aggressive driving actions. Pennsylvania has passed a resolution against aggressive driving, although this does not hold the force of law. However, law enforcement officials say that aggressive driving is incorporated into other laws on the books, such as reckless driving.

Going back a generation or so, the federal government enacted mandatory uniform speed limits from 1973 until 1994 through a National Maximum Speed Limit Law.

Congress repealed the law in 1995. Since then, 41 states, including Pennsylvania have raised speed limits to 70 mph or higher on some parts of their roadway systems. If you want to move along at a legal snail’s pace, you would have to go to Guam, a U.S. territory, where the maximum speed limit is 45 mph.

In some states, maximum speeds vary by vehicle type — car or truck, roadway location — rural or urban, or time of day. Affecting how states determine speed limits often depends on how a road is classified — arterial, collector or local.

An arterial road typically has the highest speeds and fewest access points. An example in our area is the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike where stretches between the Mahoning Valley and Pocono interchanges and the Lehigh Valley and Quakertown interchanges have been bumped up to 70 mph, except when there is construction work being done.

A collector road contains more access points, such as routes 209, 443 and 248, where the speed limit varies from 35 to 55.

Local roads are typically found within built-up communities with many driveways and cross streets, where the speed limit varies from 25 to 35.

According to Transportation Department officials, roads with fewer intersections and fewer travelers moving side by side can accommodate higher speeds and still be deemed safe. Roads with more intersections, more bikers, more pedestrians and motorists moving in different directions require lower maximum speed limits.

According to safety officials there are common myths about speed limits: Lowering a speed limit will slow traffic and will increase safety and decrease the number of accidents, whereas raising the speed limit increases traffic speed, and drivers will always travel at 5 mph above the posted limit.

The truth, according to safety experts, is that drivers will choose a speed in which they personally feel both comfortable and safe.

I wanted to test this thesis, so I went on Interstate 380 from the Mount Pocono area to its intersection with Interstate 84. I set my cruise control at 70 mph, the speed limit. More than 40 vehicles passed me during that stretch; I passed none. On the way back, I traveled at 76 miles an hour, which we are told unofficially is the 6 mph leeway that the state police will give us before pulling us over for speeding. I was passed by 16 vehicles, including three tractor-trailers which had to be going 80 or more. (The speed limit for these vehicles in a 70 mph zone is 65.) I passed two vehicles, including a tractor-trailer.

Tom Sohrweide, an engineer and senior traffic and project manager in St. Paul, Minnesota, said that a speed limit sign will not control a motorist’s behavior.

“When you want drivers to slow down, you change the road through traffic-calming measures like speed bumps or even design narrower roads, both of which make speedy drivers less comfortable,” he said. How likely is that to happen?

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com