For much of the last decade, a stretch of 17th Street with a 35 mph speed limit resembled an expressway, with the speed of most drivers rising from 41 mph in 1987 to 47 mph in 1997. So Santa Ana did what has become a common practice in California: It raised the speed limit.
Now, motorists there are permitted to drive 40 mph along most of the street, even though it's the site
of more than two dozen accidents a year.
The city, which has the highest pedestrian fatality rate in Southern California, has raised the speed limits on dozens of its major roads in the last few years--including in some of Santa Ana's most accident-prone areas.
On a one-mile stretch of Warner Avenue, for example, the number of accidents has nearly doubled since the city hiked speeds about two years ago, records show.
Cities across Orange County and California have gradually boosted some speed limits over the last decade, saying a little-known state law gives them little choice.
The rules generally require that limits be set at or near the speed traveled by 85% of motorists. An exception is made for areas that have major safety problems, such as roads near schools or with numerous accidents.
Citing the law, Orange raised the speed limits on 75% of its streets in 1994 despite protests from residents who feared it would cause more accidents.
In the next four years, the number of serious accidents across the city rose 21%, according to an analysis of state accident records.
Many traffic engineers--including the state's experts--believe that California's methodology makes sense and enhances public safety. Most motorists, they say, are safe drivers and travel at appropriate speeds; therefore, speed limits should reflect driver behavior.
But others say the regulations are inherently flawed, essentially permitting motorists to set rates by "putting their right foot on the gas pedal."
"The problem with the California law is that it binds the hands of traffic engineers," said Richard Retting, a traffic engineer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "This policy encourages speed and requires that engineers set speed limits high when drivers drive fast. That's probably not the safest policy."
Cities reevaluate their speed limits every five years, changing them if surveys indicate a shift in car speeds and accident rates.
If a speed limit is out of date or set lower than the "85th percentile," judges can throw out speeding tickets issued on the road.
Speed Limits Rise Despite Fatalities
The regulations don't always result in speed limit increases. In some congested areas and narrow streets, speed limits have decreased.
But it's the rising limits that are sparking concern.
In some cities, like Newport Beach, officials have gone so far as to maintain the lower speed limits on certain streets but forgo issuing speeding tickets, which would likely be tossed out by a judge anyway.
Santa Ana has experienced more speed increases than any other Orange County community in recent years. Since 1987, about 70 of the city's 177 speed limits on nonresidential streets have been modified, nearly two-thirds of them upward.
About a third of all fatal pedestrian accidents in the last three years have occurred on streets where limits were increased.
On a portion of Warner Avenue, four people were injured in the 17 months before the increase, and seven more during the following 17 months, the last period in which data was available. Total accidents during this period jumped from 14 before the increase to 27 afterward.
On a portion of 17th Street, three pedestrians suffered injuries in the 17 months before the limit was raised in 1997; after the increase, four more people were struck by cars, one of them fatally. The total accident rate, however, remained basically unchanged.
On one stretch of West 1st Street, the city raised the speed limit from 35 to 40 mph even though it had the highest pedestrian fatality rate in the city. Two people died and two were severely injured in the 17 months before the speed-limit jump. In the subsequent 17 months, two more died and another three suffered severe injuries. Overall, however, the number of accidents dipped during the period--from 65 to 60. This "low accident rate," according to city records, justified the increase.
Pedestrian safety groups question why officials would raise limits on streets where accidents are a chronic problem.
"Traffic engineers still only think of moving cars and don't recognize that streets are also for people," said Gloria Ohland, a spokesperson for the Surface Transportation Policy Project, a Washington-based consortium of environmental and community groups that has studied the situation in Santa Ana.
"They should at least slow the traffic down, at least since this law allows an escape clause," she said. "I think they should reexamine that quickly."
Residents along 17th Street hold similar views. "They should have kept the limits like they were," said Karina Perez, 22, who lives just off the thoroughfare.
