Most roads in Damascus are considered County roads even though they are within the City of Damascus. The County has to improve the roads or pay the City the costs of improvements before it can turn jurisdiction over to the City. The City has been in communication with the County and is told the County is in favor of transferring jurisdiction; however, the County doesn’t have any money to improve the roads or pay the City.
Under Oregon Vehicle Code Section 811.105.2e, unposted roads have a 55 mph speed limit. There are two methods to set a speed limit for a roadway. When a road is built or rebuilt, it is classified by the jurisdiction controlling the roadway, and then the proper speed limit is matched to the roadway’s designation, i.e. an arterial road speed limit is 35-45 mph and a residential road speed limit is 25 mph.
The County has jurisdiction of most roads in Damascus, and when the roads were constructed, many were designated as a rural county farm to market road. To establish a different speed limit on an unposted or previously posted road, the ODOT Region traffic engineering staff conducts an investigation using procedures in accordance with nationally accepted traffic engineering standards. Factors taken into consideration are accident history, roadside culture, traffic volumes, roadway alignment, width and surface. A major factor in establishing speed zones is consideration of the 85th percentile speed. This is the speed at or below which 85 percent of the vehicles are traveling. This is used as an indication of the speed most drivers feel is reasonable and safe. Clackamas County would have to make a written request to ODOT for this study, and in the past, they have been unwilling to do so.
For more information visit the following ODOT website.
Speed limits are a common problem when an area is transforming from rural to urban. The City won’t be able to adjust the speed on any road until jurisdiction of the roadway is transferred to the City after it has been reconstructed to an urban standard. The speed limit assigned will be determined by the designation of the road. The roadway designations and speed limits are currently being established in the City of Damascus Transportation System Plan. The plan will be posted for public review and comments soon.