Route 222 Bypass has made traffic flow a sight better, but stre...

I agree with half the people on here. While the 45 mph speed limit seems like a nice idea, lets be realistic. Nobody goes 45 mph on that road unless you are an old person, a slow poke, an out-of-towner, or is one ticket away from getting your license yanked!!! I travel that road everyday to and from work and my average speed is like 60 mph. And I have only seen like 2 cops on there ever. So I don't see anything changing soon...

But I do agree that the speed limit should be like 50-55 mph. Because I consider the bypass to be like a highway and most mph's on highways are like 55-65. But I also believe that 65 mph would be unsafe because of all the traffic lights. And also because people would probably go 70-80 instead of the 55-60 they are now. And someone mentioned the snow. The last two weeks when it snowed, people were driving reasonablly and not too fast for conditions, so I believe that increasing the speed limit would not make people drive more reckless in the snow

My average speed on that bypass is about 55 (closer to 60 on the open stretches), faster than the 45 speed limit, but not so fast that it would get me killed. Some people here must think that I was going 75-80.

Uh, Lenny - I do not recall stating that I have never exceeded a posted speed limit.

There is a time and a place for everything however.

40 mph down my 15 mph residential street is not it, and 70 mph on the bypass is not it either.

LV R

There have been many comments made that the speed limit should be raised to allow motorists to drive 55 MPH. Even though it is technically illegal, I suspect most police officers will not stop motorists for travelling 55 in a 45 zone. I'm sure there are strict interprists in the police departments, but they're much more likely to pursue those who choose to drive 60 or more. The amount of effort required to write, submit, and process the citations is small in comparision to the time commitment required for the officer to appear in court. These officers want to make sure that there tickets are not overturned, so they tend to pursue motorists who were clearly speeding. Speedometers are not calibrated as stringently as speed enforcement devices, so a motorist can easily argue that their speedometer must be inaccurate if their speed above the limit is modest. It should be difficult to argue successfully that, "I thought I was going 45" when your citation was written for 65, but understandable if you were cited for 53.

I suspect that the signage problem was created when PennDOT accomodated changes to the original plan, but overlooked the impact that these changes would have. I remember from the original drawings presented at the meetings that the turning lanes were orginally of a more standard design. After considering further input, it was decided to lengthen the lanes to allow for the amount of queue that a 53' tractor trailer combination consumes. While this ensures that traffic doesn't back up into the travel lanes, it pushed the entrance to the turning lane further upstream. If this long lane was part of the original plan, I would hope that the engineer would have included advance signage in the design. Unfortunately, a change to the plan was made and no one along the way caught the oversight. Sh!t happens.

While I have defended the Bypass to this point, one problem that NEEDS to be addressed is the timing of the traffic signals. I am frequently stopped on the Bypass at the Mill Creek indicator and there is seldom any traffic on the cross streets. I understand that this signal is coordinated with the signal at Cetronia and Mill Creek, but some thought must be invested in improving the timing at that intersection. Stopping 78000 lb. tractor trailers for no reason is a bigger impediment to the efficient flow of traffic than the controversial speed limit.

One would agree that the bypass speed limit is the hottest issue here. I think it should be 50 from I-78 to the Mill Creek/Grange light and then 55 from there to the 222/100 split, at which case on 100 S is 45, I believe, and 222 S stays 55. There's three lights: Kressler/Hamilton, Krocks Rd, and Mill Creek. We all know the signals are out of whack at the latter two. The Krocks Rd was fixed to my knowledge, I can usually slow down enough to wait for it to change before speeding up again... at Mill Creek chances are good you'll miss the light anytime... That light favors Mill Creek Rd for one reason only: Wal-Mart. All the traffic coming to and from the "megaginormousbigboxstore s" leader forces the signal to favor Mill Creek. The other reason is the short distance on Mill Creek b/w the bypass and Cetronia Rd. Speaking of the devil, since all the extra traffic is off Hamilton, how about changing the light at Hamilton/Mill Creek. During the day, there's easily 10-15 cars piled up on Mill Creek south of the bypass waiting for the light at Hamilton. Usually, every one gets through. I'd like to see one time where that light doesn't last long enough and several cars are stuck for a long second time.

Road Warrior Fan Club wrote:

Traffic tickets and citations are NOT money makers for the municipality or state. Any money taken in covers the costs of written and processing the citation. And if the driver goes to court, then the municipality actually loses money.
The whole point is to save lives. Almost 2/3 of the fatal traffic crashes involve speeding or aggressive driving. So if people slow down lives can be saved or at least crash can be reduced.
To me it doesnt matter if you agree with police being out there, just know why they are. EVERYDAY PEOPLE ARE INJURED OR KILLED IN ROADWAY CRASHES CAUSED BY SPEEDING. The police are out there to slow people down to stop these tragedies.
Oh Boo Hoo Hoo your commute took an extra two minutes, well thats the price you have to pay to avoid more highway deaths.
If you think ridiculas money makers, then you are WRONG and you need to pull your head out of your...

What exactly is speeding? The NHTSA includes driving 20 MPH in a 55 MPH zone, if the the driver was driving too fast on ice. If the driver died, that would be also be considered a 'speeding' death. Most of the supposed 'speeding' deaths, the driver was not exceeding the speed limit, but just simply going to fast for conditions, in the opinion of the investigator.

The traffic engineers at PENNDOT are not following recognized engineering practices.

No where have I read to pick a speed limit that "feels right". That unscientific!

Mr. Toomey should consider the consequences of using an improperly designed speed limit, as yellow lights will no be long enough for most drivers, and this exposes motorists to serious injury. It also exposes people to traffic citations, even though traveling above 45 MPH was reasonable.

The real problem is the number of signalized intersections. If this were a true bypass there would be on and off ramps instead of traffic lights. A 45 MPH speed limit is needed to keep traffic slow enough to be able to stop in time after one of the lights turns yellow.

Had this highway been designed correctly from the beginning a 55 MPH speed limit could have been used.

Why on earth they didn't design it similar to the bypass around Kutztown is a total mystery. That highway was designed and built almost 40 years ago. Have we made more 'progress' in the ensuing years? Depends how 'progress' is defined.

Andy wrote:

The real problem is the number of signalized intersections. If this were a true bypass there would be on and off ramps instead of traffic lights. A 45 MPH speed limit is needed to keep traffic slow enough to be able to stop in time after one of the lights turns yellow.
Had this highway been designed correctly from the beginning a 55 MPH speed limit could have been used.
Why on earth they didn't design it similar to the bypass around Kutztown is a total mystery. That highway was designed and built almost 40 years ago. Have we made more 'progress' in the ensuing years? Depends how 'progress' is defined.

While it may be desired to keep traffic at 45 mph, in the real world beyond the traffic engineers desk that is not true. There are 70 MPH signalized intersections in the US. The intersections were designed for 60 MPH. Yellow light should also be designed for 60 mph.

Reason wrote:

<quoted text>
While it may be desired to keep traffic at 45 mph, in the real world beyond the traffic engineers desk that is not true. There are 70 MPH signalized intersections in the US. The intersections were designed for 60 MPH. Yellow light should also be designed for 60 mph.

Just slow down!

LV Resident wrote:

Uh, Lenny - I do not recall stating that I have never exceeded a posted speed limit.
There is a time and a place for everything however.
40 mph down my 15 mph residential street is not it, and 70 mph on the bypass is not it either.
LV R

So why are you preaching to people to slow down? Doesn't the old saying go "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?"

PILLOWS THE SPACE CLOWN wrote:

<quoted text>
Just slow down!

When you will.

PILLOWS THE SPACE CLOWN wrote:

<quoted text>
Just slow down!

Thats a nice recommendation to say while sitting at a computer. The problem is, in practice, roadways don't work that way. Roadways should be engineered for how the majority of people will drive. Not whether or not it makes a person "feel good." Thats junk engineering.

Has anyone noticed there is officially no such thing as the Route 222 Bypass? The thing we learned to call the bypass, in now the one and only Route 222 between I-78 and Route 100. The previous Route 222 path is now simply "Hamilton Boulevard".

So, since it is not a bypass, why was it not designed to truely efficient 21st century highway standards? It is, in many respects, a turkey of a road which combines some nice features (almost like a real highway) with the worst aspects of commercial industrial park feeder road design.

Observer wrote:

Has anyone noticed there is officially no such thing as the Route 222 Bypass? The thing we learned to call the bypass, in now the one and only Route 222 between I-78 and Route 100. The previous Route 222 path is now simply "Hamilton Boulevard".
So, since it is not a bypass, why was it not designed to truely efficient 21st century highway standards? It is, in many respects, a turkey of a road which combines some nice features (almost like a real highway) with the worst aspects of commercial industrial park feeder road design.

I think this was part of a script by Rod Serling, or

was it Stephen King?

Lenny wrote:

<quoted text>
When you will.

I know you are, but what am I!

Observer wrote:

Has anyone noticed there is officially no such thing as the Route 222 Bypass? The thing we learned to call the bypass, in now the one and only Route 222 between I-78 and Route 100. The previous Route 222 path is now simply "Hamilton Boulevard".

I thought it was "classic rt 222" and "new rt 222".

Observer wrote:

Has anyone noticed there is officially no such thing as the Route 222 Bypass? The thing we learned to call the bypass, in now the one and only Route 222 between I-78 and Route 100. The previous Route 222 path is now simply "Hamilton Boulevard".
So, since it is not a bypass, why was it not designed to truely efficient 21st century highway standards? It is, in many respects, a turkey of a road which combines some nice features (almost like a real highway) with the worst aspects of commercial industrial park feeder road design.

Well, once again the interest of the folks was sold out to all those businesses that complained they wanted a feeder road too. How many intersections were in the original plan?

I can't understand how a "bypass" is 45 because 55 is considered unsafe when there are main roads in smaller towns that hold 55 mph speed limits. While there are lights, there are only very subtle turns, and the timing of yellow lights are generally adjusted to accommodate whatever speed limit is used on that road.

I am really unhappy that I have to find some sort of medium between getting a ticket for speeding and driving at a speed that is safe for the traffic conditions around me. After seeing three cars pulled over along one stretch of the east-bound lane, I'm wondering how fast these people might be going and if this "bypass" has just turned into a speed-trap.

we need a new highway from Breinigsville to Reading, how many more poor inncent folks are going to be crushed to death on an antiquated road with such heavy truck traffic?

Extend the Bypass !