By Susanna Ray
Herald Writer
MARYSVILLE —- Lead footers have learned to lighten up through Marysville.
And the State Patrol will likely teach the same lesson soon to those putting the pedal to the metal out in Preston.
A stretch of I-5 just north of Marysville had been in the spotlight at the top of the state’s "100+ mph club" list in a state Department of Transportation report released in February. In one 72-hour period in the first quarter of fiscal year 2002, which ran from October to December, the department counted 27 vehicles going more than 100 mph past a recording station near Milepost 208.
Another Snohomish County site — officials are recording speeds at 47 stations around the state — was number nine on the list, with five drivers topping 100 mph on I-5 through Everett at Pacific Avenue.
But in the second-quarter report that came out Thursday, Snohomish County dropped off the chart.
"I know in Marysville there has been a lot of effort directed at reducing speed," said Capt. Glenn Cramer, State Patrol spokesman.
In April 2001, for example, troopers gave out 869 speeding tickets on the 40 miles of I-5 running through Snohomish County. In April of this year, which is the most recent data available, they gave out 2,494.
The extra emphasis came after the Marysville recording station topped three of four "Top 10" speed categories the Department of Transportation put together for the first quarter, said Jim Hawkins with the state’s Transportation Data Office in Olympia.
It apparently worked: The percentage of drivers whizzing past that station faster than the posted 70 mph speed limit dropped from 67 percent to 54 percent.
"Now our top hit list is Preston, and I pretty much guarantee you’ll see a hit patrol out there soon," Hawkins said.
Preston, just east of Issaquah on I-90, which had been right behind Marysville in second place for the first quarter with 21 vehicles in the 100+ mph club, moved to the top for the second quarter with 36 such speeders in a 72-hour period.
It’s not just those areas with Mario Andretti wannabes that are seeing an increase in traffic tickets.
The agency gave out 14 percent more tickets statewide from October 2001 to April 2002 than it did during the same period the year before. In January, before the Top 10 list came out with the spotlight on Marysville, troopers had already written 1,858 speeding tickets on I-5 in Snohomish County, 728 more than in January 2001. But that number increased even more dramatically after the report was released.
Since October, state troopers have been focusing on what their new Chief Ronal Serpas sees as the best way for the agency to help save lives and prevent injuries. Officers have been cracking down on speeding, drunken driving, aggressive driving and seat belt usage.
"We really kind of got back to basics with the core missions of our department," said Lt. Mark Thomas, the assistant district commander for the agency’s Marysville division.
And that includes writing a lot of speeding tickets.
"The troopers are certainly stopping more people than they had been," Thomas said.
The agency hasn’t increased the number of officers, but it does use the Department of Transportation’s speed reports as "intelligence information" to determine where to deploy them, Cramer said.
The reports are created from a number of wire loops running across highways under the pavement at set intervals, recording how long it takes each vehicle to get from one loop to the next during one 72-hour period from Tuesday to Thursday the same week each quarter.
The state has been monitoring highway speed for decades. But last year it changed the program, adding Top 10 lists for the most vehicles traveling faster than 100 mph, the highest average speed, the highest percentage of vehicles driving over the posted speed limit and the highest speed at or below which 85 percent of vehicles were traveling.
There are four sites being recorded in Snohomish County: I-405 in Bothell, about a mile south of the I-5 interchange; I-5 at 164th Street SW and at Pacific Avenue; and I-5 in the Smokey Point area.
The reports are mainly intended for traffic engineers, who use them for highway design, and for law enforcement officers, Hawkins said.
"I believe I’ve seen a change in driving over the past six months," Thomas said. "We are making a difference out there. I think people have slowed down."
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 425-339-3439
or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com.
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