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Wednesday, August 19, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Boosting speed limit involves more than switching signs
taylor W. Anderson/Dylan J. Darling
The Bulletin
SALEM (AP) — Talked
about by truckers and Oregon
for years, higher speed lim-
its are coming to rural high-
ways such as U.S. Highway
97 in Central Oregon starting
March next year.
Cars cruising on high-
ways outside cities will soon
legally be allowed to drive 65
mph and trucks at 60 mph,
speeds that lawmakers and
police acknowledge drivers
are already traveling despite
lower limits.
“I think it is a long time
due because everyone drives
that kind of speed anyway,”
said Russ Boyett, of Spokane,
Washington.
Boyett, a long-haul trucker
bringing frozen food to
California and fresh produce
back, stopped Wednesday
morning to fuel up at Gordy’s
Truck Stop in La Pine.
Driving for Peirone Produce
Co., he’s on Highway 97
every other week.
Drivers like Boyett who
travel rural Oregon highways
will note a visible change in
speed limits starting March 1,
and another subtle change that
has implications for police,
judges and drivers.
While hiking speed limits
might seem like a monoto-
nous task to some, the Oregon
Department of Transportation
will spend the next seven
months dealing with com-
plexities that make up Oregon
speed law.
“You think you can just go
out and put a sticker on the
old signs,” said Doug Bish,
traffic engineering services
unit manager with ODOT.
“It doesn’t quite work that
way.”
The signs ODOT puts up
next year will don the words
“speed limit.” Makes sense,
right? It’s not that simple in
Oregon, where there’s a dif-
ference between a sign that
says “Speed 55” and one
posted that says “Speed Limit
55.”
Speed limit signs on U.S.
Highway 97 and 20 outside
Bend and others across rural
Oregon changed in House
Bill 3402 will mark a change
in highway policy that went
largely unnoticed as the bill
to raise the limits passed
in the waning days of the
Legislature.
Knowingly or not, Oregon
drivers and police for decades
have followed what’s known
as the “basic rule,” which is a
posted speed (not speed limit)
that drivers can follow or not
based on the conditions.
A mix of state laws con-
cerning the basic rule and
speed limits makes it a bit
complicated, but the basic
rule essentially requires driv-
ers to adapt to road, weather
and other conditions and
adjust speed accordingly for
safety.
If a driver was traveling,
say, 55 mph on an icy high-
way where the posted speed
was 55 mph, a state trooper
could issue a citation for vio-
lating the basic rule because
the actual road conditions
called for more caution.
The state adopted the basic
rule when the U.S. still had
a maximum speed limit law,
which set highway speed lim-
its at 55 mph, before it was
repealed in 1995. Oregon
drivers often cite the basic
rule speed limit to justify
speeding, said Troy Costales,
ODOT’s traffic safety divi-
sion manager.
But that’s not what the
law allows, and members of
an ODOT committee trying
to make driving here safer
are trying to change the law
to change driver behavior,
starting with the Central and
Eastern Oregon highways that
will allow higher speeds next
year.
All new signs will adver-
tise maximum speed limits
for cars and trucks, rather than
signs simply advertising basic
rule speeds.
Because many drivers
who know about the basic
rule think it allows them to
speed during good weather,
the new limits — which can
bring higher fines for citations
than the basic rule — may be
an unwelcome surprise to
lead-foots.
“When the federal limit
went away, Oregon’s roads
all the sudden became basic
rule,” Costales said. “The
interstates are (speed) limits,
inside city limits are (speed)
limits. Now these roads that
are identified in (the new law)
become limits.”
J e r o m e C o o p e r, o n
ODOT’s safety committee,
said during a hearing Tuesday
it was “ridiculous” that
Oregon will maintain what
some called a patchwork of
speed laws across the state
and that the Legislature didn’t
create a uniform change from
basic rule to speed limits.
Several members of the com-
mittee said they were inter-
ested in phasing out basic rule
statewide soon.
Other members of the
committee wondered how the
state would alert drivers of the
change. With seven months
until ODOT starts putting up
the new speed signs, the state
will have to make sure law
enforcement knows of the
change as well.
And while basic rule
intends to ensure drivers go
slower than the posted speeds
during inclement weather,
for example, Sgt. Kyle Hove,
with Oregon State Police in
La Grande, said some troop-
ers believe the rule also
allows drivers to exceed the
posted signs when conditions
permit.
“For instance, if you’re
driving at night between Cove
and La Grande and you’re
going 10 over, you know,
there’s elk, deer; 70 mph is
way too fast in a 55. Those are
conditions when we would
cite” for violation of basic
rule, Hove said.
These are among issues
ODOT is rooting out as it
gears up for a change that was
widely welcomed by rural
Oregon drivers, truckers and
lawmakers who said Eastern
Oregon drivers were punished
by some of the slowest speed
limits in the nation despite
having far fewer drivers than
the Willamette Valley.
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