KING CITY — Caltrans has announced that it will be reducing the speed limit on a segment of Highway 101 between San Miguel and King City, from the existing posted maximum speed of 70 mph to 65 mph.
“This decision was based on results of an engineering evaluation of this corridor, which showed that in recent years this section of US 101 experienced an increase in fatal and injury collisions in both Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties,” stated Caltrans in a news release Thursday.
In addition, the evaluation considered data provided by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in the two counties. CHP reported both a higher incidence as well as elevated speeds of high-speed offenders on this stretch of highway.
CHP in King City reported that 71% of their citations for driving over 100 mph occur in this corridor, according to Caltrans.
The installation of new 65 mph signs is expected to be implemented by Friday, Aug. 25.
Caltrans said the decision is a result of Caltrans Director’s Policy 36, DP-36, which defines a shift in implementing safety at Caltrans. Adopted in February 2022, this policy promotes a vision to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on California’s roadways by 2050 and to provide safer outcomes for all communities.
Caltrans uses several resources when making speed limit determinations on state highways. These include the California Vehicle Code (CVC), the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (which is based on the CVC), the Safe Systems Approach by way of Caltrans Director’s Policy 36 (DP-36), as well as engineering judgement and engineering evaluation.
“Caltrans consults these resources and considers additional factors when making an evaluation of established speed zone extensions,” the state agency said. “The decisive factor in the decision to lower the speed limit was that this corridor fails to satisfy the crash rate change metric, and this is the primary reason behind not extending the 70-mph speed zone.”
