Is Eagle Road unsafe? Meridian mayor, council want lower speed limit. State won’t budge

Frustration gripped Meridian City Council members and Mayor Robert Simison as they sat through yet another meeting with the Idaho Transportation Department about safety and speed limits on Eagle Road.

Despite calls from residents and city officials, ITD would not reduce the speed of one of Ada County’s busiest roads.

Simison and the council pleaded with department leaders to lower the 55 mph speed limit of the six-lane road, which is Idaho 55. The highway runs through the city’s growing business and commercial district.

“My perspective has been to reduce whatever the current (speed limit) is down 10 miles an hour along the (Highway 55) corridor through Meridian,” Simison said in the meeting on Sept. 5.

But ITD has had sole authority to change speed limits on state highways since the Legislature passed a bill in 2012 that removed local governments’ abilities to regulate speeds on them. And ITD leaders have decided that Idaho 55 does not need lower speed limits.

State recommends digital speed-feedback signs

Instead, the department has proposed two things: adding speed-feedback signs, which show digitized displays of the speed that each car that passes; and adding “watch for stopped traffic” signs that would flash during peak travel hours.

“A sign that’s adaptive to some degree, that’s not always flashing but can flash, does tend to grab attention further and draw an emphasis to what we’re trying to communicate and educate to the drivers,” said Caleb Lakey, District 3 administrator for ITD, at the Sept. 5 meeting. District 3 includes Ada County.

Lakey and ITD CEO Dan McElhinney presented findings to the council of a traffic study of Idaho 55 that led to their proposals. The presentation was the result of meetings involving Ada County, the city and Idaho State Police after Meridian asked the department to change the speed limit.

City officials scoffed at the suggestion to add more signs.

Simison’s response was “come on.”

“Feedback signs on a three-lane road — who’s gonna know who that radar is touching for their number, with how congested it is?” the mayor said.

Council Member Luke Cavenar argued that there are already many signs on Eagle Road that can “be overwhelming.”

Council Member John Overton said, “My ultimate goal is to see a reduction in accidents but specifically a reduction in the seriousness of injuries and fatalities. And I think the only way to do that is to not put up temporary signs, not put up another sign that people have got to watch depending on the time of the day, but to simply make this a 45-mile-an hour road.”

Mayor frustrated by ITD’s refusal

Overton, a former police officer, argued back and forth with Lakey for several minutes during the meeting. Lakey said that during rush hour, vehicles already travel slower than the posted speed of 55 mph, so “I don’t know what we’re changing with the speed limit.”

Overton said that when drivers are authorized to travel 55 mph, they will.

The council’s major concerns are crashes and fatalities. One of those fatalities happened in November 2022 as Kate Boesh and her boyfriend tried to make a left turn from Eagle road onto a side street and were hit by a fast-moving pickup truck. Boesh was killed.

Her parents, Laurie and Jerry Boesch, have been pleading with ITD to reduce the speed.

In an email to the Idaho Statesman, after the department suggested adding signs, Laurie Boesch said, “If ITD wants to spend money on signs, why not 35 mph or 40 mph signs instead? Our daughter was hit and killed by a driver traveling at 53 mph, the legal speed limit. If the same accident occurred and the driver was going 35 or 40, she would have had a much higher chance of survival!”

Overton agreed.

“The extent of crash damage depends upon the amount of energy present,” he told Lakey, reading from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website. “The faster a vehicle is moving, the more kinetic injury it takes into a crash. The amount of kinetic energy increases greatly with only slight increases in speed as the amount of energy increases the chances of a fatality increase. A collision at 60 miles an hour is 50% more likely to result in a fatality than just 45 miles an hour.”

Meridian is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, making its roadways busier and busier with each passing year.

“Keeping the 55 mph only makes Eagle Road even more dangerous,” Boesch said. “I hope (ITD) wakes up before another family has to go through the hell we have been through.”

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