California Towing Speed Limit
While towing into and back out of California in July I noticed there were a bunch of signs saying the speed limit was 55 mph for any vehicle towing something. Does that limit get strictly enforced or...
Forum Discussion
It was suggested that I post this here even though I posted it as a separate thread.
Last week in "Roads and Routes" was a thread about California Speed Limits and here is what the guys in the California Highway Patrol Office told me.
I made a comment regarding lane usage and today I found out it was not 100% correct.
Starting with the speed limit for all vehicles towing, it is 55MPH. All of the signs in CA are being changed to say “All Vehicles Towing” and an accompanying sign says, “Vehicles with THREE or more axles” the speed limit is 55 MPH.
Now slightly more complicated is the definition of the lane for Semi’s, and vehicles towing. Actually it is quite simple, semi’s and vehicles towing are restricted to the right hand lane except to pass another vehicle and then they must return to the right hand lane as soon as it is safe to do so. It does not matter how many lanes there are. Another exception is when there is a directional change in the lanes such as, an off ramp on the left side of the highway or if the highway for example splits into a Northerly direction and a Southerly direction. Even if you are towing and must move over to the left into the fast lane, your speed is still not to exceed 55 MPH.
Signs that are stating a legal restriction will have white backgrounds with black letters or numbers, signs that are for safety such a suggested speed for a curve are yellow background and black letters, symbols and numbers. White with Black are laws and yellow with black are suggestions. Driving at 5 MPH over a suggested 35 MPH curve is ticket able as being unsafe depending on the vehicle, load and condition. Oh yeah, and the opinion of the CHP officer who stops you.
The 5 MPH grace is more of a legal thing than the discretion of the officer. In court cases shown that the accuracy for two identical vehicle’s speedometers can be several MPH out of sync with one another and the law enforcement agencies must be able to show that the accuracy of their speedometers has been checked within a reasonable amount of time and the officer knows of any corrections that may be needed. So it is pretty much accepted that 5 MPH is an acceptable to the courts as a realistic grace on the speed limit.
smkettner sent me a link which validates my original statement in the post in the Roads and Routes forum that the far right and the lane immediately to the left of the right hand lane of a four lane road can be used by the vehicles limited to 55MPH. The CHP Officer was wrong.
I was wrong in stating that the same use applied to three lane roads. Thank you smk.
Last week in "Roads and Routes" was a thread about California Speed Limits and here is what the guys in the California Highway Patrol Office told me.
I made a comment regarding lane usage and today I found out it was not 100% correct.
Starting with the speed limit for all vehicles towing, it is 55MPH. All of the signs in CA are being changed to say “All Vehicles Towing” and an accompanying sign says, “Vehicles with THREE or more axles” the speed limit is 55 MPH.
Now slightly more complicated is the definition of the lane for Semi’s, and vehicles towing. Actually it is quite simple, semi’s and vehicles towing are restricted to the right hand lane except to pass another vehicle and then they must return to the right hand lane as soon as it is safe to do so. It does not matter how many lanes there are. Another exception is when there is a directional change in the lanes such as, an off ramp on the left side of the highway or if the highway for example splits into a Northerly direction and a Southerly direction. Even if you are towing and must move over to the left into the fast lane, your speed is still not to exceed 55 MPH.
Signs that are stating a legal restriction will have white backgrounds with black letters or numbers, signs that are for safety such a suggested speed for a curve are yellow background and black letters, symbols and numbers. White with Black are laws and yellow with black are suggestions. Driving at 5 MPH over a suggested 35 MPH curve is ticket able as being unsafe depending on the vehicle, load and condition. Oh yeah, and the opinion of the CHP officer who stops you.
The 5 MPH grace is more of a legal thing than the discretion of the officer. In court cases shown that the accuracy for two identical vehicle’s speedometers can be several MPH out of sync with one another and the law enforcement agencies must be able to show that the accuracy of their speedometers has been checked within a reasonable amount of time and the officer knows of any corrections that may be needed. So it is pretty much accepted that 5 MPH is an acceptable to the courts as a realistic grace on the speed limit.
smkettner sent me a link which validates my original statement in the post in the Roads and Routes forum that the far right and the lane immediately to the left of the right hand lane of a four lane road can be used by the vehicles limited to 55MPH. The CHP Officer was wrong.
I was wrong in stating that the same use applied to three lane roads. Thank you smk.
