Saddle Road Speeding Citations Draw Fire (Hilo, Kailua: rental car, rental, maintenance)

[OpenD]

Speed limits for Saddle Road have now been set at 55 mph for most of its length, dropping to 45 mph in three places... near the entrance to Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA), near the entrance to the Observatory complex, and near a hiking trail crossing in the eastern section. Now it appears that HPD may be using these lower speed areas as speed traps.

Since the newest segment of Saddle Road — also known as the Daniel K. Inouye Highway and Route 200 — opened, letter writers and callers to Stephens Media Hawaii have complained that police are operating a speed trap on the east-west traffic artery.

Hawaii Police Department statistics indicate that there will be fewer speeding tickets written on Saddle Road this year than in 2012, but that doesn’t tell the entire story.

Speeding citations increased sharply from 1,125 in 2010 to 1,491 in 2011 to a high of 2,366 in 2012 — when the first segment of the improved highway was completed. By Dec. 10 of this year, there were 1,417 speeding citations issued on the route — but 517 of those were written on the newest segment of the highway between its Sept. 7 opening and Dec. 10. If that citation rate were maintained over an entire year, there would be 3,000 tickets written on that portion of road alone.

Saddle Road speeding citations draw fire | West Hawaii Today, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

[davephan]

When I was visiting the Big Island in November, I did not see any speed traps. I might have lucked out for the short time I was there. I drove on the new Saddle road extension many times. I don't recall if the speed limit was 55 mph at that time, it could have been. My impression was that the speed limit was set way too low for the road. In general, most roads on the Big Island seemed to have their speed limits set too low. There were times when I needed to drive slower due to weather conditions with mist or rain and reduced visibility. We drove all over the island every day on nearly every major road exploring the island, many roads multiple times, putting a lot of miles on the rental car. We never tried driving on the old Saddle road, since the new extension was such a beautiful road. We stayed in Waikola Village, so the Saddle road was the quickest way to get to and from the Hilo area.

When I first arrived, I drove the speed limit because I was afraid of speed traps. Many areas of the country use speed traps to generate revenue for the government, instead of for safety reasons. After the first day, I was more confident, and drove like the others using the roads, driving with the traffic flow. Most drivers on the Big Island drive at about 10 mph above the posted speed limits. I did not confuse the speed limit signs with the minimum speed signs, because I knew about the minimum speed signs before visiting the Big Island. In general, most people I observed driving in the slowdown areas of the Saddle road either didn't slow down at all,or slowed down very little.

The drivers in Hawaii were drastically more polite than the drivers in Minnesota.

[hotzcatz]

Well, the drivers in Hawaii probably know each other and if they get all grumpy at each other their aunties will box their ears. We live on an island, we have to get along.

There is usually a speed trap in Naalehu down near South Point. The road drops down to 25 or 15 or something really slow through Naalehu town and they are serious about that number.

We haven't driven on the new saddle road yet since we'd have to go out of the way to use it. Maybe one of these days we will get crazy and waste a tank of gas.

[OpenD]

For a while I thought they'd go with a 65 mph speed limit on Daniel K. Inouye Highway.

But no matter how lovely the new pavement is, there are still the issue of heavy mists and slow moving military convoys and invisible cows to deal with, so I guess 55 mph is more practical. That way you'll get some people doing 65 and some people doing 45, as usual.

And even with all the work done so far... the last section of realignment at the east end is currently on hold due to an "eminent domain" type dispute with a couple of landowners... there are still some dangers on this particular road you don't find just everywhere. I was crossing to Kailua-Kona one day, middle of the day, when the light rain turned torrential turned whiteout.

And there was a fatality on the west end about a month ago... a truck driver lost his brakes on a steep downhill section and went off the road at speed. So even with all the improvements it's not a road to take lightly.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by OpenD

For a while I thought they'd go with a 65 mph speed limit on Daniel K. Inouye Highway.

But no matter how lovely the new pavement is, there are still the issue of heavy mists and slow moving military convoys and invisible cows to deal with, so I guess 55 mph is more practical. That way you'll get some people doing 65 and some people doing 45, as usual.

And even with all the work done so far... the last section of realignment at the east end is currently on hold due to an "eminent domain" type dispute with a couple of landowners... there are still some dangers on this particular road you don't find just everywhere. I was crossing to Kailua-Kona one day, middle of the day, when the light rain turned torrential turned whiteout.

And there was a fatality on the west end about a month ago... a truck driver lost his brakes on a steep downhill section and went off the road at speed. So even with all the improvements it's not a road to take lightly.

I read about that fatality on 200 on the 6% grade. That was very tragic accident. One of my coworkers used to be a trucker. He told me many times trucking companies cut corners on maintenance. I don't know if that what caused the breaks to fail in this case.

I don't remember seeing any runaway truck ramps on the side of the road downhill as some mountain roads have. I checked Google Maps. They now show the new Daniel K. Inouye Highway 200 section. There were times where a mist occurred or very light rain, but we did not experience sudden heavy rain on that highway.