Lowering speed limit on Seward Highway between Indian and Bird will make for a safer road

By Pat Athey
Special to the Turnagain Times

A resolution passed unanimously by the Turnagain Arm Community Council on Dec. 10, 2009, requested that the state of Alaska reduce Seward Highway speed limits within the communities of Bird Creek and Indian from the currently posted 55 mph to 45 mph. This resolution was brought about by the long-standing issue of safety on the highway, which was punctuated by the numerous deaths on the road during 2009.

The intended purpose of reducing the speed limit in this specific area is to prevent future accidents along this populated stretch of the highway. The presence of driveways, side-road intersections, parks, a campground, a ball field, a church, two salmon streams, parking lots, businesses, and residences, along with world-class scenery create a unique situation unmatched elsewhere along the highway.

The success of the Bird Creek fishery and attending bear appearances result in parked and slow vehicles on the highway on a bridge, no less. The abundance of distractions in this area, especially during the busy summer months, is too much for many drivers to navigate when traveling at 55 mph, which is apparent at the intersections where multiple skid marks are seen at turn locations along the highway. A reduced speed limit would alert drivers to changing conditions in this highway segment, which lacks a left turn lane, and the slower speed would give drivers more time to react, and not burn rubber or crash.

The topic of highway safety is not a new one for our communities. For 20 years or more the state has presented a variety of potential changes to enhance highway safety or for other purposes such as developing scenic waypoints. The latest of these was in 2007 when the state, more specifically the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT/PF) presented to Turnagain Arm communities a proposed design change consisting of two new frontage roads, one at Bird Creek and one at Indian, that would isolate the local traffic from the main highway and provide access at either end of each frontage road.

The purpose of these frontage roads, as indicated by the ADOT/PF proposal, would be to reduce the number of places where traffic would stop to turn into driveways or side-roads; statistics were cited that indicated these differential-speed and turning action scenarios are among the major source of fatal accidents on highways in general. The initial proposal would have left the highway in its current alignment and the new frontage roads would extend into private properties. Many in the community expressed their dissatisfaction with the notion that incursions into private property would be made and effectively remove the existing parking and screening space available for our businesses, residences, church, particularly since there was state-owned land on the other side of the road, that could be utilized. The ADOT/PF was quite responsive to the community's concerns and modified the alignment, reducing the new involvement of private properties and moving the highway alignment toward the shoreline on state owned land and away from the communities to the extent they could. Unfortunately, the price to actually construct a project of this magnitude likely puts it out of reach until a well-funded realignment of the entire highway occurs in the distant future.

For now, the 55 mph-limit Seward Highway serves as our community “frontage road.” In the short term, our council suggests a lower-cost alternative, a reduction in speed limit to achieve the same goal.

When the frontage road concept was presented to our council at public meetings, the alternative of just reducing the speed limit was voiced by many local residents. The presenting engineer explained that lowering the speed limit would not necessarily make it safer as it could encourage unsafe passing that could lead to accidents. As explained by the engineer at that time, and from what I've gathered through my own research of highway safety information, traffic will generally travel at a speed that individual drivers are comfortable at regardless of the posted speed limit.

Attempts at reducing speed limits on Alaska highways have not always been effective according to ADOT/PF. In several cases, traffic engineers have found that lower speed limits are ignored by drivers and deemed ineffective, since enforcement is a limited resource. In fact, there has been a movement toward raising speed limits on certain highways such as Minnesota Drive (raised to 60 mph) in order to match the speed traffic is driving.

With respect to speed limits through Bird Creek and Indian, the argument that a reduced speed limit may encourage unsafe passing is certainly a concern but our request is only for a 1.4-mile segment with opportunities for passing on either side of our communities. By my rough calculations, driving this segment at 45 mph versus 55 mph results in little more than a 60-second delay in travel time.

After considering the technical issues presented by the traffic engineers about speed limits and safety, I was curious about the legal basis for setting speed limits. I found that speed limit determinations are established by Alaska state law, as cited in the Alaska Statutes (http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/folio.asp):

This statute makes it clear that the priorities for setting speed limits are the precisely the reasons that our Council is requesting a reduced limit, i.e., neighborhood safety, children, pedestrian traffic, houses, parks, and driveways, among others. It is important to note that the effectiveness of enforcement and the speed that drivers could pass through the zone are lower priorities. Also it is interesting to see that consultation with the local community councils is included as a requirement for setting speed limits.

I am happy to report that ADOT/PF has been very responsive to our council's request and states that they will conduct an evaluation of traffic speeds in the spring and summer of 2010 in Bird Creek and Indian before making a decision. We are eager to hear the results of their study and their proposed solution to improve highway safety through our communities. We are counting on the professionals at ADTO/PF to make the right decisions to protect our residents and the visitors that pass through our communities on the highway.

Finally, I want to emphasize why highway safety is so important, especially to those of us who depend on it for our livelihood. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in their Traffic Safety Facts Summary 2008 that ”deaths and injuries resulting from motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people of every age from 3 to 34…” (http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811162.PDF).

Pat Athey is the President of the Turnagain Arm Community Council. The council meets three times per year and represents the communities of Rainbow, Indian and Bird.