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By Bob Dyer
Beacon Journal columnist
POSTED: 12:04 p.m. EST, Nov 12, 2009
Well, better late than never — although that's small consolation for the hundreds of people who have been handed trumped-up speeding tickets this year on Interstate 77.
(And no, my dear online posters, I am NOT among them.)
As we reported Tuesday, the beautiful new stretch of I-77 from Vernon Odom Boulevard in Akron to Cleveland-Massillon Road in Copley is finally on the verge of getting an appropriate speed limit: 65 mph, rather than the absurdly low 55 that has remained in place even after the major widening project that turned that stretch of freeway into one of the safest in the state.
The change will kick in as soon as Fairlawn officially signs off on it. Mayor Bill Roth expects that to happen at Monday's council meeting.
After that, the 65 mph signs will be erected ''within days,'' says Eric Czetli, deputy director of the local district of the Ohio Department of Transportation.
More good news: Now that state Route 8 through Cuyahoga Falls has been repaved, ODOT will push to raise that speed limit from 55 to 65.
And more: When the massive, $262 million Route 8 project between state Route 303 and Interstate 271 is finally finished in 2011, ODOT will lobby the affected communities to boost that limit to 65 mph.
Summing up, when the Route 8 project dubbed ''the Missing Link'' is completed, you'll be able to go 65 mph from the northern city limits of Akron all the way to I-271.
It's about time we caught up with the rest of the state, which has the lowest speed limits in America. Two-thirds of the lower 48 states have speed limits of 70 mph or above, including our neighbors in Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The only thing artificially low speed limits enhance is a state's or city's ability to use our highways as an ATM.
Not to belabor the point, but — well, OK, let's belabor it. In fact, let's beat it senseless. If we don't keep hammering away at this topic, we won't have any chance to counteract the ''speed kills'' propaganda.
This year in Summit County, the State Highway Patrol has unleashed an unprecedented ticket-writing frenzy. Through Nov. 3, troopers wrote 11,648 tickets, compared to only 8,855 for the same period last year. That's a jump of 32 percent.
Have our highways become safer? Well. . .no. Summit County's highways are less safe. We have suffered three more fatalities this year compared to the same period last year.
But you'll never convince the Highway Patrol that their laser-gun fetish isn't noble.
When your favorite columnist ripped the patrol for writing 484 tickets in five days on precisely the same stretch of freeway where the speed limit is about to be changed, the man who was in charge at the time, Col. Richard Collins, wrote a letter to the editor that stopped just short of calling me homicidal.
Because of the patrol's enthusiastic enforcement, he claimed, ''we have made great strides in making Ohio safer. . . .
''The most frequent contributing factor in these preventable traffic deaths [is] excessive speed.''
Rubbish.
Just look at the stats! The Ohio Department of Public Safety says that in 2007 (the most recent year for which numbers are available), 89 percent of the state's fatal accidents were caused by motorists (rather than pedestrians or animals). Of those crashes, here's a list of what the agency calls the ''probable causes of crashes by contributing circumstances'':
• Failure to control, 15.8 percent.
• Unsafe speed, 14.2 percent.
• Failure to yield, 10.7 percent.
• Improper lane change, 10.4 percent.
• Left of center, 8.3 percent.
• Operating a vehicle in an erratic manner: 7.5 percent.
• Running a red light or stop sign: 5.5 percent.
• Following too closely, 3.5 percent.
Fourteen other categories are listed, too.
In other words, in 86 percent of our deadly accidents, speed is not the primary factor.
Czetli, the ODOT boss, says the change on I-77 is overdue.
''As soon as that project was finished [in 2008], we started to look at raising that speed limit,'' he says. ''And certainly the public has been very supportive of that. But it's a process. We certainly want to respect the municipalities that we go through. And they saw the wisdom of that.''
Czetli says he is not in favor of boosting speeds near the Central Interchange, which is highly congested and near several horrendous weaving patterns caused by on- and off-ramps too close to each other.
As you head west on Interstate 76 approaching Akron, the limit goes from 65 to 60 to 55 just east of the Central, and remains at 55 to Odom Boulevard.
Fifty-five is plenty through that neighborhood. But once past Odom, 55 makes sense only if you make your living writing tickets.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
Well, better late than never — although that's small consolation for the hundreds of people who have been handed trumped-up speeding tickets this year on Interstate 77.
(And no, my dear online posters, I am NOT among them.)
As we reported Tuesday, the beautiful new stretch of I-77 from Vernon Odom Boulevard in Akron to Cleveland-Massillon Road in Copley is finally on the verge of getting an appropriate speed limit: 65 mph, rather than the absurdly low 55 that has remained in place even after the major widening project that turned that stretch of freeway into one of the safest in the state.
The change will kick in as soon as Fairlawn officially signs off on it. Mayor Bill Roth expects that to happen at Monday's council meeting.
After that, the 65 mph signs will be erected ''within days,'' says Eric Czetli, deputy director of the local district of the Ohio Department of Transportation.
More good news: Now that state Route 8 through Cuyahoga Falls has been repaved, ODOT will push to raise that speed limit from 55 to 65.
And more: When the massive, $262 million Route 8 project between state Route 303 and Interstate 271 is finally finished in 2011, ODOT will lobby the affected communities to boost that limit to 65 mph.
Summing up, when the Route 8 project dubbed ''the Missing Link'' is completed, you'll be able to go 65 mph from the northern city limits of Akron all the way to I-271.
It's about time we caught up with the rest of the state, which has the lowest speed limits in America. Two-thirds of the lower 48 states have speed limits of 70 mph or above, including our neighbors in Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The only thing artificially low speed limits enhance is a state's or city's ability to use our highways as an ATM.
Not to belabor the point, but — well, OK, let's belabor it. In fact, let's beat it senseless. If we don't keep hammering away at this topic, we won't have any chance to counteract the ''speed kills'' propaganda.
This year in Summit County, the State Highway Patrol has unleashed an unprecedented ticket-writing frenzy. Through Nov. 3, troopers wrote 11,648 tickets, compared to only 8,855 for the same period last year. That's a jump of 32 percent.
Have our highways become safer? Well. . .no. Summit County's highways are less safe. We have suffered three more fatalities this year compared to the same period last year.
But you'll never convince the Highway Patrol that their laser-gun fetish isn't noble.
When your favorite columnist ripped the patrol for writing 484 tickets in five days on precisely the same stretch of freeway where the speed limit is about to be changed, the man who was in charge at the time, Col. Richard Collins, wrote a letter to the editor that stopped just short of calling me homicidal.
Because of the patrol's enthusiastic enforcement, he claimed, ''we have made great strides in making Ohio safer. . . .
''The most frequent contributing factor in these preventable traffic deaths [is] excessive speed.''
Rubbish.
Just look at the stats! The Ohio Department of Public Safety says that in 2007 (the most recent year for which numbers are available), 89 percent of the state's fatal accidents were caused by motorists (rather than pedestrians or animals). Of those crashes, here's a list of what the agency calls the ''probable causes of crashes by contributing circumstances'':
• Failure to control, 15.8 percent.
• Unsafe speed, 14.2 percent.
• Failure to yield, 10.7 percent.
• Improper lane change, 10.4 percent.
• Left of center, 8.3 percent.
• Operating a vehicle in an erratic manner: 7.5 percent.
• Running a red light or stop sign: 5.5 percent.
• Following too closely, 3.5 percent.
Fourteen other categories are listed, too.
In other words, in 86 percent of our deadly accidents, speed is not the primary factor.
Czetli, the ODOT boss, says the change on I-77 is overdue.
''As soon as that project was finished [in 2008], we started to look at raising that speed limit,'' he says. ''And certainly the public has been very supportive of that. But it's a process. We certainly want to respect the municipalities that we go through. And they saw the wisdom of that.''
Czetli says he is not in favor of boosting speeds near the Central Interchange, which is highly congested and near several horrendous weaving patterns caused by on- and off-ramps too close to each other.
As you head west on Interstate 76 approaching Akron, the limit goes from 65 to 60 to 55 just east of the Central, and remains at 55 to Odom Boulevard.
Fifty-five is plenty through that neighborhood. But once past Odom, 55 makes sense only if you make your living writing tickets.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
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Posted 12:15 PM, 11/12/2009
Great column Bob!
Akron, Oh
Posted 12:34 PM, 11/12/2009
Amen!
Akron, Oh
Posted 12:35 PM, 11/12/2009
Amen
Seminole, FL
Posted 12:36 PM, 11/12/2009
Illinois is also stuck at 65 for a top speed. Drives me crazy driving from here to Kansas, and Ohio and Illinois are only at 65, while Missouri, Indiana and Kansas are at 70. These stretches of supposedly "dangerous" I 70 are as flat as a pancake and arrow straight.....just my views......
Posted 12:55 PM, 11/12/2009
Bob, your article starts off with this paragraph
"Well, better late than never — although that's small consolation for the hundreds of people who have been handed trumped-up speeding tickets this year on Interstate 77."
Please explain to us how these tickets were "trumped-up". Were the drivers who got tickets not exceeding the current posted speed limit?
I'm no saint, have gotten a few speeding tickets and generally drive 5-10 over the limit. However, I know and see what the speed limits are, and if I'm pulled over and given a ticket I know it was because I chose to break the law.
Whether the speed limits are too low, what other states do, etc. really doesn't factor into the issue of the ticket being valid or not. The law is the law, if you break it there are consequences.
This article should have focused on the speed limit change, why its being done (wider and safer roadway) and not on trying to blame the police for enforcing the law.
Akron, Oh
Posted 01:22 PM, 11/12/2009
It appeared to me that most drivers thought 55 was the minimum...I know I do...
Posted 01:25 PM, 11/12/2009
I can already hear the tears from Boston Heights as their favorite source of revenue gets taken from them...
Akron, OH
Posted 01:33 PM, 11/12/2009
The highway patrol is nothing but a bunch of glorified traffic cops and they think their backside doesn't stink.
Arnoldsburg, WV
Posted 01:49 PM, 11/12/2009
Number one, when the federal interstate system was designed, in was engineered for 70 m.p.h. So, as far as safety, it is safe to drive 70, if you know how to drive. Also, looking at the stats from 2007, that other great revenue generator, you know DUI, why is it not on the list? If it's truly as big a problem as they say, then why did it not even make the list? Oh that's right, it creates to many jobs and revenue for cops,judges lawyers, jails, etc,.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Posted 02:22 PM, 11/12/2009
What I'd like to see is a class-action suit, calling for the recalculation of tickets and fines levied on a section of road that was improperly designated.
After all, the fine for speeding is levied against the posted limit, which we've already established to be incongruously low.
The only way to get their attention is to hit them in the wallet, same as they do to us.
My Heart Is In K-Town, .
Posted 02:33 PM, 11/12/2009
Folks, at the time the speed limit was 55. So why should a recalculation take place? You broke the law by exceeding the posted speed, got caught, pay the fine. So what's the beef?
From here on out the speed limit will be 65 and if you do 75 and get caught, you will be ticketed again...then you'll whine some more.
My Heart Is In K-Town, .
Posted 02:35 PM, 11/12/2009
p.s. Sorry Steve, I should have read your post 1st...we said the same thing.
Paradise, Oh
Posted 03:17 PM, 11/12/2009
We are so funny with all our quaint, behind the times, hobbies.
Living in Ohio is like living in a 50's sitcom... like "Ozzie & Harriet."
Akron, OH
Posted 03:34 PM, 11/12/2009
The next road I'd like to see you take on, Bob, is the stretch of S. Main Street from the Green/Coventry line to just south of S.R. 619. My understanding is that the speed limit had to be set at 35 mph there due to state laws regarding sight lines, and there were strings attached to the funds that were used to improve that stretch of road. Driving 35 on there is ridiculous, and because it is regularly patrolled, people tend to stay within the speed limit. But, oddly, just south of 619, where S. Main goes down to 2 lanes, and it goes up and downhill and around curves, the speed limit jumps to 45 mph! Go figure!
Posted 03:53 PM, 11/12/2009
Some speed limits are set for no reason other than to raise money for donuts.
akron, oh
Posted 04:18 PM, 11/12/2009
I'm Ok with this increase. But Bob, your constant pounding on the State Patrol for doing the job we pay them to do, is over the top.
If someone speeds and gets a ticket, then they get a ticket.
It'd be nice if you's mention that while your beating law enforcement for doing their job.
everywhere, oh
Posted 04:34 PM, 11/12/2009
Bob, here's an idea for another speed article - Restricted times in school zones - What are they and why aren't they posted. The times vary from school to school and unless you have a student there or live close by, there is no way you can reasonable know the schools' times when students are coming and going. Would it be too much for the schools to post the hours on the same sign that announces the speed limit is 20 mph during restricted hours.
Per the Ohio Revised Code 4511.21B1A
Twenty miles per hour in school zones during school recess and while children are going to or leaving school during the opening or closing hours, and when twenty miles per hour school speed limit signs are erected.
Better yet, ask the cop running radar what the hours are, then ask another one - see if you get the answer.
clinton, oh
Posted 04:59 PM, 11/12/2009
And to think thirty years ago we reduced those speed limits from 70 to 55 to save Gasoline and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Does that mean I can now stop feeling bad about owning an SUV and having incandescent light bulbs in my bathroom?
Don't tell Jimmy Carter about this.
We not only will be racists but environmental
hypocrites
Akron, Oh
Posted 05:30 PM, 11/12/2009
About time - and great post Bob! I've got a recommendation for the next article: LIDAR (Laser) guns. The Chicago area courts have started throwing out tickets clocked with LIDAR. As it turns out, LIDAR is an effective scientific measuring device for distance... it is not an effective measuring device for speed.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/11/10/187202/Chicago-Court-Throwing-Out-LIDAR-Speeding-Tickets
Hudson, OH
Posted 05:59 PM, 11/12/2009
So let's see. In 97 percent of our deadly accidents, following too closely is not the primary factor. So let's get rid of our tailgating laws.
akron, oh
Posted 06:50 PM, 11/12/2009
"In other words, in 86 percent of our deadly accidents, speed is not the primary factor."
But it is a close second in most of the others. For example an improper lane change on a 25 mph street will not likely result in a death. It is much more likely to do so on a 55 mph road. And even more likely on a 65 mph road. It is much harder to control vehicles as speed is increased. So many (or some) of the close calls people experience now on those roads will result in collisions at even the 10 mph increase in speed limits.
Even though I disagree on whether increased speeds result in more deaths, I think that the higher speed limit is justified in the areas mentioned in the article.
Cuyagoga Falls, Oh
Posted 07:21 PM, 11/12/2009
Where is Betamax????
I have not seen a Betamax comment for quite a while. I was sure this Dyer article would prompt a comment.
If something has happened to Betamax and as a regular reader of the comments I should have known, I'm sorry.
Firestone Park - Akron, OH
Posted 07:24 PM, 11/12/2009
I go to Cleveland all the time on I-77 and the only time the Highway Patrol has ever been out there anywhere is when they had that motorcycle surge here in Akron in April or May or whenever that was.
The Brecksville cops are always out and
"doing their jobs" as someone mentioned. Yet I rarely see them pulling anyone over and people fly like the space shuttle up I-77.
I keep it at a safe speed, use my signals and yield properly but most people don't anymore. If law enforcement were "doing their jobs" they would care and be out there more often. Verrrry interesting.
akron, oh
Posted 07:31 PM, 11/12/2009
Once again Bob bashes the cops. Per usual. Calling the tickets "trumped up" was unnecessary. If the speed limit was 55 and tickets were written for exceeding that, how does that make the ticket "trumped up?"
everywhere, oh
Posted 07:32 PM, 11/12/2009
Speed doesn't kill ---- it's the sudden stop.
akron, oh
Posted 08:03 PM, 11/12/2009
P.S. The motorcycle cop looks hot.
CF, OH
Posted 08:28 PM, 11/12/2009
Betamax and Old Man Grump were both booted because they "picked" on the Beacon too much.
I guess freedom of speech in Akron is on a one way street.
Posted 10:03 PM, 11/12/2009
Cops = money yo! check yourselves.
You know the score pal. If you're not cop, you're little people.
Cleveland, OH
Posted 01:34 AM, 11/13/2009
Boston Heights plans on setting their stretch of 8 at 55 MPH. It's 50 right now. Good luck.
Always In Akron, OH
Posted 05:26 AM, 11/13/2009
In 2012, this problem is a non-issue when we all have jet packs and cars are no longer needed.
Akron, Oh
Posted 06:55 AM, 11/13/2009
Summing up, when the Route 8 project dubbed ''the Missing Link'' is completed, you'll be able to go 65 mph from the northern city limits of Akron all the way to I-271.
I drive that stretch every day. I think the speed should be no more that 60mph as 271's speed limit is 60mph.
Akron, OH
Posted 07:37 AM, 11/13/2009
To counter some of Bob's goofier assertions:
1) 3 more deaths in 2009 over 2008--maybe more people were speeding or driving erratically. That would result in more tickets, too. Writing more tickets didn't cause those three deaths--Don't confuse concurrence with causality.
2) I think failure to control could also be caused by driving at an unsafe speed. So "86% not caused by excessive speed" is not correct.
Akron, Oh
Posted 07:51 AM, 11/13/2009
@rayy: You're trying to make the point that causation is not correlation... and then you make a "this must be caused by that" statement in the same post. Make up your mind.
Failure to control can happen at any speed. If I'm looking at my cellphone, going 25 MPH and slam into something - that's failure to control... it was NOT caused by speed though.
The report lists the root cause most likely to have caused the accident. You can't infer that speed played into any of those except the ones labeled speed. In all the others, something else was more at fault than speed.
CuyahogaFalls, oh
Posted 08:08 AM, 11/13/2009
I'm all for the speed limits to raise in these areas. All we have to do is just get the people off the cell phones and quit texting and pay attention to driving. And the ones that think they don't have to show driving courtesy to pull their heads out of their a--. All that does is create Road Rage! We don't need that either. Oh, and the ones that sleep in too late and have to put on their make-up and take the curlers out of their hair while driving.Get up a bit earlier and tend to your beauty treatment before you hit the road! And if your that ugly, get up even earlier so you don't scare the other drivers on the road.
As far as radar goes, I once clocked a tree going 28mph. Go figure that one out?? That's no BS either.
Canal Fulton, Oh
Posted 08:39 AM, 11/13/2009
Voltman voltman voltman,,,you always make me laugh.thank you :-)
Canton, OH
Posted 09:18 AM, 11/13/2009
I don't believe raising the speed limit will do much to reduce the nuber of speeding tickets issued. There will always be plenty of motorist who exceed the posted limit no matter how high they raise it.
akron, oh
Posted 11:43 AM, 11/13/2009
@boost2525 "You can't infer that speed played into any of those except the ones labeled speed. In all the others, something else was more at fault than speed."
You just contradicted yourself (after calling rayy on the same thing).
You (incorrectly) say that speed played no part of any deadly accidents besides the ones labeled speed. Then (correctly) go on to say that something else was MORE at fault THAN speed in those accidents. Which while true, also means that speed can be a secondary cause of (at least) some.
Anyone who thinks that speed played no role in the other crashes... would you be willing to bet serious money (or your life) on that?
Akron, OH
Posted 12:33 PM, 11/13/2009
Keeping to the right except for passing should be the next focus of enforcement.
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/4511.25
http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/4511.27
Cuyahoga Falls, Oh
Posted 05:55 PM, 11/13/2009
I remember the speed limit used to be 70mph for this stretch of road. Around 1972 or 73 it was reduced to the present speed limit. If memory serves me correctly this change was due to the well spread story about an oil embargo. Gas prices were rising and the accompanying shortage of same. The seventies version of milking consumers to line corporate pockets.
akron, oh
Posted 05:55 PM, 11/13/2009
I lived in Cuyahoga falls for over twenty years. One of the main reasons my wife and I moved out of that city was because of the shady practices by the police department in giving out speeding tickets. State road is a four lane highway, yet it has a posted speed limit of 25. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to fiqure out what is going on. Check out night court and add up the dollars. We don't miss that town at all.
Posted 07:17 PM, 11/13/2009
someone call Warner Mendenhall.......
Akron, OH
Posted 11:43 PM, 11/13/2009
On any interstate highway, I am going to punch cruise control in at 55mph and stay in the right hand lane. Am I going to get a ticket for that? . . . or just a finger from a bunch of other guys?
rmk/akron
Posted 01:43 PM, 11/17/2009
why not 65 through the Falls.....c'mon Robart, let us free........
