Re: The sign says 65 m.p.h.? Go 70!



On Jan 29, 9:03 pm, "MichiganHotBear" <michiganhotb...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
You're tooling down the freeway at 70 m.p.h., keeping an eye out for cops
because signs say the speed limit is 65.

Relax! You're driving perfectly legally. It's one of the state's best-kept
road secrets that the signs are wrong, and no cop is going to stop you.


That's strange. Most states, when they raise a speed limit,
explicitly say in news media that it is not okay to drive at the new
higher limit until the signs are posted. In otherwords, what is
posted on the signs always supercedes anything else, in order to
discourage disrespect for signs.



Hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of signs still say 65 on I-94, I-75, I-96
and even I-696, the state's busiest expressway. But despite what they say,
the 65 m.p.h. speed limit on freeways is pretty much dead.

Last fall, lawmakers expanded the number of freeways where you can drive 70.
The exceptions are areas where Michigan State Police and the Michigan
Department of Transportation agree a lower speed is necessary for safety
reasons -- like around busy cities.

But the Legislature didn't provide money for MDOT to upgrade signs. Changing
thousands of signs will cost $1.2 million, and in an economy like
Michigan's, that's not chump change.

So it will be months -- probably late June -- before all freeway signs
statewide reflect the law, MDOT said.

You don't have to take my word for it.

First Lt. Thad Peterson, commander of the Michigan State Police traffic
services section in East Lansing, said the Legislature in November made
three significant changes in freeway speeds to encourage uniform traffic
flow.

On freeways where cars can travel 70, lawmakers raised the speed limit for
big rigs to 60 m.p.h. from 55. They also raised the minimum speed for all
expressways to 55 m.p.h. from 45.

Less publicized was the part about 70 m.p.h. becoming the de facto speed
limit on all but a handful of stretches of expressways. The exceptions
include 55 m.p.h. limits posted on parts of I-75, I-94, I-96 and the Lodge
Freeway in Detroit, Peterson said.

In November, he notified State Police post commanders across Michigan to
make sure their troopers enforce the speed limit at 70 m.p.h., not 65.

But drivers like Rod Sibley of Oak Park still have questions.

"Now that the speed limit on the section between Southfield and I-94 has
been raised to 70 m.p.h., when is the state going to change the signs ... so
that you can drive the new limit without worrying about getting a ticket?"
Sibley asked me about I-696 in an e-mail.

That's where the money issue comes in. State officials couldn't immediately
say how many signs have to be changed or how much each signs cost. But MDOT
spokesman Bill Shreck said signs on freeways in some outstate areas are
already updated, and the new signs will start popping up in metro Detroit by
spring.

So what's a driver to do in the meantime?

Peterson told me Friday he believes most law enforcement agencies are aware
of the change, so it's highly unlikely drivers will be ticketed for doing 70
m.p.h. in a zone marked 65.

"If they were to be ticketed for that, it not would not be a legally
defensible ticket, and the driver would have a valid defense, because the
law says the speed limit is 70," Peterson said. "It's just a question of
catching the signs up to the law."

But in 55 m.p.h. zones, stick with what the signs say!

.