Council, public say stop speed increases

John Stuck was a truck driver for years.

He knows that with just a 5 mph increase in speed, it could take a semi truck pulling a trailer hundreds of more feet to stop if it had to.

Stuck and a dozen other people from Colusa, the California Highway Patrol and the Colusa City Council opposed the California

Department of Transportation’s proposal to raise the speed limit on Highway 20 coming into town to 50 mph, at a public hearing on Tuesday.

They say they are expecting the worse, since Caltrans did not heed their plea to keep the speed on Market Street at 25 mph.

“These people are out of their minds,” Stuck said.

Caltrans confirmed Tuesday that the state raised the speed limit on Market Street from 25 to 30 mph, although new signs are not yet posted.

The news was particularly disappointing to Wayne Hoblit, who crosses Market Street two to 10 times a day, “taking his life in his hands,” every time he does so.

“People drive too fast,” Hoblit said. “I just drove through 10 states and I never saw a single downtown with a speed limit more than 25 mph.”  

Caltrans had originally planned to increase the speed on Market Street to 35 mph based on the 85th percentile – the speed at or below which 85 percent of a sample of free-flowing vehicles are traveling during normal driving conditions, according to Ron Sykes, Caltrans traffic operations chief.

Caltrans agreed to drop the proposed increase to 30 mph after additional review, Sykes said.

Caltrans’ latest proposal, which includes raising the speed limit to 50 mph on the stretch of Highway 20, from Will S. Green Road to just past the Colusa County Fairgrounds, was blasted as reckless because officials fear raising speed limits only encourages people to drive faster.

“I don’t know how to make people slow down,” said Colusa Mayor Bob MacKaben. “Everything I’ve seen all my life is that speed kills.”

CHP Lt. Doug Uhlik, commander of the Williams office, said Highway 20 west of Colusa was of particular concern to his agency because it includes the main access from the highway for Colusa High School, and the entrances and exits to the fairgrounds.

The increase on the east side of Colusa is along the stretch of Highway 20 next to an apartment complex, with no sidewalks or pedestrian crossings.

There is a side entrance to a second apartment complex, a mobile home park, church and the Sunsweet plant off that stretch of highway as well.

“I hope Caltrans will adjust the speed on the side of caution,” Uhlik said.

Longtime high school driving instructor Dick Marvel said he too was concerned about high school students turning off or getting onto the  highway at Will S. Green Road.

Marvel said 50 mph is too much speed and that young drivers will have trouble with oncoming traffic.

“Where we are is where we need to stay,” Marvel said.

The speed limits as proposed for Colusa are in accordance with the state vehicle code, Sykes said, and includes a sampling of more than 2,000 vehicles driving in Colusa during off-peak hours.

Caltrans is expected to review its studies again and will notify Colusa of its final decision.