I was always wondering why the speed limit is 45 mph on the Pulaski Skyway during normal operations. Considering that the 85 percentile does 60-65 on it, and there is no way a cop can set up a speed trap without jeopardizing safety, it seems to me like NJDOT should just raise the damned thing to 55 mph (60 in a perfect world, but the road's substandard built does not fall within state law for a higher than 55 speed currently)?
There is also the Driscoll Bridge and Great Egg Harbor Bridges on the Garden State Parkway that also carry a 45 mph speed limit where in both cases (well at least the Driscoll Bridge) the 85 percentile does 65 to 70 mph. Again there is no way to set traps on those bridges, so they too do not get enforced.
Why can't they just post it at least at normal highway speed limits? Being everyone does not heed the signs to me its a waste to keep them around.
The popo can follow you until a place they can pull you over.
These bridges can be enforced by a mobile unit driving with traffic, and I have seen troopers at the base of the Driscoll and the Great Egg Harbor Bay bridges. I agree the Pulaski can be particularly hard to enforce otherwise. If there was an accident, the speed of the involved drivers could certainly come into play with charges. The GSP bridges could probably do fine with 55 (with completed construction on the GEHB bridge), giving the proper grace in enforcement for the normal traffic speed of 65 or so. I just don't see that changing with the Pulaski, with no shoulders and especially the left on/off ramps, even if following the limit will get you plowed down.
With respect to those ramps, do we know if there will be any changes to them (can't recall if we discussed this in particular)?
Even with mobile units is very hard to pull people over as there are no shoulders to pull out on to.
The Driscoll and Great Egg Harbor Bridges have time for the average person to slow down when reaching the bottom, but also in between there still is a lot of areas that cannot be enforced as easy. As we all know word gets out fast when cops sit at the side of the road, and even with daily speed traps it still never stops the 85 percentile otherwise Deerfield Boulevard in Orlando would have everyone obeying the 30 mph speed limit.
Quote from: NE2 on April 14, 2015, 01:29:51 PM
The popo can follow you until a place they can pull you over.
Well, there are lots of speed limits that are literally unenforceable. I know in a lot of communities, the government still posts and maintains the speed limit signs but the roads are privately owned by the HOA. The DOT maintains the speed limit 25 signs, but the police are not allowed to enforce them as its not public property. I actually was recently dealing with an HOA issue where the DOT came in and said the custom signs don't meet the retroreflectivity standards anymore and wanted a way to get them updated, even though the roads were all private and the signs were all unenforceable. Apparently they also invert the colors of the street name signs to indicate the road is private and traffic laws should not be enforced.
Um, if the roads are privately owned, the private owner can hit speeders with trespassing.
People tend to zip through the SR-520 bridge between Seattle and Medina. I've seen a cop at the east end watching traffic approaching him.
Nearly all of the Delaware River bridges (among many other crossings) don't have shoulders. The police, if they spot a speeder, will just stay behind them (sometimes at a distance) until the road widens and then will stop them. This seems to be a frequent occurrence on the Walt Whitman Bridge. The Delaware Memorial has that median at the base of the bridge where cops can see speeders coming from quite a distance away, although in the recent past I haven't seen the cops hang out there as often.
I always think about the Rio Grande bridge when crossing between the US and Canada. In between customs facilities, no highway patrol is ever going to be seen. We have always simply parked on the middle of one of the lanes on the bridge for photos, with no worry of getting a ticket. I suppose one could also put the pedal to the metal for the whole (short) section. The only officers to be encountered are checkpoint officers, and they don't write speeding tickets.
I would always think about this driving down I-84 in the the Columbia Gorge. The exits are several miles apart, there is a Jersey Barrier between the lanes, with no openings, and it would be difficult to park a vehicle off of the roadway due to either the rocks or the embankments. So basically, so long as you don't approach and pass a cop, or have one behind you, you could go as fast as possible.
Does 84 not have a right shoulder in the Columbia Gorge? I've had an occasion where I was pulled over by a cop sitting on the shoulder that I had passed.
Quote from: froggie on April 16, 2015, 02:07:06 PM
Does 84 not have a right shoulder in the Columbia Gorge? I've had an occasion where I was pulled over by a cop sitting on the shoulder that I had passed.
There is, but technically it is a bike lane too, so there are limited places where they are permitted to park. Also, having just driven Westbound on it, the shoulder is awfully narrow. But again, if you are paying attention, you shouldn't have any problems.
Quote from: kphoger on April 16, 2015, 08:55:15 AM
I always think about the Rio Grande bridge when crossing between the US and Canada. In between customs facilities, no highway patrol is ever going to be seen. We have always simply parked on the middle of one of the lanes on the bridge for photos, with no worry of getting a ticket. I suppose one could also put the pedal to the metal for the whole (short) section. The only officers to be encountered are checkpoint officers, and they don't write speeding tickets.
I did not know the Rio Grande separated Canada from the US.
Now I'm thinking of the Alaska Highway. It's 18 miles between the US and Canadian customs.
Quote from: NE2 on April 14, 2015, 10:04:16 PM
Um, if the roads are privately owned, the private owner can hit speeders with trespassing.
I'm talking more about communitys with HOA owned roads Those speed limits are nearly entirely unenforceable. People can't be trespassed from the property unless ALL of the owners don't want them, realistically, that is often entirely impossible as well.