Confidential to “NASCAR Dad”: Lighten your lead foot on Lotzgesell Road.
That’s just one of 16 Clallam County byways where residents have requested slower speeds. They want Lotzgesell dropped from 50 to 35 mph.
County commissioners must hold a public hearing on the speed-limit requests. The earliest they could be scheduled is Jan. 4 at 10:30 a.m. in the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
The go-slowers may not get everything they want. County Engineer Don McInnes recommends that Lotzgesell be dropped only to 45 mph, what calls “the 85th percentile speed” — the speed at which 85 percent of drivers usually move.
Drive at a speed above the 85th percentile, and you’re likely to be in danger, McInnes says. Drop too far below it, and you obstruct the orderly flow of traffic.
In other words, traffic engineers say, most motorists naturally drive at or near an optimum safe speed.
“It is only the top fringe of drivers who are inclined to be reckless and unreliable,” McInnes wrote recently to Clallam County commissioners, “or who have faulty judgment and must be controlled by enforcement.”
Lower limit
A lower limit is warranted where there are hidden dangers where roadside developments create traffic conflicts, McInnes said.
