Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I-270 is the Interstate Loop west and north of St. Louis

I have had occasion to post comments several times before about drivers who tend to push the speed limit on I-270 in MIssouri, including: "No matter how fast you are going on 270, someone will pass you."

Last Friday, the police set up a speed trap in a work zone on 270. The posted speed is 65 MPH (102 KPH) -- the speed limit in the work zone was 45 MPH (72 KPH). The first three cars that went through the work zone after the police got there were each doing 87 MPH (140 KPH).

Those of you who live elsewhere have now thought to yourself "That's terrible, how could those drivers be so irresponsible."

Those of you who live locally immediately thought to yourself "If the cops had not been there, someone would have passed those three cars -- in the work zone!"

5 comments:

Jay Noel said...

I was thinking 87 is about average, depending on what stretch of 270 you're on.
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from Manchester Rd north and then east seems to be the fastest -- but the true winner for speed is when 270 becomes 255 eastbound to the JB bridge -- the segment of 270 in Illinois is usually not as fast because it's only two lanes and lots and lots of trucks

Anonymous said...

It's funny, on the true interstates I-70 and Hwy 40 people approximate the speed limit, but on the western part of I-270 it's a free-for-all
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except for the Lexus drivers, 40 west of 270 is fairly calm, the fact that it's a rougher road might help (MODT stripped the asphalt and then smoothed the old concrete)

Anonymous said...

Having experienced the "lovely" driving habits the citizens of the Greater St. Louis area on a couple of occasions, I can vouch for what you're saying. And I thought the drivers in Northern Ohio were scary...
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it did not say so one the news, but I'd bet that all three drivers going 87 were doing so side-by-side, 'blocking' three lanes

Scott said...

The stretch of I-5 north of Smokey Point into Skagit County here in Washington were it's not unlikely for the State Troopers to pull people over for doing 90+. Some get nailed for doing over 100!
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not sure if it's Skagit County, but aren't there some really long, straight stretches of I-5 where the performance-car guys like to see what they can do???

Scott said...

Jim, that would be the spot. The WSP (Washington State Patrol) has been doing some air patrol in that area to curb the speeding.
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when I used to spend a lot of time on IM in the evening, anyone in Seattle who had a new car was always 'going to take it north to Vancouver to see what it could do' -- I assume that those people are all now doing hard time