Speed Limit Increased on Two Sections of Kanan Dume Road

• Concern Heightens for Greater Accident Potential on Key Cross-Mountain Through Route

BY HANS LAETZ

Speed limits have been hiked on two long sections of Kanan Dume Road north of Malibu, where new 55 mile per hour signs were posted recently on a pair of stretches of the twisting, hilly road.
The two police agencies that patrol the road are split on whether motorists can safely handle the higher limit, with the likely result that drivers will travel even faster than current averages, which are approaching the 60-mph level in some places.
“That is not safe,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Philip Brooks. “That road is not engineered for speeds that fast.”
But the California Highway Patrol, which has primary traffic duties in unincorporated areas, has signed off on the new, higher limit. Speeding tickets from Kanan Dume were being dismissed in court because the old 50 mph limit was illegally set too low under the state’s anti-speed trap laws, a CHP officer said.
The new signs are posted on two different segments, including the southbound road down the steep grade from the top of the hill four miles down to just inside the Malibu City Limit. Northbound traffic going up the hill, however, is still limited to 50 mph.
But once that northbound traffic reaches the top of the hill, the limit goes up to 55 and stays there north through the first tunnel and on up to Mulholland Highway. That new 55 mph section includes curves with caution signs advising speeds of as low as 35 mph, and includes the often-congested intersection at the Backbone Trail parking lot, near Tunnel 1.
Southbound traffic from Mulholland to the top of the hill remains at the old 50 mph limit.
CHP Sgt. Adrian Torres said judges have been agreeing with motorists “and we’ve been losing tickets because the (speed) survey says 55 is an allowable speed” in those two segments.
Traffic engineers at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works said the increased speed limits are mandated by state law. In California, speed enforcement using radar can only be done if speed limits are set above the 85th percentile of average speeds on a given road—meaning the speed that 15 percent of the traffic is exceeding.
“Recently collected speed data indicated that the 85th percentile speed along Kanan Dume Road ranges from 53 mph to 63 mph,” said county roads spokesperson Gary Boze. State law requires the speed limit to be rounded up to the nearest five, but does not allow speed limits in excess of 55 mph except on freeways or rural highways.
For a speed limit to be set lower than that 85th percentile average, police would have to forgo radar and rely on the old-fashioned method of speeding up behind drivers and pacing their speeds, a procedure that officers say is ineffective and unsafe.
“The speed limit was increased after consulting with the CHP with regard to speed enforcement,” Boze said in an e-mail. “The speed limit is based on driver behavior … (and) also considers traffic collisions, traffic volumes, area development and conditions that may not be readily apparent to the driver.”
The CHP’s Torres said, “We concur with the county’s findings, and intend to enforce the 55 mile-per-hour limit there.”
Motorists observing the new southbound 55 speed limit may be speeding into the City of Malibu’s boundary, as there are no signs warning that the old speed of 50 apparently is still in effect starting at the city limits—just before the sharp curve where the road collapsed a decade ago.
In California, cities are in charge of speed limits within city limits, and public works director Richard Calvin said he was unaware of the county’s action and would investigate the matter.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said she is also concerned about the matter.
The speed limit change comes as some local law enforcement officials are worried about “speed limit creep,” where mandatory radar surveys are forcing speed limits up in 5-mile increments every few years. The faster speed limits encourage drivers to go faster, resulting in faster 85th percentile average, resulting in even-faster speed limits.
State law does allow the CHP to recommend lower speed limits if local conditions require it. County traffic engineers with specific knowledge of the Kanan-Dume radar study could not be reached to ask if the existence of blind curves, steep grades, bicyclists, and crossing wildlife such as deer and cougars had been factored into the decision.
Accident rates, locations where the speed surveys were taken, and other information could not be obtained from the county either.
Elsewhere in the mountains, the speed limit on Cold Canyon Road in the El Nido neighborhood was just raised from 30 to 35 mph from Piuma to Wonderview roads, and from 30 to 40 mph between Wonderview and Mulholland. That change, also sparked by radar surveys, includes the stretch of road where two people were killed in a crash last December that was blamed on excessive speed.
The county’s road engineers are in the process of examining Kanan Road between Mulholland and Agoura Road, and the 50 mph speed limit through that area may soon be adjusted as well, Boze said.