(ORLANDO, FL) Florida’s Turnpike and the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) announced today that the official maximum speed limit on both State Roads 417 and 429 will be raised to 70 mph by the end of the day on Saturday, January 24, 2015.
The transportation agencies conducted a joint study in the summer of 2014 to determine if the speed limits on the two roadways could be increased. Research conducted at the University of Iowa found that higher traveling speeds are not necessarily associated with an increased risk of being involved in a crash. In fact, when drivers traveling at the same speed in the same direction — even at high speeds, as on the Central Florida GreeneWay/Seminole Expressway and the Western Beltway — they are not passing one another and are less likely to collide as long as they maintain the same traveling speed. When drivers travel at different rates of speed, crashes increase, especially crashes involving multiple vehicles.
The University of Iowa findings were confirmed by the recent CFX/FDOT/Turnpike study.
State Roads 417 and 429 were both designed to carry traffic at 70 mph. On State Road 417, the speed limit will be raised to 70 mph beginning near the Celebration mainline toll plaza in Osceola County, extending through Orange and Seminole Counties to the Rinehart Road interchange at Exit 54. The speed limit on State Road 429 will be uniformly adjusted to 70 mph from Interstate-4 (Exit 1) in Osceola County to US 441 (Exit 33) in Orange County.
Existing speed limits at all exit ramps/interchanges and cash lanes on both roads remain the same, including the SunPass/E-PASS lanes at the Celebration mainline toll plaza.
Motorists should be alert for the roadway crews as they change the signs, as the new speed limit does not go into effect on a section of the highway until the sign has been changed. The signs are being changed in progression, first on the southbound lanes, then on the northbound lanes. Law enforcement agencies will strictly enforce the new speed limits.