Home › Forums › Open Discussion › WEST SEATTLE BRIDGE SPEED LIMIT INCREASE
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October 18, 2012 at 11:55 pm #773883
TonyEParticipantThat was an amazing first sentence for the opening post. This is why I love British humour.
October 19, 2012 at 12:10 am #773884
datamuseParticipantNow, having said all that above, the standards of the initial driving tests in Europe are far higher than here in the US.
I don’t believe you. I’ve been to Greece.
October 19, 2012 at 4:38 am #773885
alan004ParticipantOkay…. let’s cross Greece off the list.. my mistake. I’ll narrow it down to just a few country’s we know about:
1) UK
2) Germany
3) Austria
4) France (even if they do blockade the ports and let all the asylum seekers through)
5) Belgium
6) Holland
7) Denmark
Every where else is questionable… and yes, I know… Italy… but they are as loony with their driving as the Greeks.
October 19, 2012 at 4:46 am #773886
RagsParticipantTread softly before DOT increases the speed limits but then imposes a toll!!!
October 19, 2012 at 5:24 am #773887
kootchmanMemberWait…. soon to be a sublime resolution. Seattle is cash starved.. the insatiable beast must be fed. Someone should tell the city council… “hey, let’s do like the airlines, banks, cruise industry”…. everyone does 30 mph… BUT… you can purchase high speed plates… Husky Purple plates let ya cruise at 45… for say… an extra 50 bucks a month. McSchwinn Mauve plates.. 55 mph for a $100. EVERYONE is happy… the city gets the dough they are going to get.. no one is late for work, cops aren’t choking and interfering with traffic flow with stops. Watch pretty soon they will be charging you !50 per ounce to buy a weed plant.
October 19, 2012 at 5:11 pm #773888
create125ParticipantI think that the speed limit at least needs to be consistent across the bridge; I am ok with 45 or 50, and many people are going faster than that anyway. I hate paying for tickets, so I try to pay attention to the speed limit changes. Speaking of attention– I don’t necessarily see speeding as the problem-when crashes occur during peak traffic times, it seems more about people not paying attention to what’s in front of them or to the side of them; not using their signals to change lanes-those things can happen at any speed.
October 19, 2012 at 5:17 pm #773889
365StairsParticipantNot with ya Alan…I will look for 14 seconds of a day savings someplace else…
I – for one – am more concerned about being safe and abiding by posted speed laws…it is such a short distance of roadway…isn’t their other battles to fight?
TMW had it right…
WSB – as usual…your ability to get to the source and provide updates is awesome!
October 19, 2012 at 5:30 pm #773890
alan004ParticipantIts not about the time savings. It’s about paying out $$$ to the city in Police tickets. This is the bottom line.
Okay, I have enough of a consensus here to show up to SDOT and get some traction. Wish me luck all. If I fail, I will list here venues to where you can get LIDAR jamming systems installed on your vehicles… I know I will.
October 19, 2012 at 5:36 pm #773891
365StairsParticipantAlan004 – you have (5) people in agreement with you.
On (33) posts – where you have (7) of the posts…you have a very low % of agreement and a even lower % of success based on what WSB posted.
Save your time and $…do the speed limit..
October 19, 2012 at 5:43 pm #773892
alan004ParticipantI will NEVER BOW TO THE MAN!! Dead or alive!
October 19, 2012 at 6:39 pm #773893
TonyEParticipantHey fun with math time:
The SSVI cost around 160 million. Let’s say that the city only had to come up with about 100 million of the money. It’s funded with a levy that lasts about 9 years. Ok so we get a cost of around 11 million a year to do the improvement. So let’s just say that only 10% of the desire to improve the viaduct was so that they could do more speeding tickets. So that’s about 1.1 million dollars in tickets. Lets also say that the city CLEARS $200 per ticket. So if the city then gives at least 15 speeding tickets a day, every day, for a year that will cover the 1.1 million dedicated to producing a better speeding ticket platform.
Now I see that this does indeed make perfect sense!
October 19, 2012 at 7:00 pm #773894
alan004ParticipantOkay, so my numbers are out on the funding… but here is what I do know for sure….
Did you know that an officer in the SPD can earn up to $100K in over time/year just by writing in extra hours for court appearances… even if they do not show up. This I can confirmed. I went to the SPD fund raiser at the Space Needle back in 04/05/06 and talked to a dispatcher… how my eyes were opened.
October 19, 2012 at 9:49 pm #773895
TonyEParticipantHey more fun with math time!
The pay rate for officers with more than 4.5 years experience is $40/hr. Overtime, presumably at time and a half, would put it at $60/hr. To make $100,000.00 in overtime would therefore take around 1600 hours. That’s about 200 extra 8 hour days a year. And nobody notices if you don’t show up! If I looked good in blue I would take this job.
As a personal anecdote, my last ticket was for not having an updated year tag on my license plate (the tab was in my glove compartment on my registration, it did not impress the officer). I went to court to “fight” the ticket hoping the officer wouldn’t show up. He was there. Actually he was a nice officer though and the judge cut the fine on the ticket.
October 19, 2012 at 11:17 pm #773896
NFiorentiniMemberI find this comment to be absolutely laughable…
“Im tired of seeing bike cops and patrol cars handing out tickets on a sunny day like they were boxes of cracker jacks.”
REALLY? Please tell me where cops are handing out tickets “…like they were boxes of cracker jacks…” Because I’ll be there with coffee, doughnuts, and heck…I’ll throw in a massage or three.
The truth is that traffic enforcement in Seattle is extremely relaxed, compared to other parts of the country. During the last year, I’ve *TWICE* driven up the hill on Admiral doing 35 mph (30 mph speed limit), past the officer with their radar gun, and everything’s been fine.
While I agree that there are areas where the speed limit does seem unreasonable, such as Admiral, and the W. Seattle Bridge, there are others where the speed limit is too low, such as SW Avalon Way east of Fauntleroy. There, the posted speed limit is 30 mph; that final bend approaching Fauntleroy…you will endanger a cyclist if you were doing the speed limit making the sweeping right turn.
I’m cool with tweaking speed limits here or there; but I’d be even cooler if the SPD were much more aggressive in enforcing speed limits overall. People here…they drive like possessed morons! The fines here for moving violations do not deter people from driving safely; thus, they need to be substantially increased.
In fact, before there’s another bond package on the ballot, I would support quadrupling moving violation fines. Think of it as a “Drive-Like-A-Moron tax” for those who don’t give a damn about anyone else.
October 20, 2012 at 1:45 am #773897
alan004ParticipantSDOT next week. On Monday morning. Ill be there.
October 20, 2012 at 2:55 am #773898
angelescrestParticipantNot with you Alan.
Sorry. The nature of traffic flow on the bridge makes going any faster hazardous. NF: yes, quadrupling moving violation fines–people are diving insanely, angrily, bullingly!!!
October 20, 2012 at 3:27 am #773899
RagsParticipantNot with you Alan. Please take a copy of this blog with you so that you can present your case objectively. I vote with previous posters who support padding the city coffers with those who choose to ignore the speed limits….bring it on!
October 20, 2012 at 4:30 am #773900
kootchmanMemberThis falls under traffic nullification. I hit the bridge at 2:45…. the driver choice “groove” was 55 mph … and I followed suit. No lane changes… the only thing doing less was a Providence bus that was puttering up the hill. At those traffic densities, with that road, under those conditions 55-60 mph was reasonable. I have a car DESIGNED to do 90 mph … plus. We have variable speed limits on I-90 with the overhead signs that use traffic conditions to determine suggested speed limits. Yes there are 90 year olds that are afraid of speeds over 20 mph… why did they all move to WS?
October 20, 2012 at 4:58 am #773901
miwsParticipantWho’s going to pay for those signs and related costs for installation, and monitoring of, such a system that you seem to be alluding should be installed along the Fauntleroy Expressway/West Seattle Bridge/Spokane Street Viaduct corridor?
Mike
October 20, 2012 at 5:01 am #773902
miwsParticipantOctober 20, 2012 at 7:11 am #773903
alan004ParticipantLogic would dictate that most of the day 55 or 60 is just fine. As you cruise up the hill to Fauntleroy, one would lift ones foot off the accelerator and bleed energy down to nice steady 40 mph… in readiness to drift to 30 where posted coming into town.
It would appear even continental drift is too fast for some of you. Some people have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Sorry to be blunt, but this ridiculous.
Where was I… logic.. yes.. Kootchman, you have seen it with your own eyes and experienced it. There was no drama, no one flicking any one else off, no one getting run off the road in anger and SPD not there to annoy any one. How sweet is a blissful crossing over that lovely bridge and nice “Groove” of 55… or was it 59? :))
You know the crazy thing? When the speed limit is eventually increased, all of this… how shall I put it, “debate” will long be forgotten about.. and most every one here that has argued against it will be driving at the new limit with out a care in the world.
And yes, I will print all of this off for SDOT. They will not be able to breath because of laughing so hard at some or most of this. It will be the most fun they will have had for years… or they may take seriously, only time will tell.
October 20, 2012 at 8:24 am #773904
kootchmanMemberMost of all it felt safer. Here in the land of pablum and surrender… the notion of collective intelligence is foreign. I would take the judgement of 10,000 drivers with thousands of years of driving experience over a politically polluted. revenue driven traffic engineering study. Go with the flow. Zen is too scary for WS
October 20, 2012 at 8:44 am #773905
JanSParticipantLOLOLOL…I’ll call that last post “Bullcrap at 1:30 in the morning”. Can’t sleep? Come here and get a good laugh. Me thinks you just like to be argumentative…..yeah, we’re all wussies out here, while you once again go against the popular. Yeah, you’re a rebel, aren’t you? :D
October 20, 2012 at 1:02 pm #773906
anonymeParticipantThe comparison of the West Seattle bridge to the Autobahn was especially hilarious.
October 20, 2012 at 4:45 pm #773907
alan004ParticipantIT was not a comparison, as noted on the post, if you bother to actually read.. (difficult for some I know) I said equivalent to I5 or other interstates.
ANONYME… hmmmm. Some one who likes to vent, but offers no name and barks from the shadows.
Any way, it is of no matter. I will see what SDOT have to say and urge my point. When you see the new speed limit signs reading 55, next year, then you can thank me. :))
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