City and county officials are pushing to lower the speed limit on a stretch of Interstate 75, and Florida Department of Transportation officials will conduct a study to see if the move would be possible and realistic.
In the wake of the Jan. 29 crashes that killed 11 people, Mayor Craig Lowe and 11 city and county commissioners asked the state transportation department to provide them with the criteria necessary to reduce the 70 mph speed limit to 55 mph.
While officials are saying the change would make I-75 safer, some students said the move is an overreaction.
“This would be adding more problems instead of helping,” said Christina Barker, a 26-year-old first-year political campaigning graduate student.
She drives two hours from Pasco County to Gainesville three days a week and said drivers already slow down before the Gainesville exit. To lower the speed limit where the officials want, between County Road 234 and State Road 222, would make traffic even worse.
“I would hate that, actually,” Barker said.
The speed limit has never been changed in the area, said Gina Busscher, a transportation department spokeswoman.
The department will do a two- to four-week study to see how fast 85 percent of people drive down the interstate, Busscher said.
After a series of meetings, the state transportation department will have the final say in whether the speed limit changes.
Lowe said the speed limit needs to be reduced to protect drivers from crashing when there are too many cars on the road.
The area between CR 234 and SR 222 has become more urban, Lowe said, and in the past few years the number of cars on the interstate has spiked.
He said that type of congestion can be dangerous when it’s dark outside or, in rare cases like the January crashes, if there is smoke in the area.
“Speed definitely factors into a reaction time, which factors into having an accident or having an accident with a fatality,” Lowe said.
Contact Ben Brasch at bbrasch@alligator.org.
