The City is conducting traffic counts and radar speed surveys along 39 arterial and collector roadway segments to re-validate posted speed limits.
As part of the process, consultants will place tube counters to collect traffic volumes and use radar technicians in unmarked vehicles to collect traffic speeds.
The consultant is required to adhere to a very specific re-validation process to ensure that the various speed limits are properly set and enforceable by the Police Department.
Per the California Vehicle Code, posted speed limits along arterial and collector roadways need to be set based on the measured 85th percentile speeds surveyed, while residential roadways have a default speed limit of 25 mph.
Once certified and adopted by the City Council, the updated speed surveys will be valid for the next seven years.
Well, given how drivers speed in PH – including in the 25 mph zones, I swear Dorothy Drive (with no sidewalk) is often viewed as a racetrack by drivers heading to Geary from Hoover – I would guess these results will equate to increased speed limits in PH. And don’t get me started on drivers who tailgate when you adhere to the 25 mph speed limit on Patterson.
If I had the time, and I don’t, I would drive around PH very slowly all day, to hopefully get the survey mph results down. Hazard lights blinking if needed. Not looking forward to the results I expect from this survey.
I suggest raising the speed limit. Slow moving traffic is just more dangerous for all of us.
I have to applaud PH for letting people know about the study. PH was the first to adopt the solar powered speed signs.
Are they ticketing too or just surveying?
How long will the survey last?
Everyone speed in PH so they’ll raise the limits.
They did these studies twice near me. Once in Texas they raised it from 60mph to 70mph. Here they raised it from 40mph to 45. The logic goes people are driving this fast anyway and there have been no accidents so it’s safe to raise.
The city of Martinez won’t need to do a study like the one above, because there are basically no speed laws there. Also, there are no traffic laws there whatsoever. When the laws are never enforced, and the careless irresponsible inconsiderate immature members of society are allowed ignore them, then are there really any laws?
The irony ~ I saw them patrolling Alhambra Ave near the car wash both sides of the street.
All Police Depts need to get on the ball with these out of control Tinted Windshields. This is illegal and dangerous.
I’m going to submit an exhibit to City Mayor, City Council and Chief of Police.
Agreed! Martinez is like the wild Wild West! No police anywhere! So different 20 years ago. Police were around all the time.
It’s a Sanctuary city, so the Police are now handcuffed.
They should Quit wasting the Cities money on Bankrupt baseball sports teams.
I hope that North Main Street between the Soldiers’ Monument and Oak Park Boulevard is one of the roads tested. That street is posted 35 mph and is obviously capable of accommodating faster traffic. In Europe it would be a major highway in its own right. Because it appears to be a faster street and lots of people drive faster during the morning commute, it’s a profitable hunting ground for the local motorcycle officer – he hides in the Sloat’s driveway with his radar gun pointed north.
Increase the speed limit to 45 mph, please!
I agree with Ancient Mariner. A 45 mph zone seems more reasonable than 35 mph, especially since it is a more-or-less a frontage road.
However, coming the other way, there are a few businesses closer to Monument that need a slower speed limit posted.
I recently was directed to how speed limits were determined and I actually find it quite absurd. No sense of reason or objective applicability. Simply how fast do most drivers drive already. This isn’t really curbing speeding it’s just moving the goalposts to fit societies tolerance regardless of the actual safety
False. It can be lowered for “conditions not readily apparent” (actual language) for things like large amount of pedestrian traffic, blind curves, rolling hills, driveways etc.
It’s not so much society’s tolerance as the road’s tolerance. American traffic engineers tend by training to “over-design” roadways, i.e. design them to make it safe (for those in the car, although not for those outside it) to drive faster than the intended speed. The result is predictable: people do drive faster than the intended speed.
The way to bring down speeds both legally and in actual practice is to redesign the street to produce lower speeds. That means shorter sightlines for drivers, narrower lanes, and shorter distances without a stop. These factors reliably reduce speeds, and their opposites reliably raise speeds.
It can also be adjusted down for a high rate of traffic accidents…
A licensed traffic engineer/civil engineer (I believe) needs tom sign off on it,,,
Contrary to many other commenters here, I think speed limits should be raised. For one, modern cars have much better handling and braking characteristics than cars of the past. And they’re a lot safer as well. If you’re reaction speed is too slow to handle driving, then you ought not to be.
Modern cars have outstanding braking, however humans have the same lousy coordination and reaction times as always. Now throw in the distraction of cell phones. Relying on great brakes is part of the problem.
Yeah, and be damned if your pets/children/self get hit by cars.
Don’t play with your pets and children in the middle of the road.
On second thought, keep doing it.
Yep. Let’s just increase speed limits to whatever mph or so. To heck with anyone who lives there. On Pleasant Hill Road, Alhambra, Gregory, Grayson, wherever. Maybe even Withers. Screw the pedestrians, pedestrians walking dogs, and bicycle riders. And in the meantime, let’s give thumbs up to all the people who drive with their eyes on their phones and not on the road, don’t yield to pedestrians. Which I see every single day.
Heck, well we’re at it, let’s just increase the speed limit to 90 mph. Yep, that’s the ticket.
Crazy some of the posts on this forum from people who clearly don’t live on my home area.
Ok, but how many pedestrians are actually hit by cars around here?
@Lambie – No, ticketing is not allowed. The data collection is done in ways to avoid influencing the results one way or another. For example, you could not have a cop in a patrol car sitting there in plain sight to slow people down. While the data and their results are objective there’s still some subjective stuff. Civil engineers will take curves, hills, areas with many pedestrians, previous accident history, etc. into account in the reports given to the city council who votes on the recommendations. From a legal perspective, the city council sets the speed limits, at meetings that are open to the public and allow for public input.
Seems like a ridiculous requirement. Maybe if they invested the money I. actually enforcing the existing speed limits. People know the limits aren’t enforced, so they exceed them. So this process increases the limits because people are speeding. Now people will just exceed the new higher limits due out everyone at risk.
One of our major problems is the increased number of non-residents who are speeding down our roads and they’ve been directed there by apps like waze.
Contra Costa blvd in particular with people trying to shave a couple of minutes off their commute down the 680 corridor.
People drive too fast for their attention and reflexes to keep up with also.
Alhambra Ave. to PH Rd. Is packed with drivers during both commutes jumping off 4 to avoid the 4/680 interchange mess. And many are making the whole bypass of 680 by jumping on Taylor to 24.
And is it just me that is amazed at the racing at night on Taylor in the area of Grayson Rd. and never any enforcement by any of the agencies with jurisdiction. I think the road is mostly county area which means CHP is probably responsible but I’m guessing PHPD and Laf PD have sections they could patrol.
I totally agree completely. Let us concentrate on enforcing what the limits are now. Everyone always seems to be in a hurry. Especially X gens. Unreal!
Lets all go faster on the non residential roads with speed limits too low.
Keep the complaining sunday drivers at home where they can complain about how everyone else is wrong.
Then you’ll have to stay home, too, with your complaining about Sunday drivers
Sure, let’s raise the speed limits, but outlaw weed and alcohol and raise the penalties for cell phone use, that will reduce accidents and injuries.
108RS
with get out of jail free card
So, let’s see, that’s a little like, “If everybody’s driving 45 in a 35, we’ll just change it to 45.” Easy Peasy! Sort of like, “If everybody”s jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, we’ll just get in line, too.”
You won’t have to jump you will be pushed along by the other lemmings.
My high score so far is 69.
I’ve been asking for a radar on our street for two years. You can’t have radar without a sign warning motorists that radar is in use. The sign costs $18,000, which was budgeted two years ago. Are we getting a radar enforcement sign? No, we’re getting a sign that tells you how fast you’re going. Why? Because no homeowner on our street would give the city a place for a new sign, and you can’t do radar without a sign. The city’s traffic planner admits that speeding is a problem on our street. I’ve been asking them to do something for two years and nothing is done. If a kid gets killed, it’ll be because Pleasant Hill doesn’t enforce traffic laws.
I remember way back in the day when new kid drivers had to do weekend road crew work if they got a speeding ticket. Picking up garbage and weeding and manual labor along roadsides in the hot sun all day long on a weekend. Can you imagine the babyed snowflake fairies of the millennial generation doing that?
It’s that heavily armed man who hates people who “park in the fast lane” that’s got everyone driving so fast. Posts on Claycord sometimes.