Speed Limit

Governor William Donald Schaefer is reviewing a bill that would raise the speed limit on 165 miles of interstate highway to 65 mph. Do you think the speed limit should be increased on certain sections of interstates?To register your opinion, call SUNDIAL at 783-1800 (or 268-7736 in Anne Arundel County). The call is local and must be made from a tone phone. When you reach SUNDIAL, enter category 4600 and wait for instructions from the announcer. Call with your opinion between 10 a.m. and midnight.

All speed limits need periodic review ("State studies raising ICC speed limit," March 23). A rise from 55 to 60 mph on the uncontested, largely merge-free Inter-County Connector is certainly sensible. On the other hand, for the sake of safety and preservation of human life, the limit on I-97 between Annapolis and Baltimore should be reduced to 60 mph. That highway is the site of frequent serious crashes due to its congestion and various merges - and the too-high (65 mph) speed limit.

Lightly traveled and pothole-free, the newly opened Inter-County Connector is an invitation to speed, and that has become a sore spot with commuters. A review of the toll road's speed limit is under way and preliminary results and recommendations are expected in a month, said Doug Hutchinson, the Maryland Transportation Authority's chief engineer. The study will take into account the sharpness and bank of curves, sight distances and accident history on the road, formally known as Route 200. "There are a lot of facets that need to be checked out," Hutchinson said.

Lightly traveled and pothole-free, the newly opened Inter-County Connector is an invitation to speed, and that has become a sore spot with commuters. A review of the toll road's speed limit is under way and preliminary results and recommendations are expected in a month, said Doug Hutchinson, the Maryland Transportation Authority's chief engineer. The study will take into account the sharpness and bank of curves, sight distances and accident history on the road, formally known as Route 200. "There are a lot of facets that need to be checked out," Hutchinson said.

The problem: Tree branches conceal a speed limit sign in North Baltimore. The backstory: Tom Lavin knows the speed limit on Charles Street. He's lived in different North Baltimore neighborhoods along Charles Street for most of his life, and usually remained within a safe threshold of driving 30 mph on the road. "I knew the speed limit on Charles Street in the city was 30 miles per hour, but I couldn't tell you exactly where it started," he said. But about a month ago, he went running and saw city workers installing a 40-mph sign on the west side of Charles Street, just north of Gittings Avenue near the Baltimore County border.

Everyone who has ever gotten behind the wheel in Maryland knows full well that the state's 55 mph speed limit isn't working. And Marina Sarris' story in Friday's Evening Sun, which describes I-97 between the Baltimore Beltway and U.S. 50 as "Maryland's autobahn," offers more evidence. Sarris reports that drivers routinely speed there, as they do on I-95 north of Baltimore and I-83 south of the Pennsylvania line.Officials should have seen this coming. The 55 mph limit was mandated by Congress in the oil-squeezed '70s, when drivers were routinely hitting 65 or 70 mph on the interstates, and gas conservation was a key national goal.

HOW ALERT some of you are sometimes astounds me, especially when you notice something I probably wouldn't. Charlie Jennings has observed some illogic with speed limits around Howard County, and he e-mailed about it. "I am fascinated by the process that determines speed limits. It is not the level of the speed limit that bothers me. I will drive at the posted limit, despite the attitude of drivers queued up behind me - I suggest that they vent their frustrations on the people who put the signs up, not at me. My fascination lies with the logic that is sometimes applied to the process.

IN YOUR SEPT. 8 editorial, you attributed the cause of recent Maryland highway fatalities to the increased speed limit.Your choice of causes was inaccurate and misleading. The truth is that highway deaths are down in those areas where the speed limit was increased to 65 miles per hour.The causes of the deaths of the more than 50 people killed in the last month on Maryland roads are quite clear -- aggressive driving, driver error, failure to wear seat belts and to use child safety seats.Of those fatalities, more than half were either not wearing seat belts or in child safety seats.

No fatalities or serious accidents were reported during the long holiday weekend on rural Maryland interstates where the speed limit was raised on Saturday to 65 mph.But state troopers handed out 828 tickets to drivers who wanted to go even faster.State Police spokesman Mike McKelvin called it "a very successful beginning" to the higher speed limits, "especially when you look at the serious and fatal accidents. We didn't have any" on the interstate highways. Six people died in noninterstate holiday accidents -- three of them on motorcycles, Mr. McKelvin said.

An Anne Arundel County police officer who was hit and bruised by a car while on traffic patrol this week said he will ask state officials to lower the speed limit on the road where the accident occurred.Officer Anthony Mills had stopped the car for speeding on a strip of East Ordnance Road, also known as Route 710. Police have stepped up patrols along the road to enforce the 40 mph limit that went into effect in January. They say the patrols will continue until drivers observe the speed limit.

Maryland's construction zone speed cameras generated tickets worth nearly $19 million during 2011, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. The Maryland SafeZones program, in its third year, generated almost 474,000 citations to motorists going at least 12 miles per hour over the speed limit, the auto club said in a statement Friday. Almost half of the tickets issued under the program were sent out last year. Since its inception in 2009, about 954,000 tickets have been issued under the program, according to AAA. Cameras in Baltimore County along Interstate 95, between Interstates 695 and 895, produced about 236,000 tickets last year, the group said.

It seems everyone has a speed camera story, and here is mine. Just after Christmas I received a citation from Maryland Safe Zones Automated Speed Enforcement in the mail. It was not my car; I was not in the place at the time specified, and the picture of the license plate was virtually unreadable. I was offered the option of paying $40 or asking for a court date. I chose the latter and received a letter a couple of weeks later stating that I needed to appear in District Court in Towson at 9 a.m. on Jan. 31. Fortunately, I appeared before a judge who was full of good humor, compassion and common sense.

I agree with the letter about yielding to traffic in a circle coming from the left and blending in as soon as possible ("Yield to left at roundabout and to right at four-way stop," Catonsville Times, Jan. 4). I have found that many people needlessly come to a complete stop when they reach the circle. They are probably upset by people to their right that do not also stop and let them go. We need to be educated so that everyone knows to slow down when they reach the circle but not stop if no one is in the circle or it is possible to blend in. Another reason for driver education is the speed bumps recently added on Westchester and Rockwell avenues.

I was delighted to read your recent editorial in support of Maryland's speed cameras ("The purpose of speed cameras," Dec. 27), especially as it followed a column by Jay Hancock in which he departed from the genius that normally distinguishes his commentary and entered the realm of the blathering "booboisie" of AM talk radio ("'Speed trap state' new Md. motto, thanks to cameras," Dec. 12). Mr. Hancock gave us the Connecticut businessman so outraged over a $40 speeding ticket for driving 67 mph in a 55 mph work zone that he threatened to stop doing business in Maryland.

I agree with Rolling Road residents and Councilman Tom Quirk ("Speeders slow to change behavior despite cameras," Catonsville Times, Dec. 7) that speeding on Rolling Road is a problem that needs solving. However, in these hard economic times does anyone believe that fining drivers, mostly other Catonsville residents driving to or from work, nearly $40,000 in 10 days is the way to go about it? I drive by the speed camera twice a day. I have not received a warning or fine, so I am not grinding a personal ax. For a fraction of $40,000, more conspicuous and forceful warning signs reminding drivers that the speed limit is photo enforced could be installed.

I was reminded of the song, "Cry Me a River," when reading Jay Hancock 's recent article about a Connecticut businessman who complained about getting a $40 camera speeding ticket in a Beltway work zone ("Welcome to Md., becoming known as the 'Speed Trap State,'" Dec. 13). The fellow was so upset he even wrote to Gov. Martin O'Malley saying his company would now not expand into Maryland. Each work zone on the Beltway has several warning signs leading up to the camera truck, which this captain of industry was apparently too busy to take note of while he was exceeding the speed limit by at least 12 miles per hour.

Jay Hancock 's screed ("Welcome to Md., becoming known as the 'Speed Trap State,'" Dec. 13) about speed cameras on Maryland's highways reads as an apology for speeding (which endangers other drivers, workers, children, and animals such as deer) with the implication that it is good for business. The Connecticut businessman he defends, who claims to go no more than five miles over the limit in his home state, was clocked going 12 (significant because he would need approximately another 25-35 feet to stop)