Most terrible speed limits.

[Hurricane Rex]

Tennessee makes it where any interstate getting close to a city must slow to 55.  This makes it where you have 6 or 8 lane roads in the suburbs with no exits for miles being forced down to city speed limits.

Predictably, 60 is the lowest I've seen anyone go, and in Knoxville, at least, the police hardly enforce the limits.

Knoxville is what I first thought of when I saw this thread. Not sure which is more annoying, I-75 dropping down to 55 way to early when approaching Knoxville from the north, most of the 8 lane I-75/40 concurrency being 55, or I-75 staying at 65 for an extra 10 miles or so after it leaves I-40 when it should obviously jump back up to 70 immediately after the split.

Is all of them an option?

[thenetwork]

Said it before and I'll say it again:

I-90 Thru PA:  Nearly half of the stretch is 55, even though I-90 barely kisses the city of Erie.

<Mic Drop>

[bassoon1986]

Tennessee makes it where any interstate getting close to a city must slow to 55.  This makes it where you have 6 or 8 lane roads in the suburbs with no exits for miles being forced down to city speed limits.

Predictably, 60 is the lowest I've seen anyone go, and in Knoxville, at least, the police hardly enforce the limits.

Knoxville is what I first thought of when I saw this thread. Not sure which is more annoying, I-75 dropping down to 55 way to early when approaching Knoxville from the north, most of the 8 lane I-75/40 concurrency being 55, or I-75 staying at 65 for an extra 10 miles or so after it leaves I-40 when it should obviously jump back up to 70 immediately after the split.

Yes! I just took a trip to eastern Tennessee and felt the 55 mph urban speed limits were too slow. The 8 lane sections of I-75 in Chattanooga seemed crazy to only go 55.


iPhone

[UCFKnights]

Then Florida with its 20 mph school zones.   Even NJ lets you do 25 mph through a school zone.

Florida is better than parts of Tennessee and Wisconsin which have 15 mph school zones.

Eh, Florida is entirely random on school zones, I know I've driven through some rural small towns that set the school speed limit to 15mph. I've also been through some that have it set to 45mph. It seems entirely based on what the city wants, no rhyme or reason for school zone speed limits here.

[Flint1979]

Tennessee makes it where any interstate getting close to a city must slow to 55.  This makes it where you have 6 or 8 lane roads in the suburbs with no exits for miles being forced down to city speed limits.

Sounds like pre-2004 Oregon. Or Washington although the number is 60 instead of 55.

Indeed. Although it sounds like most states. Urban limits are quite common across the US. Some don't seem to use them as often, such as Michigan, but most definitely do. At least in my experience.

Most of Michigan has a 70 mph speed limit on the Interstate's in the bigger cities and as low as 55 like along I-94 and I-75 in Detroit. I remember I-675 in Saginaw use to have a 55 mph speed limit in the city of Saginaw and 70 elsewhere but the whole route is now 70 mph. Now Michigan has a 75 mph speed limit in certain areas.

I-75 north of I-94 in the City of Detroit is 70. Also, most (if not all) of I-96 in Detroit is 70. However, the Southfield, Davison, and part of the Lodge are 55.

A portion of I-196 in Grand Rapids is 65, however, there is a nasty curve between the Lake Michigan Dr and Lane Ave exits.

M-231 should have been 65 the day it opened. Thankfully, it is 65 now!

Here are some other two-lane roads in MI that should be 65 (outside of built-up areas):
M-20 from New Era to Stanwood
M-45 west of Allendale
M-50 from M-43 to Charlotte
M-52 from Webberville to Stockbridge
M-55 from Lake City to Houghton Lake and West Branch to Tawas
Almost all of M-113
M-115 from Benzonia to Farwell
US-131 from the northern end of the freeway to Kalkaska.

Also, many two-lane roads in Washtenaw County are 40 to 50 when they could easily be 55. The only 55mph (non-state highway) road in eastern Washtenaw County that I can think of right now is Wiard Rd.

Yeah that too use to be a 55 zone until it got raised to 70. South of I-94 I guess 55 makes sense considering there's more traffic merging in that stretch. The best freeway in Detroit is I-96 though that Express-Local configuration is so overdone that you almost never have any problems there.

I was coming home from cruising out by Mt. Pleasant the other day and was doing 65 mph on M-20 between Mt. Pleasant and Midland and it seemed like that should be the speed limit on that highway too. M-13 south of Birch Run Road is another one that could use a 65 mph limit as well as most of M-57 west of Chesaning except of course around Carson City and Greenville.

[jwolfer]

Don't know if this one has been on here before..
between I-4 and Colonial drive on John Young Parkway in Orlando the speed limit is 35mph.. it's a 6 lane road full median, not much business access on the sides.. most of the road is is 45 to 55 mph..

They even have the 35 mph painted in the lanes and lots of signs..people naturally want to go faster.mos roads of similar design and feel are 45-50 mph

Z981

[roadman]

Plus I think MA just passed a law recently allowing cities to bypass such restrictions.

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter90/Section17C  The law allows cities and towns to adopt a prima-facie speed limit of 25 mph on some or all streets under their jurisdiction, provided those streets are not already posted with a special speed regulation.

Cambridge's action in Harvard and Central Squares is not in conformance with MGL Ch 90 Sec 17C.

[lordsutch]

Guess what the speed limit of this section of Russell Parkway in Warner Robins, Georgia is? Four lanes, hard shoulders, jersey barrier & wide flush median, modern horizontal and vertical alignment, no direct frontages at all for over 2 miles from Moody Road all the way east to Robins AFB.

60 mph? 55 mph? Nope... try 40 mph. Meanwhile, the strip-mall and fast-food joint infested section with direct driveway accesses every 50 feet or so, to the west of Moody, has a 35 limit.

[Techknow]

Don't know if this one has been on here before..
between I-4 and Colonial drive on John Young Parkway in Orlando the speed limit is 35mph.. it's a 6 lane road full median, not much business access on the sides.. most of the road is is 45 to 55 mph..

They even have the 35 mph painted in the lanes and lots of signs..people naturally want to go faster.mos roads of similar design and feel are 45-50 mph

In San Francisco, both Sunset Blvd and 19th Avenue (CA-1) through the Sunset District are both 6 lanes wide, prohibit left turns save for a couple intersections, yet have speed limits of 30 MPH. To be fair the intersections are about 700 feet apart, and all along 19th Avenue there are residential homes. Traffic typically goes 35-40 MPH.

[TheArkansasRoadgeek]

What speed limits make you think that the dots were drunk when coming up with the speed limit? I am not talking about the, this could be slightly lower/higher, this is the what the f**k were they thinking, this should way higher/lower.

All of them! Our speed limits are dated and not very adaptive to certain situations.

[steviep24]

Irondequoit, NY. It will be getting worse there, They are proposing a town wide speed limit of 30, 25 for residential areas and roads near schools. Also they plan on reducing school speed zones from 25 to 20. Some county owned roads will remain at 35.

[Hurricane Rex]

Guess what the speed limit of this section of Russell Parkway in Warner Robins, Georgia is? Four lanes, hard shoulders, jersey barrier & wide flush median, modern horizontal and vertical alignment, no direct frontages at all for over 2 miles from Moody Road all the way east to Robins AFB.

60 mph? 55 mph? Nope... try 40 mph. Meanwhile, the strip-mall and fast-food joint infested section with direct driveway accesses every 50 feet or so, to the west of Moody, has a 35 limit.

You just described how much I hate Sherwood"s 99W speed limit. I can relate to your feeling.

[Hurricane Rex]

What speed limits make you think that the dots were drunk when coming up with the speed limit? I am not talking about the, this could be slightly lower/higher, this is the what the f**k were they thinking, this should way higher/lower.

All of them! Our speed limits are dated and not very adaptive to certain situations.

Separating due to the different subjects:

I blame safety advocates for not looking at the facts that they swear are false. At a public hearing in Nebraska, safety advocates claimed the 85% raises speeds so it raises crash frequency and severity. I need to find it again (the link).

[ftballfan]

US-30's 55 limit on fully controlled access freeway along the north side of Mansfield. For comparison, the stretch of US-30 between Upper Sandusky and the west end of Mansfield has a speed limit of 70 despite having intersections with minor roads (but no driveways or stoplights)

[Buck87]

US-30's 55 limit on fully controlled access freeway along the north side of Mansfield. For comparison, the stretch of US-30 between Upper Sandusky and the west end of Mansfield has a speed limit of 70 despite having intersections with minor roads (but no driveways or stoplights)

I don't mind that one too much...it's only about a 4 mile stretch that's posted at 55, and it's a section with several exits that have 1950's geometry. ODOT District 3 does have a plan posted for upgrading US 30 that area and a while back I started a thread for this project here

The sections of US 30 that are 70 mph were all built within the last 20 years

[bcroadguy]

Before 2012, this stretch of highway was posted at 90 km/h (55 mph). Then in 2012, it was reduced to 80 km/h (50 mph). The next year, a new bypass opened and jurisdiction of the old highway was given to the town it runs through. Without making any changes to the road whatsoever, they reduced the speed limit to an absolutely insane 50 km/h (just over 30 mph). In BC, if you're caught going 40 km/h (25 mph) over the speed limit (literally the exact speed limit 6 years ago), you'll be fined $368, charged a $384 "Driver Risk Premium," and have your car impounded for 7 days at your expense.

2011 Streetview: https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145466,-119.3874555,3a,49.5y,6.47h,88.94t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sysFDH6W724WI23lgCpZLSw!2e0!5s20110901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

2012 Streetview:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145819,-119.3874201,3a,75y,6.47h,88.94t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPEM5OKMa11aJYx1p2d2LAA!2e0!5s20120601T000000!7i13312!8i6656

2014 (most recent) Streetview:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145597,-119.3875074,3a,43.1y,9.09h,89.78t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sE6DGhmlZXSLQCp7xeaQ8NA!2e0!5s20140901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

[Brandon]

Before 2012, this stretch of highway was posted at 90 km/h (55 mph). Then in 2012, it was reduced to 80 km/h (50 mph). The next year, a new bypass opened and jurisdiction of the old highway was given to the town it runs through. Without making any changes to the road whatsoever, they reduced the speed limit to an absolutely insane 50 km/h (just over 30 mph). In BC, if you're caught going 40 km/h (25 mph) over the speed limit (literally the exact speed limit 6 years ago), you'll be fined $368, charged a $384 "Driver Risk Premium," and have your car impounded for 7 days at your expense.

2011 Streetview: https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145466,-119.3874555,3a,49.5y,6.47h,88.94t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sysFDH6W724WI23lgCpZLSw!2e0!5s20110901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

2012 Streetview:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145819,-119.3874201,3a,75y,6.47h,88.94t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPEM5OKMa11aJYx1p2d2LAA!2e0!5s20120601T000000!7i13312!8i6656

2014 (most recent) Streetview:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145597,-119.3875074,3a,43.1y,9.09h,89.78t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sE6DGhmlZXSLQCp7xeaQ8NA!2e0!5s20140901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

That's fucking insane.  There's no changes to the road geometry there in the Google Street View, yet the limit keeps going downward.

[jeffandnicole]

Before 2012, this stretch of highway was posted at 90 km/h (55 mph). Then in 2012, it was reduced to 80 km/h (50 mph). The next year, a new bypass opened and jurisdiction of the old highway was given to the town it runs through. Without making any changes to the road whatsoever, they reduced the speed limit to an absolutely insane 50 km/h (just over 30 mph). In BC, if you're caught going 40 km/h (25 mph) over the speed limit (literally the exact speed limit 6 years ago), you'll be fined $368, charged a $384 "Driver Risk Premium," and have your car impounded for 7 days at your expense.

2011 Streetview: https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145466,-119.3874555,3a,49.5y,6.47h,88.94t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sysFDH6W724WI23lgCpZLSw!2e0!5s20110901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

2012 Streetview:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145819,-119.3874201,3a,75y,6.47h,88.94t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPEM5OKMa11aJYx1p2d2LAA!2e0!5s20120601T000000!7i13312!8i6656

2014 (most recent) Streetview:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.1145597,-119.3875074,3a,43.1y,9.09h,89.78t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sE6DGhmlZXSLQCp7xeaQ8NA!2e0!5s20140901T000000!7i13312!8i6656

That's fucking insane.  There's no changes to the road geometry there in the Google Street View, yet the limit keeps going downward.

I've seen sections of road go down in my area, including from a 50 to a 35 zone, because they like to 'push out' where the reduced limit starts to give people time to slow down.  Isn't that the purpose of 'Reduced Speed Limit Ahead' type signage???

[jakeroot]

Last time I drove through that area was back in 2014. I never realized the limit used to be 90. At that time, I was heading towards Osoyoos from Vernon, and I exited Hwy 97 to visit the Gatzke's Market; the limit seemed insane so I just ignored it. I was not alone, IIRC. The removed signal at Oyama caught more of my attention than the low limit, to be honest, though that could be because I'm used to driving Marine Dr in Vancouver...

[silverback1065]

465 has a speed limit of 55, noone goes 55, everyone knows the real limit is 70.

[freebrickproductions]

The 45 MPH speed limit on AL 20 in Town Creek, AL, for me personally.

[TheStranger]

The Presidio Parkway segment of US 101 in SF leading to the Golden Gate Bridge - a fully divided, modern freeway completed in 2015 - has electronic signs for a 45 MPH limit.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.802232,-122.4593025,3a,75y,245.03h,91.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCejCeppg9TBeVYuzLCfEgg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

[jakeroot]

The Presidio Parkway segment of US 101 in SF leading to the Golden Gate Bridge - a fully divided, modern freeway completed in 2015 - has electronic signs for a 45 MPH limit.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.802232,-122.4593025,3a,75y,245.03h,91.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCejCeppg9TBeVYuzLCfEgg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Seattle has a similarly-low posted freeway, the West Seattle Bridge. Its eastern span (the Spokane Street Viaduct) was completely rebuilt by 2013, with shoulders and proper ramps. Still, the 40 limit remains from when the name was changed from "West Seattle Freeway" in the 90s. A 55 or 60 limit would be more appropriate. I understand lower limits for capacity purposes, but traffic seems to flow closer to 60 during off-peak hours already, so I see no reason for a 40 limit 24/7.

[JREwing78]

I didn't see Rhinelander, WI get any mentions yet.

US-8, in the middle of nowhere south of Rhinelander: 45 mph.
https://goo.gl/maps/3szdMUvaNe32

It gets worse...

4-laned Hwy 17 around the east side of Rhinelander: 35 mph
https://goo.gl/maps/78QCcHjGpSw
https://goo.gl/maps/e8fk6M7bZvS2

Oh, you're out of town. OK, mayyybe you can be trusted with 45. Mayyybe...
https://goo.gl/maps/3zdpqryWebw

I'm convinced Rhinelander is home of the Anti-Destination League.

[seicer]

The start of I-99 at I-80 features a 55 MPH speed limit to the south side of State College. Fairly new freeway, adequate traffic counts, but it just happens to be near a populated area: https://goo.gl/maps/aponfnSVk2s

37 miles of 55 MPH on I-81, where it's not all justified: https://goo.gl/maps/DkqPdoYsxqA2