Speed Limit Increased on Two Sections of
Kanan Dume Road
• Concern Heightens for Greater
Accident Potential on Key Cross-Mountain Through Route
Speed limits have been hiked on two long
sections of Kanan Dume Road north of Malibu, where new 55 mile
per hour signs were posted recently on a pair of stretches of
the twisting, hilly road.
The two police agencies that patrol the
road are split on whether motorists can safely handle the
higher limit, with the likely result that drivers will travel
even faster than current averages, which are approaching the
60-mph level in some places.
“That is not safe,” said
sheriff’s Sgt. Philip Brooks. “That road is not
engineered for speeds that fast.”
But the California Highway Patrol, which
has primary traffic duties in unincorporated areas, has signed
off on the new, higher limit. Speeding tickets from Kanan
Dume were being dismissed in court because the old 50 mph limit
was illegally set too low under the state’s anti-speed
trap laws, a CHP officer said.
The new signs are posted on two different
segments, including the southbound road down the steep grade
from the top of the hill four miles down to just inside the
Malibu City Limit. Northbound traffic going up the hill,
however, is still limited to 50 mph.
But once that northbound traffic reaches
the top of the hill, the limit goes up to 55 and stays there
north through the first tunnel and on up to Mulholland Highway.
That new 55 mph section includes curves with caution signs
advising speeds of as low as 35 mph, and includes the
often-congested intersection at the Backbone Trail parking lot,
near Tunnel 1.
Southbound traffic from Mulholland to
the top of the hill remains at the old 50 mph limit.
CHP Sgt. Adrian Torres said judges have
been agreeing with motorists “and we’ve been losing
tickets because the (speed) survey says 55 is an allowable
speed” in those two segments.
Traffic engineers at the Los Angeles County
Department of Public Works said the increased speed limits are
mandated by state law. In California, speed enforcement using
radar can only be done if speed limits are set above the 85th
percentile of average speeds on a given road—meaning the
speed that 15 percent of the traffic is exceeding.
“Recently collected speed data
indicated that the 85th percentile speed along Kanan Dume Road
ranges from 53 mph to 63 mph,” said county roads
spokesperson Gary Boze. State law requires the speed limit to
be rounded up to the nearest five, but does not allow speed
limits in excess of 55 mph except on freeways or rural
highways.
For a speed limit to be set lower than that
85th percentile average, police would have to forgo radar and
rely on the old-fashioned method of speeding up behind drivers
and pacing their speeds, a procedure that officers say is
ineffective and unsafe.
“The speed limit was increased after
consulting with the CHP with regard to speed
enforcement,” Boze said in an e-mail. “The speed
limit is based on driver behavior … (and) also considers
traffic collisions, traffic volumes, area development and
conditions that may not be readily apparent to the
driver.”
The CHP’s Torres said, “We
concur with the county’s findings, and intend to enforce
the 55 mile-per-hour limit there.”
Motorists observing the new southbound 55
speed limit may be speeding into the City of Malibu’s
boundary, as there are no signs warning that the old speed of
50 apparently is still in effect starting at the city
limits—just before the sharp curve where the road
collapsed a decade ago.
In California, cities are in charge of
speed limits within city limits, and public works director
Richard Calvin said he was unaware of the county’s
action and would investigate the matter.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said she is also
concerned about the matter.
The speed limit change comes as some local
law enforcement officials are worried about “speed limit
creep,” where mandatory radar surveys are forcing speed
limits up in 5-mile increments every few years. The faster
speed limits encourage drivers to go faster, resulting in
faster 85th percentile average, resulting in even-faster speed
limits.
State law does allow the CHP to recommend
lower speed limits if local conditions require it. County
traffic engineers with specific knowledge of the Kanan-Dume
radar study could not be reached to ask if the existence of
blind curves, steep grades, bicyclists, and crossing wildlife
such as deer and cougars had been factored into the decision.
Accident rates, locations where the speed
surveys were taken, and other information could not be obtained
from the county either.
Elsewhere in the mountains, the speed limit
on Cold Canyon Road in the El Nido neighborhood was just raised
from 30 to 35 mph from Piuma to Wonderview roads, and
from 30 to 40 mph between Wonderview and Mulholland. That
change, also sparked by radar surveys, includes the
stretch of road where two people were killed in a crash last
December that was blamed on excessive speed.
The county’s road engineers are in
the process of examining Kanan Road between Mulholland and
Agoura Road, and the 50 mph speed limit through that area may
soon be adjusted as well, Boze said.
