If you found a nearly 10-mile stretch of road on which the speed limit alternates five times between 65 mph, 55 mph and 45 mph, you'd probably figure it was designed to confuse drivers to generate lots of speed ticket revenues for somebody. There is such a stretch of road, eight miles on U.S. Highway 1 between Augusta and Aiken.
But it's not a speed trap -- it's just bad traffic planning that contributed last year to 46 deaths in Aiken County, 13 of them in the Burnettown area. Four of the county's six road fatalities this year also occurred in that area.
The grisly statistics prompted Burnettown Police Chief David Paul Smith to persuade the state Department of Transportation to lower the speed limit from 55 mph to 45 mph along the Aiken-Augusta Highway from Clearwater Road to southwest of Midland Drive. That will reduce the number of speed limit changes in that stretch and, hopefully, result in fewer fatalities and accidents.
Chief Smith is grateful that the DOT granted his request, but he's also right to think the stretch could be made a lot safer, and less confusing, if the DOT permitted one uniform limit of 45 mph. Those eight miles aren't a speed trap, but they shouldn't be a death trap, either.
Comments
If clearly marked with no hidden signs there should not be a problem. I find a person gets to his/her destination quicker if the speed limit is observed but my goodness it is hard sometimes.:-) Drive the limit folks and lets save some lives this year.
Clearly marked speed limits are easy to follow. It's a matter of pressure on the accelerator pedal. Speeding is a matter of choice. The section of road between Aiken and Augusta needs to be a speed trap.
I disagree, patty. If the goal is to promote safety, then speed traps are not the answer. They're a cute little "gotcha" that generates some schadenfreude for those of us who obey the law, but the remedy Chief Smith proposed is the right one: post a uniform speed limit for the entire stretch of road. SC seems to be very bad about this. I use my cruise control whenever possible, to be a safer driver and save gas. It's difficult, though, when the speed limit varies by 20 mph over, say, a 5-mile stretch. What is the point? Set a moderate speed limit and keep it consistent....
Where on that stretch of road is the speed limit 65? I tend to think that I pay far more attention to speed limit signs that the average driver, but I can't picture where the speed limit goes up to 65...? I'm thinking the author needs to do a bit more factual research...
10 mph won't make a huge difference. There are other variables such as visability at intersections, people who race through lights as they turn red, people folllowing too closely to the car in front of them (huge factor, even if both cars are going 45 mph, if the rear car is too close they will not have room to stop), etc.
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