Q: What is the speed limit on an on- ramp, and when and where does it change? Where I live there is a street that turns into an onramp. This street has a 30 mph speed limit on it. The highway has a 65mph speed limit on it. When and where does that 30 end and the 65 begin?
A: My instinct is to say that onramps are part of the freeway infrastructure and subject to the same speed limits. But once you asked the question I realized that I couldn’t provide you with a law that led me to that conclusion. After searching through state law, the Code of Federal Regulations and the US Department of Transportation’s Freeway Management and Operations Handbook, I still can’t provide a direct quote from the law. That’s not to say it’s not out there, but I haven’t found it yet.
Even without a reference to legal code, we have plenty of guidance on how to use an onramp, and that guidance makes some pretty clear implications about speed limits on ramps. The Washington Driver Guide states, “When you merge with traffic, signal, and enter at the same speed that the traffic is moving.” The Driver Guide goes on to say that onramps are for building up your speed to merge with traffic. It wouldn’t make sense, then, for an onramp to have a speed limit that’s any less than the posted limit on the freeway.
We can also conclude that freeway speed limits apply to off-ramps; the Driver Guide says that when exiting a freeway, drivers should not slow down until they’re on the exit ramp. For at least a little while, drivers should be traveling at freeway speeds on both on and off-ramps.
As to where that speed limit officially starts, I’ll make a couple reasonable guesses. First, freeways and city streets are built by different people. There’s a good likelihood that when you approach an onramp, if you look carefully, you’ll see a change in the pavement between the city road and the freeway ramp. Or you could just look at Google Maps, which shows freeway infrastructure as yellow roads and city streets in white. But I don’t think getting the “where” exactly pinpointed is actually that important.
While the section of the law on speed limits does include a few actual numbers, the overarching theme of the law is, to (very) loosely paraphrase, “drive at a speed that will avoid a crash.” If the freeway speed is 70 mph, but you can’t go faster than 40 mph through the curve in the onramp without grinding the side of your car on the guardrail, then for that stretch of the ramp the practical speed limit is less than 40 mph. There’s an expectation in the law that drivers will make safe decisions about their speed, regardless of the posted maximum limit. (It is a maximum, after all.)
Just to make sure I was on the right track, I asked a couple transportation professionals in the fields of engineering and enforcement. They both described onramps as a tool to get up to speed so that you can safely merge. Understandably, they were more focused on safe behaviors than exactly where the line was between two speed limits. Regarding their use, one of them gave this analogy: “In the old westerns, the hero never tried to board a train from his horse from a stop. He got up to and matched the speed of a train.” He didn’t say this next part, but I think it’s implied: merging properly makes you a hero.
Whoever asked this question probably goes through Hwy 518 EB where it merges with 509 NB. The speed limit changes to 35 almost exactly where the exit only lane starts (solid line) for the exit to 509.
See Google Streetview.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4700015,-122.3269827,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sC4M9I9PEsBgkKizfNc7VYw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
What about when you are in the process of entering a highway with a speed limit of 60 mph but at the moment of your merge the traffic is traveling at 70 mph? Avoiding a crash would mean joining the rest of the speeders in breaking the law but safely merging, whereas merging at the legal limit would be unsafe, perhaps resulting in cutting someone off or coming to an abrupt stop, and possibly getting rear-ended.
Alan , good one. If you still can drive reasonable and prudent, sometimes it would be reasonable and prudent to get up , at least almost to the speed of traffic to merge. However if you drive like I do now, I can’t allow myself to go more than 2 miles over the speed limit , to protect myself from the law enforcement community, so in that case I’ll have to find a space I can slide into and someone may get a little upset by my actions. The laws are prmerilly made to be enforced, and only secondarily made to be obeyed by reasonable and prudent drivers. It’s upside down, in favor of the law enforcement community. You and I and the drivers speeding on the interstates in this situation could all potentially get a citation , and if taken to court all loose . The driver is guilty until proven innocent.
I believe it states how fast you enter the ramp and it ain’t at 60 mph🤦♀️. I drive fast but shouldn’t be in the right lane where I kno people have to enter Xway. And that doesn’t mean continue to do 35 all the way up the ramp, give it done gas.
A non-legal answer is I really doubt law enforcement would pull you over for matching speed while merging. If they would pull over anyone it would be one of the other drivers.
But what about in the future where there are traffic speed cameras on freeways? 😉
I got a hefty fine for speeding up to fifty on on-ramp to merge on highway posted at 65. The last speed limit sign before ramp however was 35. Cop told me I have to maintain the 35 until I reached the next 65 on the highway further down. So I must maintain 35 and no higher as I merged. Got a fine for going 15 over 35 while merging.
Trying to merge onto a 65 mph highway at a low speed of 35 mph is a recipe for disaster! I would have contested it in court. The on-ramp is called an acceleration lane for good reason.
Yeah that’s what I’m talking about. The speed limits look black and white until you actually drive and try to obey the traffic laws, then you see just how rediculas it is sometimes to obey the traffic laws to defend yourselves from law enforcement. Not enough people are working at getting reasonable traffic laws and posting accurately. Mainly because there’s to many people who can get away with breaking traffic laws, like law enforcement persons , law makers government workers, military, and the list goes on, but you and I and a few others that do lots of driving , are held to the letter of the law, and it is left up to us to point out the changes that need to be made. Driving is not very well understood by those who make and enforce traffic law.
There you have it. For the person who said he doubts if a citation would be given for merging with traffic. And this is why I asked the question where does the 30 end and the 65 begin. I can’t drive just reasonable and prudent, that’s not good enough for protecting yourself from police officers..
The 30 MPH yellow signs are not a speed limit, they are advisory.
Have you ever been in “Stop and Go” traffic on an expressway?
How many times were you rear ended?
Thank you Doug for addressing the subject of on ramp speed limits. The police and court judges see most traffic laws as black and white, but in the real traffic if you try to obey traffic law precisely to protect yourself from them , one realizes there’s many grey areas that reasonable and prudent driving is necessary however most of the time that’s not good enough for the law enforcement community. The. Primary focus on the traffic laws should be , “can the laws be obeyed by reasonable and prudent drivers , and only after that is met , than can it be enforced , rather than the opposite , the way it is now. I say sometimes that I no longer can drive reasonable and prudent, because I’ve driven , and drive too much. Many traffic laws aren’t reasonable and prudent , and many police and judges don’t understand driving well enough, so I have to drive in a way to protect myself from those laws, police and judges. That’s the type of defensive driving I do.
Doug . Another question to start conversation. In a construction zone with a speed limit of 45, where the speed limit is normally 55 , once thru the construction when does the speed limit change back to 55. Is it at the “ end road work “ sign, or not until you see the next 55MPH , which could be miles away?
Doug. Yet another question. If you don’t know the speed limit on the road on which you’re traveling, and pass an advisory curve sign with 50 mph , can you assume the speed limit is at least 55MPH, and to go farther, when your coming out of a 45mph construction zone , and before you get to an” end road work”, or a 55 mph sign, but you pass an advisory 50 curve sign ( usually would have you assume the limit here than to be at least 55 ) . You see how grey the law is here again.
And here’s another question Doug. It has to do with following distance on multi lane highways. We like to stay at least 2 seconds behind the vehicle ahead, but what about when we change lanes and pass a slower vehicle shouldn’t we try our best(if traffic pressure allows ) to give that vehicle we just past , 2 seconds before we pull back in that lane in front of them?
Most (maybe all) interstate on ramps in the state have a sign that says “FREEWAY ENTRANCE”. I’ve always taken that to be the point at which it’s legal to start accelerating to freeway speed.
When i drive on the freeway in Southern California i fallow a big rig because they tend to drive the speed limit. I never want a speeding ticktet