Posted on 01/01/2020 6:13:07 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
After years of concern about the number of traffic accidents that occur in road construction zones, Pennsylvania is doing something about it.
Beginning Jan. 4, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike will begin a 60-day pilot program to formally test what’s called the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program. The program is designed to cause drivers to slow down in construction areas by setting up speed monitoring equipment in work areas.
After the pilot program is finished, the two state agencies expect to deploy private contractors in white Jeep Cherokee SUVs at various sites throughout the state to monitor speed beginning March 4. If the monitors detect someone going more than 11 miles an hour over the speed limit, the motorist will receive a notice by mail with a warning for the first violation, followed by a $75 fine for a second offense and $150 for each future ticket.
The incidents will be treated as civil violations and no points will be added to a driver’s license.
“From our standpoint, we aren’t trying to make this an ‘I got you’ situation,” said Dan Farley, chief of transportation systems management and operations for PennDOT. “We’re trying to address the egregious speeding in our work zones.”
The new program was authorized by the Legislature in 2018, but its history dates back much further. A report in 2012 by the state Transportation Advisory Committee recommended similar steps to control speeding in work zones.
The concern is obvious in accident statistics: In 2018, there were 2,804 accidents in work zones across Pennsylvania that resulted in 23 fatalities. Forty-three percent of those accidents resulted in injuries. Since 1970, 89 PennDOT workers have died in traffic accidents in work zones and 45 turnpike employees have died since 1945.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
I’m generally in favor of driving the limit. Keeping to the speed limit is extremely important. But PENNDOT has this habit of posting construction signs when there’s no activity. Heck, they just started a construction project along my commute in NOVEMBER. The project isn’t scheduled to complete for 2 years. Couldn’t they have waited until after the snow melts in March? It’s not like they’ll be able to lay any asphalt until then. Meanwhile the snow plows will be mangling the construction signs.
Oh, and that November construction start-date was delayed from June.
I'm all for it........I think it was 3 years ago when a friend and his wife were on the freeway and had just entered a construction zone doing about 20 MPH. They were rear ended by a truck that had ignored all the prior warning signs and never even slowed down. My friend's wife was killed instantly.....
It’s long overdue, but without a meaningful penalty, points and/or suspension, this is still just a cash grab by Pennsy.
Pennsylvania has construction zones that last YEARS instead of months.
There is little highway expansion or new roads built.....95%+ of Pennsylvania’s DOT budget goes to “maintenance” that cannot keep up, given the condition of our infrastructure.
Republican Gov Corbett implemented a massive gas tax increase to fix the infrastructure and after his ass was rightly thrown out of office, the Democrat has diverted funds to non-infrastructure spending, resulting in his re-election.
If Pennsylvania wants safer work zones, then have less work zones...in other words, fix the road right so you do not have to “repair” it ever other year afterwards.
Most places have doubled fines for speeding “while workers are present”...wonder if these monitoring systems will take that into account.
Most effective deterrents I’ve seen are where they out a set of flashing blue lights (no car) off to the side so approaching drivers think there’s a cop car up there.
There is a huge problem with that, though.
Just how slowly do these people want us to drive?
You are just as dead being hit at 40 on a highway as 60. I’m not willing to go slower than that and I’m not fond of 40 on an open highway. (Latter is only justified when the workway has been really shifted, etc.)
Sometimes, it’s just risky and that’s the chance you take.
The premise is all wrong.
There are two seasons in Pennsylvania: winter and road repairs.
“Move-over”?
Like in MD - for the special people only (NOT regular broken-down drivers who are still allowed to be hit, apparently)?
BTW, it’s unenforceable.
I WON a ticket infraction on this new law in MD (I had no idea about it, and it had been in force for 6 mos), because reading the law, and seeing what the policeman did before I passed him, it didn’t hold. (He got to speak first and luckily, he used language that only proved my point that he had even already started moving and turned off his lights - I think so early in the game, officers weren’t clear on what a violation was.)
How can an officer tell or intercept someone who actually violates this law when they are occupied?
They can’t - unless they start making 2 cars stop for every violation, etc. Just like the policeman at construction sites - more waste of money/resources.
“But PENNDOT has this habit of posting construction signs when there’s no activity.”
HAH! This happens everywhere.
It’s primarily a money grab.
In MD again, it’s supposed to be DURING work, but they’re on beyond that!
It is EXACTLY like our school zones (reduced speed posted) - but they are in force even on weekends and late hours! (Yes, another I got caught in ON A SATURDAY - off campus of Ft. Meade - fun military court.)
It is stunning to watch the videos of people who drive where they look and run right into side of the road scenes like police or construction workers. Parrot Brains.
And when the repairs are finally finished, within weeks, the road will be dug up again and improperly repaired. I call that “planting pothole seeds”.
Maryland already did this. No warnings, just $75 for the first offense and more for the second. It works.
I had my rotators and flashers going on my response vehicle in a snowstorm, picking up a sign and was almost killed by a semi in my lane going 75 MPH. That’s why.
Maryland.... I was nailed at 4AM, before sunrise. Not a single work person or vehicle in sight. Money Grabbers, and Dicks.
In New Jersey, a highway construction zone is usually posted at 45 mph. In Maryland, most highway construction zones allow you to drive the original posted limit.
It’s all fun and games until you hit a construction worker.
I usually move over for anybody now, whether it’s a breakdown or a rescue vehicle.
I grew up in a heavy-construction family and worked on several sites with active traffic in my younger days.
The answer to your question — I don’t want morons like you driving at all.
How do you know I’m a moron? (Personal attack, poor form.)
I’ve not caused one single accident in my 35 driving years, except my first day in my neighborhood at 5mph driving into a parked car! (But I did get rear-ended at a light 25 Halloweens ago for which I still suffer neck/headache injuries.)
Again, tell me how going 40 helps more than going 60 when you fall over the barrier into the lane?
They’d do MUCH better to create wide zones, not simply slowing everyone down, unless they want it at 20 which might make a difference - including angering everyone with causing major traffic snarls.
This is alot like the Minimum Wage thing - where does it end?
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