Posted on 12/18/2010 2:58:46 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Ohio Turnpike traffic could speed up just a bit come spring: the Ohio Turnpike Commission is to vote Monday on a proposal to increase the toll road's speed limit from 65 mph to 70 for all vehicles.
Getting trucks off parallel secondary roads such as State Rt. 2 and U.S. 20 is the idea, said Pioneer, Ohio, Mayor Edward Kidston, the turnpike commission member who has placed the proposal on the board's agenda. Pioneer is on U.S. 20 in western Williams County, just north of the turnpike.
Eliminating the turnpike's split speed limit, under which trucks and private buses were restricted to 55 mph while other vehicles could go 65, in 2004 was effective at luring truckers to the toll road, "and I'm hoping we can get another 15 to 20 percent of them off" the side roads by going to 70, Mr. Kidston said Friday.
"I'm wondering why it's taken this long to do it," he said. "The turnpike is designed for 70. It's the finest road in the country."
If approved, the increase would take effect on April 1, said L. George Distel, the turnpike's executive director.
"This is intended to help move truck traffic from the parallel routes to the turnpike, which is better designed to accommodate traffic at those speeds," he said.
Mr. Distel said the turnpike has complete authority over the toll road's speed limit, so no public legislation is required. The Ohio State Highway Patrol, which provides traffic enforcement under contract to the turnpike, has been notified of the proposal, he said.
Capt. Roger Hannay, commander of the state patrol's Turnpike District, said his organization will have no recommendation.
(Excerpt) Read more at toledoblade.com ...
OMG the planet!!!!/s
That road is made for higher speeds and should have been that way already. 70mph is what I like to set my cruise on that pike anyway. Now I could be legal doing it.
The article says that the average speed for trucks is about 66 or 67. Cars, on the other hand, average well into the 70s.
Now trucks will probably be doing about 71 or 72.
No Mad Dog 20/20 swillers on my Turnpike! /s
When you build a toll road, you have to provide service that’s worth the money, thank G*d!
Got pulled over twice within 16 miles on that turnpike, once, on the way to the March for Life, 1993....
I note that short-hop drivers, independent truckers and all sorts of tradesmen’s trucks/vans stay off the turnpike making it a pleasure, if a bit boring, to drive.
Yes, good point. Toll roads also tend to be a lot less nerve wracking.
I already don’t use the turnpike where there are roughly parallel roads that are “free”. Maybe if they stopped charging a toll?
I do not understand how US Interstates can charge tolls...they get the same funding all other interstate highways get. There is no other way to get across Ohio other than the turnpike, so every one is forced on to it. If you tried to cross the state on the north side in any other way it would probably take a day. Fuel taxes are supposed to pay for the roads, and everyone pays fuel taxes. I don’t understand why the eastern states have such a huge proliferation for toll roads (In fact I believe almost all of them were temporary (temporary 50 years ago). Western states (with the exception of money grubbing California and a wee bit in Texas) do not have toll roads, and our roads have to go over mountains and stuff, Ohio’s turnpike is 300 miles of perfectly flat road.
Ohio 2 gets from Toledo to Elyria fairly well and is limited access for a good part of the way.
Montana has plenty of miles of “flat”(nothing is really flat out West) highway with only a few passes in the west.
True, but you do not need to pay eleventy billion dollars on top of the already paid fuel tax for the “priveledge” of driving I-90 in Montana
The Ohio turnpike was built before the Interstate System was started (As I recall). Montana would have a tough time building I-90/94 without Federal help.
Interstates are funded and maintained in four ways:
Toll roads, that mostly predate the Interstate Highway System and were grandfathered into it.
Chargeable Interstate Highways, the 42,000 miles which form the heart of the system in the 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico.* They are financed by the Federal government via gas taxes and the like.
Non-Chargeable interstates that are financed solely by the states, but are numbered as part of the system.
A small number of roads or parts of roads that are maintained by municipal authorities.
*Several states have unsigned Interstates. They are signed as state or US highways but financed as part of the system. All four of Alaska’s (Interstates A1-A4) and all three of Puerto Rico’s (Interstates PR1-PR3) are part of the system, but not built to Interstate standards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System
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