This wonderful little road is part of my daily commute. Can anyone with more civil engineering understanding than I have explain why it is a 35 mph road? I have been passed several times by people using the middle turn lane as a passing lane despite going 41 mph. There are country roads that are 2 lane and curvy with no shoulder and are 70 mph while this giant two lane road is 35 mph.

Cops are there regularly pulling people over for speeding. Is it 35 mph just as a fund raiser for the city?

35 is just a suggestion.

TyHolden said:

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35 is just a suggestion.

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Not per the cop that pulled us over a year or so ago.

MyNameIsJeff said:

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techno-ag said:

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Our local dept of transportation often makes questionable decisions like this. See WJB. See OSR 60 mph speed limit which is routinely ignored. Etc. etc.

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I drive OSR daily. Every sketchy situation I've witnessed has been due to someone passing when/where they shouldn't (including the last serious accident I'm aware of that was caused by Robertson County LE). I truly think increasing the limit to 70 would make the road safer.

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Absolutely agree. I think the department lowered it because the pavement is bad. They simply do not want to invest in a quality repavement of that historic state highway and entryway to the Brazos Valley.

The recent repavement made it worse in some places. It would appear (stress on appearance) the local transportation department is either corrupt or incompetent. I'm sure neither is truly the case but that was hands down the worst repaving job I've ever seen. And I drive a lot more than most folks.

It would be much safer at 70 or at least 65.

KidDoc said:

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This wonderful little road is part of my daily commute. Can anyone with more civil engineering understanding than I have explain why it is a 35 mph road? I have been passed several times by people using the middle turn lane as a passing lane despite going 41 mph. There are country roads that are 2 lane and curvy with no shoulder and are 70 mph while this giant two lane road is 35 mph.

Cops are there regularly pulling people over for speeding. Is it 35 mph just as a fund raiser for the city?

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bolded for emphasis.

They expected more people in the area. Why do you think they are charging that neighborhood out of the wazzoo for RPMD2 taxes.

Only guesses for any explanation other than it's a revenue generator is maybe having a hospital on it justifies a lower speed limit than usual?

Not saying it should be that slow. ******* move to be passing people on it, it's not very long.

Aggie_Boomin 21 said:

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Only guesses for any explanation other than it's a revenue generator is maybe having a hospital on it justifies a lower speed limit than usual?

Not saying it should be that slow. ******* move to be passing people on it, it's not very long.

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Maybe a school being planned there as a possibility?

MyNameIsJeff said:

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techno-ag said:

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Our local dept of transportation often makes questionable decisions like this. See WJB. See OSR 60 mph speed limit which is routinely ignored. Etc. etc.

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I drive OSR daily. Every sketchy situation I've witnessed has been due to someone passing when/where they shouldn't (including the last serious accident I'm aware of that was caused by Robertson County LE). I truly think increasing the limit to 70 would make the road safer.

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There was also the fatality accident a year or so ago on OSR in Madison County where someone passed ona blind hill and hit an suv head on. Driver that caused it lived. Elementary age kid died (I believe his dad is a LEO somewhere in Brazos county). I drove up on that one a few minutes after it happened and before first responders arrived. 18 wheeler stopped on one side of the hill setting out cones and a construction vehicle stopped to turn lights on the other side to help direct traffic. Super bad and a horrific thing to see...

I drive that road multiple times a day during the school year (to Normangee and back twice each day). RCSO is out pretty regularly, as are DPS. Rarely see Brazos, and never see MCSO. Even so, I have seen people fly past troopers going between 65 & 70 and not get pulled over. Its the ones going faster than that that I see get stopped.

Baseball fields? City park?

When you first build a road, you take into 2 main considerations: What you think the design speed is, and what the speed should be for the type of road that it is functioning as.

The way the road sits right now it has the same cross section and functionality as Longmire Dr or Arrington next to HEB (both of those are 35MPH). The difference is Midtown didn't get built out like it should have been. Heck...the road isn't even finished! It is supposed to be 4 lanes wide at Townlake Dr with turn lanes. You can see it on the satellite images where the future road will go.

If the road was finished out with lots of driveways, lots of cross traffic, etc...35MPH would feel more appropriate.

Typically the best speed limit for a roadway is what 85% of the drivers drive on it. With the new development going in along Midtown with the baseball fields, and possibly new controlled intersections, it is probably safer at 35MPH for now.

There would be no logical reason to change it right now and cause driver confusion when big things are coming to that area (hopefully and potentially).