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WPCNR DAILY BAILEY. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. August 31, 2007: There have been a rash of traffic accidents around Westchester County due to high speed in recent months. I have also remarked on how often I get my doors blown off by drivers flooring it way beyond the speed limits on the New York State Thruway and especially I-287, and the Sprain Brook Parkway.
Rolling Across the Heart of America on The Ohio Turnpike.
I almost never see speeders hauled over by a New York State Trooper or a Westchester County Police vehicle. At traffic work zones there are rarely any troopers disciplining traffic merges – this includes county police (responsible for the “International Speedway” – the Sprain Brook Parkway and the Taconic Parkway). Coming into the holiday weekend, I want to share with you what it is like driving in other states
Other states are very serious about enforcing the speed limits. Why are they successful? They put more troopers out there on the road and they watch very closely. Motorists are highly aware of state police presence, and subconsciously keep their speed within 10 miles of the limit.
The Ohio Turnpike (the Ohio segment of Interstate 80) is an example. On this road which begins at the Pennsyvania Border and courses across the Buckeye State to Michigan and Indiana, the speed limit is 65 – and good buddy, you better go within five miles of it. The Ohio State Highway Patrol in their white-and-blues hawk this road, stationing two patrol vehicles, one perpendicular to the Westbound lanes, the other perpendicular facing the Eastbound lanes – in close-together segments — and these two-car teams are stationed every 20 miles or so. If you’re over the limit they get you. You also never see them until they see you.
This frequent presence of patrol vehicles inhibits speed. I kid you not, no one was going over 70 the entire length and those that did they were bagged. You become so paranoid about getting a ticket, that even the truckers obey the limit. In New York State, and New Jersey, there seems to be a real reluctance to give high speeding truckers tickets since they haul their loads past me routinely—and I do 5 over the limit.
Now when I roll up the New York State Thruway, if I see two State Police cars between the Tappan Zee Bridge and Albany, that’s a lot. If I see two trooper cars on the Taconic Parkway, that’s a lot. And above Albany, forget about it. Sure it’s a big state. But Ohio is a big state too and they manage to patrol the Turnpike so tightly that 95% of the cars on it drive the limit within 5 miles.
Pennsylvania is the same way. There are not as many of the gray-and-blues in Pennsylvania on I-80, but they are there. What I like about the Pennsylvania roads is that the work zones are well marked and supervised, so the mergers are better.(With one glaring exception on I-78, midway between Allentown and Harrisburg).
In New York State the setups for the road workers are not very well-marked and the mergers non-supervised. (When was the last time you had a trooper out of his or her car supervising a merge in New York State? You never see it. Wednesday night the only traffic delay I had on a 630 mile drive from Michigan was on the idiotic repaving on you guessed the New York State Thruway about 5 miles before the Tappan Zee Bridge – a three lane into one that was not supervised or watched by a uniformed officer). The state police come in very handy on manhunts, but I seriously think their speeding enforcement and deployment at workzones could use a little more energy thought and creativity.
In Westchester County the County Police rarely corral speeders in my experience based on the frequent near-rear-enders I am nearly whacked by at least once a week on I-287, the Sprain Brook and the Cross County. Sedans, SUVs, motorcyclists routinely blow down those highways at a solid 20 miles over the limit. Could the County Police use a little creativity to start stopping this dangerous activity?
You do not have to do much: putting more trooper cars out there is the answer. You can station dummy cars without a patrolperson, but with dummy police officer dolls holding a radar gun on the traffic at certain points. (The phony owls keep pigeons away from public buildings. Let’s apply that concept.) Heaven knows we have three empty County Police Cars parked in front of the Michaelian Building doing nothing every day of the week. Those could be parked on the Sprain, the Taconic as dummy cars.
But the real answer is the Ohio Turnpike technique. You know I was on that road for 5 hours Wednesday and there was not one accident the entire length? Everyone was going the speed limit and was wary Ohio’s finest was watching them. There is a valuable lesson there.
Contrast that with what we see in New York State.
Here are some suggestions. Overpasses should have radar installed to highlight speeders to patrol cars stationed ahead to intercept speeders. Closed circuit TV mounted on overpasses could sweep highways to identify aggressive high speed drivers with troopers positioning themselves based on the television coverage. Message Boards could have written messages warning “will the black Corolla License CPC 449 slow down and pull off at Exit 29, you are speeding, and await the presence of an officer.” That would put a lot of feet on the brakes real fast.
The lesson I learned in traveling the interstates outside New York this week is that their highway patrols tackle speeding very aggressively and creatively. I do not think the New York State Troopers or the Westchester County Police are creative enough or resourceful enough in the efforts they make to enforce the limits on the big roads I mentioned – the Sprain, I-287, I-684, I-84, the Taconic, I-87. In addition, speeding tickets on New York City roads, let alone moving violations and reckless driving, I rarely see strong traffic enforcement within New York City.
Take some notes from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan – they take traffic enforcement to new level – that our local county and state police should take note of.
If you’re on the Ohio Turnpike this weekend, a word to the wise — Keep it at 65 — you’ll be glad you did. And, just when you expect that there are no more Ohio Highway Patrol cars stationed, well they’ll pick you up. Take it from yours truly it is a very tightly patrolled interstate.
No, I did not get stopped for speeding, Mr. and Mrs. White Plains, but it struck me how simple a concept was being used by the Ohio Highway Patrol to enforce the limit: presence!
