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Traffic lights on roads with high speed limits

Started by webny99, January 17, 2018, 08:55:15 PM

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webny99

What roads have speed limits of 55 mph or higher, and yet still have traffic lights on them?
What is the highest posted speed limit in the US on a road with traffic lights?

A road segment must be signed for at least 50 mph and have at least three consecutive traffic lights to qualify. You have to start over if the speed limit drops, or it becomes a freeway.

NY 104, divided and signed 55 mph, has ten or so lights in the Town of Ontario.
NY 531 is also famous for 65 mph facing a signal (though it may drop to 55 briefly on the approach, and can't qualify anyway because only one light).


Bitmapped

This is very common in states with 4-lane expressway/divided highway networks. There are plenty of examples in Ohio and West Virginia with lights on routes with 60-65mph speed limits. If you're going down to 55mph, there are lots of examples in Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania as well.

webny99

I'm skeptical that such roads have many stoplights on stretches signed 55 mph or more.

US 89

#3
Common in Utah on expressways and divided highways. There are probably more examples than what I've posted here.

- The Mountain View Corridor (UT-85) is 65 north of Old Bingham highway, and it's 55 south of there. It'll be upgraded to a freeway in the future, but for now there is a pair of lights at each future exit.
- Bangerter Highway (UT-154) is 55 to 60, dropping to 50 between 201 and 3500 South. All the lights on it should have been interchanges.
- US 89 between I-15 and 84 in Davis County is 55.
- US 89/91 southwest of Logan has some lights, with speed limit 60.
- US 40 between Duchesne and Vernal has some traffic lights. I’m not sure what the speed limit is, but I bet it’s at least 50.
- Van Winkle (UT-152) in Salt Lake City is 50.
- UT-36 between I-80 and Tooele is 60.
- UT-201 west of 5600 West 55-60.
- UT-111 south of Magna is 60.
- UT-73 west of UT-145 is 55.
- US 6 in Spanish Fork is 50-60.
- UT-9 between I-15 and Hurricane is 60.
- UT-145 (Pioneer Crossing) in Lehi is 50.
- UT-68 (Redwood Rd) north of Salt Lake City is 50.
- UT-92 (Timpanogos Highway) is 50 to 55.

Max Rockatansky

CA 41 south of Fresno all the way to CA 198 has a ton of them.

Revive 755

Quote from: webny99 on January 17, 2018, 08:55:15 PM
What roads have speed limits of 55 mph or higher, and yet still have stoplights on them?
What is the highest posted speed limit in the US on a road with stoplights?

A road segment must be signed for at least 50 mph and have at least three stoplights to qualify. You have to start over if the speed limit drops.

Why three?  IMHO it should be counted on a sliding scale, as stoplights on a 55 mph road are extremely common, bit less so on a 60 mph road, much less so on a 65 mph road, and I am certainly not knowing of any on a road posted at 70.

Anyway:

Missouri
* MO 30 from west of MO 141 to the end of the four lane section near Cedar Hill:  60 mph with numerous stoplights.

Nebraska
* US 34 west of the I-80/I-180 interchange in Lincoln:  60 mph with three stoplights and one interchange
* US 77 on the west side of Lincoln:  Now 60 mph with at three stoplights.  Almost four, but the speed limit drops for the light at Satillo Road.

webny99

Quote from: Revive 755 on January 17, 2018, 09:48:15 PM
Why three?  IMHO it should be counted on a sliding scale, as stoplights on a 55 mph road are extremely common, bit less so on a 60 mph road, much less so on a 65 mph road, and I am certainly not knowing of any on a road posted at 70.

I've updated my OP to say three consecutive lights, and also no freeway segments in between. I'm not talking about a random stoplight here or there, I'm talking about multiple (at least three) and on a somewhat consistent basis, too, not huge gaps in between.
Regarding the bolded statement, I'm not at all convinced. We haven't had any street view links thus far, however, I am updating my OP to link to a segment of NY 104.

Big John


Joe The Dragon

#8
US 12 fox lake to volo and volo to lake zurich the wauconda part is just under / overpass with at grade drive ways mixed in.
US 14 fox river grove to barrington

gonealookin

#9
Northbound US 395 in Douglas County, NV doesn't qualify for the three consecutive signals right now, but it will in a few months.  It is posted for 65 mph from Muller Lane (NV 757) at the north end of Minden to South Sunridge Drive, a distance of about 7.5 miles.  There are continuous green T-intersections now at Johnson Lane and Stephanie Lane, and NDOT has a signed contract for another one at [Minden] Airport Road (NV 759) to be installed this spring.  All three of these roads intersect US 395 from the east side, so there are no signals on the southbound side.  It's a little under 2 miles from Airport Road to Johnson Lane, and 1 more mile to Stephanie Way.

Edit:  Here is the southbound view at Stephanie, which shows why this stretch is posted at 65.

Bitmapped

US 119 south of Charleston, WV has 4 consecutive intersections with traffic signals in a 1-mile stretch. This is in a 55mph zone. https://goo.gl/maps/dQF5dW7ZAPM2
US 119 near Morgantown, WV has 4 consecutive intersections with traffic signals in 0.5-miles in a 50mph zone. https://goo.gl/maps/nb2YdSYBRrR2


Hurricane Rex

#11
US 2  in Montana: 65T60 for a few signals.
ODOT, raise the speed limit and fix our traffic problems.

Road and weather geek for life.

Running till I die.

webny99

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on January 17, 2018, 11:27:46 PM
US  in Montana: 65T60 for a few signals.

Forgive me for not being able to interpret this statement  :confused:

Hurricane Rex

Quote from: webny99 on January 17, 2018, 11:35:17 PM
Quote from: Hurricane Rex on January 17, 2018, 11:27:46 PM
US  in Montana: 65T60 for a few signals.

Forgive me for not being able to interpret this statement  :confused:
65 mph trucks 60.
ODOT, raise the speed limit and fix our traffic problems.

Road and weather geek for life.

Running till I die.

jeffandnicole

Heck, even New Jersey's State Routes 72, 73 and US Routes 1 & 322, among others, qualifies for the 55 mph criteria.

In Delaware, US 13 & 40 meet the criteria.

webny99

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on January 17, 2018, 11:40:54 PM
Quote from: webny99 on January 17, 2018, 11:35:17 PM
Quote from: Hurricane Rex on January 17, 2018, 11:27:46 PM
US  in Montana: 65T60 for a few signals.

Forgive me for not being able to interpret this statement  :confused:
65 mph trucks 60.
Got it. Did you also forget to include the route number, by chance?

JREwing78

M-53 near Romeo, MI has no less than 4 stoplight-controlled intersections on a road posted for 70 mph (with brief 55 mph segments before and after each stoplight). It's a stretch that, if someone replaced said intersections with overpasses, it would be interstate-compatible freeway.

US-20 between Freeport, IL and Rockford, IL has 2 stoplights on a road posted for 65 mph. It also was posted for 65 between Rockford and Belvidere (a stretch with at least 4 stoplights), until late 2016 when it was dropped to 55.

Hurricane Rex

US 2 between Kalispell and Columbia Falls.
ODOT, raise the speed limit and fix our traffic problems.

Road and weather geek for life.

Running till I die.

GenExpwy

Also in our neck of the woods, webny99, there's NY 36 north of Hornell. The 55 mph zone starts between the Wegmans/Wal-Mart plaza and CR 70A, so you've got the lights at CR 70A, NY 21 North, and CR 66.

sparker

There are several stoplights along CA 138 -- nominally a 55 mph highway but with some 65 mph sections -- particularly in and around Pearblossom and southeast of Palmdale.  The highway does have several 35 and 45 zones through Littlerock and Pearblossom, but these are brief, with a return to 55 at the outskirts of town.  Several of the signals east of Pearblossom are relatively recent installations; most of those between Palmdale and Littlerock have been there for years.  All of these are in Los Angeles County; there's another segment of CA 138 through Phelan (east of the CA 18 junction but west of the rise into the mountains), actually in San Bernardino County, that is also 55 mph (mostly 2-lane following the terrain -- meaning up & down through the creekbeds) but with several signals.  Unfortunately, CA 138 has been repeatedly labeled as one of most dangerous roads in SoCal if not the entire state, as it carries much of the regional commercial traffic besides being one of the de facto L.A.-area bypass options.  This despite a gradual upgrade of the corridor (at least in L.A. County) that resulted in a significant amount of 4-lane facility -- albeit undivided except for double-double yellow lines as a median -- and including the aforementioned stoplights.  IMO, the proposed parallel route to the north (the tolled "E-220" corridor) can't happen soon enough.     

ibagli

OH-16 has three stoplights in a row east of Newark (Dayton Road, Marne Road, and Brownsville Road) and is at 55 or 60 the whole time.

MNHighwayMan

The one I grew up riding on (and later driving on) is MN-65, which is 55 from Fridley to 109th Ave in Blaine, 60 from there to Bunker Lake Blvd, and then 65 from there all the way to Cambridge. Lots of signals on that highway.

jemacedo9

#22
In SE PA, I started going down the list in my head and realized that many 4-lane roads with stoplights actually have a speed limit of 45, not 55, so it's not as many as I would have thought.  The only one I can think of in District 6 is PA 100 in Montgomery County, and maybe a stretch of PA 3 near the Delaware/Chester County border (though I am not that familiar with Bucks County - maybe PA 309?)

jeffandnicole

So, I started thinking about this last night. New Jersey actually has a very impressive list of US Routes with traffic lights in 55 mph sections!  Of New Jersey's 10 Primary US Highways, 8 meet the criteria put out by the OP of at least 3 consecutive lights in 55 mph zones!  Of the 2 that don't, one has a 55 mph section but with stop sign controlled intersections (US 30) and the other didn't have any 55 mph sections at all (US 46).

The 8 US routes in NJ that meet (and generally way-exceeded) the criteria:
US 1
US 9
US 22
US 40
US 130
US 202
US 206
US 322


dgolub

Long Island has a bunch of these out in Suffolk County.  There are even some county routes with 55 MPH speed limits, for example Nicolls Road (CR 97).  There was also a time when sections of NY 25 and NY 25A in Nassau County had 55 MPH speed limits, but they lowered them to 50 MPH about 10 years ago.



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