May 9, 2016 3 min read

I was interested in your Wednesday editorial regarding the increase in speed limits on interstate highways, particularly the portion regarding the enforcement of speed limits. The editorial’s reasoning exactly paralleled mine regarding the likelihood that drivers on Interstate 79 would break the 55 mph speed limit from Washington north to Pittsburgh more often once the 70 mph limit becomes law on either side of this portion of the route.

I drive this route at least once a week from Southpointe to the 376 interchange. It can be months before I see a Pennsylvania State Police vehicle on this portion of the highway. There seems to be little or no enforcement presence.

I left this area in 1958 and spent the last 40 years living in Southern California and Arizona. I moved back here two years ago. I would not say that no one in those states exceeded the posted speed limits or drove aggressively. But based on my observations, those things happened less often there than here. The reason this is so is enforcement or the lack of it. California and Arizona both have dedicated highway patrol agencies whose primary responsibility is enforcement of traffic laws on the interstate highways. I could not drive between San Diego and Los Angeles, or Phoenix and Tucson, without seeing at least a half dozen or more marked patrol cars on the road and at least a couple of vehicles pulled over by officers.

There are two possible solutions to this problem, and both will cost a lot of money in a state which already has problems creating a budget. There will also likely be strong resistance from the Pennsylvania State Police. First, the state police need to be relieved of having to investigate serious crimes in small municipalities that lack the manpower to carry out these investigations on their own, and the state police’s emphasis has to be directed more toward traffic enforcement on the interstates. It will take time and money for local, small departments to adequately train officers to do what is currently being done by the state police. Many in the state police will likely resist this – they have been in the business of major crime investigation for many years, and may not take kindly to being reduced to what they may see as becoming “just traffic cops.” An alternative is for some small boroughs, cities and townships to form joint law-enforcement agencies.

The second solution is for the state to create a highway patrol that is trained and tasked solely for the purpose of enforcement on interstate highways. This would also be very expensive.

The current system does not work. Both of these ideas are expensive but workable. The third alternative is to do nothing. That choice means that the scofflaws on the stretch of 79 which is posted at 55 mph between Washington and Pittsburgh will make it more dangerous to the rest of us.

LeRoy W. Bloom

Lawrence