Under coronavirus rules, traffic is way down, but speeding is way, WAY up
The dramatic drop in traffic during the coronavirus pandemic has caused a dangerous surge in speeding.
Not just typical, impatient, 5-10-mph-over-the-limit speeding, but severe speeding.
It’s not because people are late to work or school — there are few work or school destinations while stay-at-home warnings are in place. It’s because streets are empty, tempting drivers’ inner Dale Earnhardt to press the accelerator.
“There’s nobody out there, so people are driving faster and more aggressively,” said attorney Ted Hollander, partner at The Ticket Clinic, which has been handling a lower than average number of citations in the past month at its 31 Florida locations, but a higher percentage of speeding tickets.
“I’ve had tickets for unusually high speeds cross my desk — 115 in a 70 mph zone, 120 in a 70 mph zone, 111 in a 65 mph zone. People have been cooped up for seven weeks, they’ve been laid off, they’re losing income, they’re stuck with relatives in close quarters, they’re anxious and frustrated. Driving is an outlet. But speeding creates hazardous situations with dire consequences.”
Rush hour has evaporated. Gridlock has gone the way of handshakes. Motorists see an open road and before they know it they’re zooming down U.S. 1 or Biscayne Boulevard. Or they think they have a green light to push the envelope in the Maserati that’s been sitting in the four-car garage.
On a recent afternoon along Alton Road in Miami Beach, cars and trucks ignored the 30 mph speed limit sign and irritated the digital “Your Speed” monitor with speeds of 43, 44, 48 and 49 mph, prompting it to admonish them with a flashing “Slow down” message.
Restless and bored, other drivers pretend they’re racing on Thunder Road. Nighttime noises now include loud engines.
“Whenever I’m walking my dog I see people speeding — way over the 45 mph they usually speed on this street,” said William Battle, who lives on Riviera Drive in Coral Gables, where the speed limit is 30. “I saw a Porsche and Mustang racing the other night. At least 60 mph. It’s really dangerous for families who are biking along here.”
Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Alex Camacho said the spike in triple-digit speeding is alarming. Anyone clocked going 50 mph above the limit is subject to a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000, which goes up to $2,500 the second time.
“There’s absolutely no reason to speed right now. You’ll get where you’re going faster than you normally would just by driving the speed limit,” Camacho said. “It’s a stressful time. So we’re using heavy discretion but we are enforcing speed limits. One of the good things about congestion, although everybody hates it, is it’s a deterrent to speeding.
“Our troopers can’t be the only remedy right now. Enjoy the empty road but be safe.“
Lee Marks, a Miami attorney and cycling advocate, has seen the already treacherous Rickenbacker Causeway turn into a quasi NASCAR track.
“It’s even scarier with cars going 80 mph, and I saw a guy on a motorcycle doing 105-110. I could hear him coming and he probably cleared the Powell bridge in one second,” Marks said. “You see drivers just flooring it on the causeways and also along A1A from North Beach up to Hollywood.
“We’re used to seeing parents and students flying by in their Porsches, Range Rovers and Mercedes to get to MAST Academy in the mornings. Now you see the lone wolf putting the pedal to the metal. I was passed by a five-pack racing on I-95 near downtown.
“We feel safer in that we’re not encountering as many cars but the ones out there are ripping by us or anyone walking or running on the shoulder of roads. I had a close call where someone passing another car swerved back into the right lane and grazed my handlebars by half an inch.”
Lt. Kim Montes, public affairs officer for the Florida Highway Patrol in Orlando, has started a file of triple-digit speeding citations. The most egregious was a 29-year-old man in a Chevy going 156 mph in a 70 mph zone on State Road 417. She’s compiled two dozen other 100 mph-plus tickets, including one for a 28-year-old man in a Honda going 104 mph in a 55 mph zone; a 19-year-old woman in a Hyundai going 112 mph in a 65 mph zone, and a 35-year-old man going 109 mph in a 65 mph zone.
“Wow, we’ve never seen people speed super fast like this!” Montes said Monday. “I got two high rollers today, one going 93 in a 55 zone and another going 94 in a 70. Many seem perplexed and say, ‘Was I really going that fast?’ They’re not paying attention. And they’re not arguing with us.
“No one has claimed an emergency, like ‘I’ve got to get to the hospital, I’m sick.’ A few have said they are late for meetings, which makes no sense because people are typically late because they’ve been stuck in traffic. Traffic jams are not happening right now.
“One lady went by me doing 90 in a 65 zone while my lights were still flashing from a previous stop. She said she was going out to buy hair products. She didn’t think we were pulling people over. We are absolutely pulling you over. We don’t want you to die of COVID-19 but we don’t want you to die in a crash, either.”
The Florida Highway Patrol is even publicizing where troopers are setting up speed checks.
“This is not a gotcha. We’re not hiding behind a tree,” Montes said. “And we are not stopping people for going 10 over because we want the least amount of physical contact possible. But when you’ve got people driving 20-30 over the limit behind a grandma merging, or in a construction zone with shifting lanes, that’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
Coral Gables Public Affairs Officer Kelly Denham — a former Florida Highway Patrol trooper and Montes’ twin sister — commutes from Homestead to the police department in her marked patrol car. Nevertheless, cars pass her on Florida’s Turnpike going 80-90 mph. In Coral Gables, the lack of congestion and inactive go-slow school zones has led to a torrent of speeding.
“There is so much swirling around in people’s brains because they are out of a job, looking for food, worried about their parents, taking care of their kids, and they are not concentrating. Driving requires a lot of concentration,” she said. “I call these people unconscious drivers. They see an open road, free of the usual choke points and they’re creeping faster and faster.”
Traffic analytics company Inrix says congestion is down an average of 50 percent throughout the U.S. since the week of Feb. 22. Passenger vehicle traffic in Florida is about half what it was before stay-at-home orders took effect, businesses shut down and schools closed.
Miami is among the top five major cities that have seen the sharpest reduction in personal travel since late February — a 55 percent drop in volume, compared to 60 percent in New York, 58 percent in Orlando, 56 percent in Detroit and 56 percent in San Francisco.
In New York City, automated speeding cameras issued almost double the number of tickets (24,675) on March 27 compared to Feb. 27 (12,672).
“Now that the streets are empty, the Fast & Furious wannabes really think they’re living in a video game,” New York City Councilman Justin Brannan wrote on Twitter, adding that the sounds of revving cars and motorcycles “have become a scary lullaby.”
The California Highway Patrol reports an 87 percent increase in tickets for speeding in excess of 100 mph since March 19, when the state’s stay-at-home order was implemented. A Chevrolet Camaro driver in San Juan Capistrano was caught going 165 mph on Interstate 5. He was arrested and charged with speeding, reckless driving and driving without a license, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Crash Dashboard from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Department shows that crashes in Miami-Dade County and throughout the state are down significantly compared to the first four months of 2019, with a drop in March and April because there are fewer cars on the road. From Jan. 1 through the end of April, the Dashboard recorded 15,981 crashes, 99 fatalities from crashes and 7,586 injuries from crashes in Miami-Dade. While crashes are down about 25 percent for the year, fatalities are down only 9 percent. In March and April alone, there were 13 traffic fatalities in Miami-Dade compared to 15 in the two-month period in 2019.
“Excessive speeding not only puts you at much higher risk but you’re also selfishly endangering the first responders, essential workers and delivery drivers on the road,” Camacho said.
The total number of moving violations cited in Miami-Dade County and the other 38 municipalities and agencies under Miami-Dade County Court jurisdiction plunged to 3,945 in April from 19,754 in April 2019, according to court records. But so has the volume of vehicles on the road.
Pedestrian and bicycle traffic has increased exponentially in the absence of motor vehicle traffic, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit representing state agencies. Drivers need to be especially mindful of sharing the road, which is the law, given the lack of bikeways and sidewalks in many areas, the association’s executive director, Jonathan Adkins. said.
“While COVID-19 is clearly our national priority, our traffic safety laws cannot be ignored,” Adkins said. “Law enforcement officials have the same mission as healthcare providers — to save lives. Emergency rooms in many areas of the country are at capacity, and the last thing they need is additional strain from crash victims.”
A new record was set for the Cannonball Run on April 6, when an unidentified team of drivers took advantage of pandemic conditions to complete the New York-to-Los Angeles trip in 26 hours, 38 minutes and 48.41 seconds, breaking the old record by 13 minutes. Average speed: 103 mph, according to Road and Track. Former record-holders criticized the coast-to-coast stunt as inappropriate and invalid.
Recommendations to itchy drivers: Slow down; keep a greater distance between cars given the higher speeds and longer braking distance required; don’t stop on shoulders where you’re vulnerable to passing vehicles; use cruise control to keep your speed regulated.
“A speeding driver could also be on their phone and that makes any pedestrian a sitting duck,” said Marks, the Miami cycling advocate. “What’s the rush anyway? Take it easy and enjoy the scenery for a change.”
A big part of the speeding phenomenon is that speeding is not given enough attention as a health and safety issue and is deemed culturally acceptable by the public, the Governors Highway Safety Association said.
A 2019 report, “Speeding Away from Zero: Rethinking a Forgotten Traffic Safety Challenge,” highlights excessive speed as a persistent factor in nearly one-third of all motor vehicle-related fatalities, while a February 2020 report on pedestrian fatalities found that pedestrians account for 17% of all traffic-related deaths, with a 53 percent increase in pedestrian deaths since 2009.
Miami Herald reporters David Ovalle and Charles Rabin contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 6:15 AM.
