Why is the speed limit on some parts of 116th Street 35 MPH, while narrower parts are 40 MPH?

The speed limit on 116th Street from Meridian to Range Line is currently 35 MPH. However, the speed limit from Meridian to Towne is 40 MPH.

There are many factors that go into the establishment of speed limits, not to mention other traffic control measures such as School Zones, No Passing restrictions and No Turn on Red mandates. The goal of the Carmel City Council is to rely on the experts we hire to research the roads, traffic patterns and the nature of an area, along with the best practices used by cities and town across the nation in similar situations. These decisions should never be made for political reasons or to satisfy the desires of one group of people over another. It is our goal to always be fair and to always rely on the experts.

“Our City Engineer strongly recommends keeping the speed limit on this stretch of 116th Street at 35 miles per hour.”

 

With that said, our City Engineer strongly recommends keeping the speed limit on this stretch of 116th Street at 35 miles per hour. There are a substantial number of “curb cuts” along this corridor that consist of both individual driveways and subdivision entrances. In some areas there are dedicated turn lanes to help with safety, but in other areas there are none.  In a scenario where there are five lanes of traffic it can become increasingly less safe to have left turns taking place in order to merge into traffic traveling at a high rate of speed.  In addition, some of the drive entrances have less than ideal “site lines” both horizontally and vertically, further justifying the need to keep traffic moving at a slower pace.

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Authored by Laura Campbell, Ron Carter, Sue Finkam, Anthony Green, Bruce Kimball, Kevin Rider and Jeff Worrell