The in basket: David Ledbetter says in an e-mail that there is a
short section of road that has two speed limits.
“When you leave Port Orchard along the water going toward Gorst,
the speed limit is 45 until the speed changes in Gorst to 40.
When you are on Highway 16 coming in from Tacoma the speed is 60
then it slows to 50 until you get in Gorst and it changes to
40. There is a section where the road from Port Orchard and
Tacoma merge where the traffic from Port Orchard has a speed limit
of 45 and the traffic from Tacoma has a speed limit of
50.
The in basket: David Ledbetter says in an e-mail that there is a
short section of road that has two speed limits.
“When you leave Port Orchard along the water going toward Gorst,
the speed limit is 45 until the speed changes in Gorst to 40.
When you are on Highway 16 coming in from Tacoma the speed is 60
then it slows to 50 until you get in Gorst and it changes to
40. There is a section where the road from Port Orchard and
Tacoma merge where the traffic from Port Orchard has a speed limit
of 45 and the traffic from Tacoma has a speed limit of
50.
“This only started when the speed was changed on the road from Port
Orchard from 50 to 45,” he said. “Why would the road department
design a road with two separate speed limits for two separate
merging lanes of travel, even though it is only a short
section?”
The out basket: I would guess that a differential between
vehicles of 5 miles per hour or even more is common on multi-lane
highways even where the official speed limit doesn’t vary between
lanes.
Lisa Murdock of the Olympic region of state highway replies,
“Highway to highway connections frequently have different speed
limits on each highway. Shortly after the highways join, a
speed limit sign establishes the limit,” in this case, the 40 mph
through Gorst.
“To (our) knowledge, drivers in this area adjust their speed and
traffic movements accordingly,” she said.
Regarding the item on the Route 16/166 Speed. Since coming from Port Orchard Route 166 merges with Route 16 it is only logical that, at the point where the traffic on Route 16 can legally move left into the lane that comes from Port Orchard, all vehicles are then on Route 16 and subject to the 50 MPH limit until it changes to 40 MPH. Route 166 ends where it merges into Route 16.
Just another perspective.