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Politics & Government

Story And Poll: Highway 12 Double Fine Zone Law Ammended

The Solano County Board of Supervisors extend double fine zones law to include in rural areas of the county only

Drivers traveling on Highway 12 in Suisun and Fairfield will soon see an end to the double fine zone between the I-80 connector and Walters Rd.

Solano County Supervisors voted in a meeting Tuesday, to endorse a Caltrans plan put in place since 2007 that would make traffic violations given on Highway 12 double their normal cost. The law, which was scheduled to expire at the end of the year, had been approved every two years since. However, board members, including Supervisor Jim Spering, suggested Caltrans tweak the law to take effect over Solano County’s rural areas on the highway.

“I was opposed to having it apply to the new portion of highway 12 from I-80 through Suisun City,” said Jim Spering, Supervisor.  “I think it’s very inappropriate and it’s just a trap.”

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Highway 12 travels within Solano County from a junction at Interstate 80 and continues until Rio Vista meets the Sacramento County line. The board considers the rural portion of the road to be from Walters Road to the county line. Instead, the urban portion of highway has become a target spot for law enforcement to catch speeders, Spering said.

“I do support the double fine zone in the more hazardous part of the corridor but not in the improved section and I think that we have to be very careful that local police are not taking advantage of that,” he said.

Spering said the double fine zone can serve as a deterent to keep cars from speeding, but it is important to use the law in the way it was designed. If the law was in place just to catch speeders, that could mean seeing double fine zones just about anywhere, he said.

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“You just don’t place double fine zones on standard highways, it wouldn’t get approved,” Spering said. “But that’s what they’ve done here. So you need to put it where it does the most good which is in that dangerous part of Highway 12.”

Correction: This article was modified to correct the story. Caltrans ultimately controls the starting and ending points of the double fine zone, but supervisors suggested Caltrans change the starting and ending points.

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