For the past two winters, the Ohio Department of Transportation has lowered the speed limit on I-90 in the snow-belt area east of Cleveland whenever lake-effect squalls threatened hazardous driving conditions.
That capability, using signs with digitally programmable numbers, has reduced crashes during bad weather by about half, ODOT says.
Now, as part of a budget bill for transportation and public-safety programs, the DeWine administration is proposing authorizing ODOT to set up similar variable speed limit zones throughout the state if supported by established criteria.
The legislative language allows variable speed limit zones based on time of day, traffic incidents, “or other factors that affect the safe speed on a street or highway.”
But Matt Bruning, a spokesman at the department’s Columbus headquarters, said until ODOT has pilot-tested the use of variable speed limits to manage congestion on two sections of highway previously approved by the Ohio General Assembly, the only new zones would be in areas with weather-related problems.
“We asked in the last budget to be able to do this statewide, and the legislature approved it as a pilot in the three locations,” Mr. Bruning said.
Since then, he said, “we’ve had such great success with I-90 in Lake County” that seeking legislative approval to expand the program is warranted, he said.
“This is not something we would do willy-nilly,” ODOT Director Jack Marchbanks told the Ohio House of Representatives’ finance committee Thursday. “This is something we connect to needed speed reductions in construction areas where we have women and men working with trucks and drivers whizzing up at 75, 80 miles an hour.”
Variable speed limits would not allow ODOT to raise the limit above current statutory maximums, only reduce them during hazardous conditions, Mr. Bruning said.
ODOT already has made widespread use of variable speed limits in work zones, including the work recently begun on I-75 between Dorr Street and South Avenue in Toledo, the I-75 reconstruction that started two years ago in Findlay, and a recent resurfacing project on I-475/U.S. 23 in Toledo’s western suburbs.
The pending legislation addresses permanent installations, like the one set up on I-90 or two locations previously authorized for testing congestion-related speed limits: I-670 in Columbus and part of I-275 around Cincinnati. The I-670 section should be operational by the end of this year, Mr. Bruning said.
“A lot of them would be based on weather conditions, such as other parts of Ohio that are susceptible to snow squalls,” the ODOT spokesman said.
Another “example of what could be done” is if state officials were to decide that the Veterans’ Glass City Skyway on I-280 has frequent enough issues with high crosswinds to justify a variable speed limit there, Mr. Bruning said.
First Published February 24, 2019, 8:31 p.m.
