Speed limit on Hunter upped to 35

Less than four months after lowering the speed limit on a stretch of Hunter Road from 45 miles per hour to 30, the San Marcos City Council decided last week to raise the speed limit again — but just to 35 mph.

In August, the city changed the speed limit on the section of Hunter Road between Wonder World Drive and West San Antonio Street to 30 mph. The move was meant to support greater bike and pedestrian activity in the area.

The staff recommendations to raise the speed limit to 35 resulted from studies the city carried out after receiving numerous resident complaints about the lower speed limit. In November, the city performed speed studies on several stretches of Hunter Road and Hopkins Street and noted the differences between the 85th percentile (also known as “actual speed”) and posted speeds, Sabas Avila of the city’s transportation department explained.

“We found the 85th percentile to be higher than the posted speed,” Avila said. “The 85th percentile represents the maximum speed that 85 percent of the driving population drives.”

The greatest variance between the 85th percentile and the posted speed was in the stretch of road between Wonder World and West San Antonio.

Avila explained that studies have shown that areas with posted speed limits within 5 mph of the actual speeds produce the fewest accidents. The staff recommendation to raise the speed limit to 35 mph would put that segment of Hunter Road would put the posted speed closer to the actual speed, which is just above 40 mph.

“It also provides transition from Hunter Road west of Wonder World Drive to the 30 mph currently east of San Antonio Street,” he said.

Council member Saul Gonzales asked SMPD Chief Chase Stapp his opinion on the speed limit.

“I think 35 is a good idea,” he said, noting that he drives that stretch of road frequently. “Thirty just instinctively feels too slow. Forty-five to me feels too fast. When you drive 35, you have fewer people tailgating you but you’re not going so fast that it feels unsafe.”

Mayor Jane Hughson said she did not like the idea of using the speeds people drive to set a speed limit.

“Personally I never thought that was a good way to do it. … If everybody’s going 50, are we going to make it 50? I don’t think so,” she said.

However, she agreed that 35 mph seems reasonable for that stretch of road.

“I wouldn’t go a dime higher,” she added.City records show that San Marcos police wrote 31 speeding tickets on that stretch of road between Aug. 31, when the speed limit was lowered, and Dec. 4. The council agenda for the meeting at which the speed limit was lowered stated that costs for signage and other measures to change the speed limit to 30 mph would be $500; it will cost $300 to raise the speed limit to 35 mph.