Transportation officials are making changes to Interstate 270 and Interstate 255’s controversial variable speed limits.
MoDOT says a new study finds that they have helped traffic flow slightly since they were instituted in 2008, and accidents are down on the busy highway. So MoDOT engineer Tom Blair says they’ll make the variable speed limits simply "advisory" by this summer.
“So law enforcement won’t be enforcing them and you may think: well, how is that going to make it any better?" Blair said. "Well, it’s going to give us some opportunities. When it was enforceable, there was a lot of concern about is this a speed trap? And we want to take that concern out.”
Blair says the digital signs will be able to change from 60 mph down to 10. But they’ll be accompanied by yellow-and-black signs indicating that the speeds are advisory only.