How likely are you to get caught speeding on Chisholm Trail Parkway? More than you think

Bryan Quijano drives on the Chisholm Trail Parkway almost every day.

And nearly every time, he sees the same thing.

“I see people pulled over all the time,” he said, referring to the number of vehicles stopped for speeding on the 27.6-mile tollway that stretches from downtown Fort Worth to Cleburne. “If I don’t see them, there are alerts on Waze (a navigation app) that show they’ve got people pulled over.”

Law enforcers have issued more than 20,000 speeding tickets or warnings on this road since it opened in May 2014, according to a Star-Telegram review of millions of traffic citations and warnings issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Part of the reason may be that the speed limit changes at least five times — from 50 mph to 70 mph — along the hilly, winding road.

In the first eight months the road was open, 4,792 tickets or warnings were issued to speeders there, according to the data that reviews DPS stops along Chisholm Trail Parkway in Tarrant and Johnson counties between 2014 and 2016.

The number of tickets and warnings on that road — which has created a logjam in local courts as judges struggle to juggle the speeding tickets with the rest of the cases they handle — went up to 10,288 in 2015 and 8,237 in 2016, the last full year for which data was available.

As soon as Quijano saw the flashing lights behind him, when DPS pulled him over for speeding, he realized he didn’t slow down in time.

“I knew it was the speed change,” said Quijano, 37, of Fort Worth. He was issued a ticket for driving 79 mph in a 65 mph speed zone on the parkway.

The very first ticket issued on this road was at 6:32 p.m. May 30, 2014, to a man driving a 2009 Ford pickup 87 mph in a 60 mph speed zone, according to the Star-Telegram review.

In the beginning

When the tollway first opened, the speed limit on much of the road was 50 mph.

But drivers complained that the speed limit was too slow and transportation officials studied it. In 2016, they raised the limits on parts of the North Texas Tollway Authority-owned road.

That year, the ticket for the fastest speed on the parkway was to the driver of a 2009 Yamaha motorcycle for going 140 mph in a 60 mph zone, the Star-Telegram analysis shows.

Many who receive tickets on this tollway, like Quijano, say they know the speed limit goes up and down.

But they aren’t always sure when it changes — and they don’t always see the signs showing where the speed limit drops.

The speed limit is 50 mph from Forest Park Boulevard to University Drive. It goes up to 60 mph from University Drive to Arborlawn Drive and then to 65 mph from Arborlawn Drive to Altamesa Boulevard.

It jumps again to 70 mph from Altamesa Boulevard to north of FM 1216 but drops back to 55 mph from FM 1216 to U.S. 67, according to the North Texas Tollway Authority.

Getting crowded

Dozens of motorists each week head to courts to pay for the Chisholm Trail Parkway speeding tickets, plead no contest or ask for a jury trial.

And all those tickets are taking up more court time than officials had anticipated.

“Most of the (traffic) tickets that come through our court ... occur on the Chisholm Trail Parkway,” Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Sergio De Leon said.

When De Leon took office in 2012, before the Chisholm Trail Parkway opened, his court processed about 133 traffic tickets during the fiscal year.

That rose to 360 in 2014, just a few months after the tollway opened. And it went up to 1,700 by 2015, 1,476 by 2016 and 1,828 by 2017, court records show.

So far this fiscal year, more than 2,000 tickets have made their way to De Leon’s Precinct 5 court.

“Once the Chisholm Trail Parkway came about, the docket increased,” De Leon said. “In 2012, we rarely entertained or heard a plea. Now it is a huge part of our docket, and we have morning and afternoon sessions.

“Our clerks are so overwhelmed in processing the number of tickets coming through the court. We’ve asked for an additional clerk.”

Other local courts, including the one run by Judge Gary Ritchie on the southwest side of town, have seen a rise as well.

In 2013, Ritchie’s Precinct 6 JP Court handled about 1,298 tickets, which include speeding and other violations.

In 2016, that number was up to 5,763, again likely because of the Chisholm Trail Parkway, records show.

The Precinct 6 court also is understaffed and Chisholm Trail Parkway tickets also monopolize employees’ time there.

Money

The NTTA contracts with the Department of Public Safety to monitor the road, said Lt. Lonny Haschel, a DPS spokesman. Estimates are not available of how much revenue Chisholm Trail Parkway speeding tickets generate.

But officials say the funds — which could be at least $150 per ticket, once court costs and actual speeding fines are factored in — are divided between Tarrant County and the state.

Assuming a base of $100 per ticket issued on the Chisholm Trail Parkway, that means the county and state could have potentially split more than $470,000 in 2014, more than $1 million in 2015 and more than $820,000 in 2016.

Locally, some of the money goes into the county’s general fund and to special funds dedicated to courthouse security, justice court technology and building security, said Kelly Hanes, digital media manager for the county. Haschel offers some tips for drivers who keep getting speeding tickets on Chisholm Trail Parkway.

“Always obey the traffic laws,” he said. “If you see police, fire, ambulance or construction on the side of the road, slow down or move over. Wear seat belts. Don’t ever drive distracted or impaired. If the speed limit is posted, you’re not supposed to exceed that.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 6:00 AM.