Commission Reviews State Recommendations For Local Speed Limits

By Andrew Gorosko

The Police Commission, serving as the local traffic authority, has reviewed a series of speed limits for some town roads proposed by the State Traffic Commission (STC) as suitable speed limits for those streets.

The state review of speed limits on town roads is intended to make local speed limits more consistent and in conformance with state safety standards.

In reviewing a preliminary list of 38 recommended speed limits submitted by the STC to the town, Police Commission members agreed to reply to the STC that one of the STC’s proposed speed limits for a road section should be dropped by five miles per hour.

At the urging of Police Commission member Bruce Walczak, commission members decided to recommend to the STC that the speed limit for the section of Riverside Road lying between its intersections with Washington Avenue and Alpine Drive be set at 25 miles per hour, rather than the proposed 30 mph.

In comparison, the STC recommends that the speed limit on the section of Riverside Road lying between its intersections with Alpine Drive and Center Street be set at 25 mph.

The STC’s preliminary report on local speed limits, which was reviewed by Police Commission members at December 7 session, follows the STC’s review of a set of speed limits for town-owned roads that the Police Commission had proposed to the STC last March. The STC has the final say over speed limits on town roads.

Because some local roads are long and have varying characteristics along their lengths, the STC sometimes recommends different speed limits for different sections of a road.

For example, the STC recommends that Butterfield Road have a speed limit of 25 miles per hour along the section of that street lying between its intersections with Currituck Road and Parmalee Hill Road. However, the STC recommends that the steep, narrow, winding section of Butterfield Road lying between its intersections with Hanover Road and Parmalee Hill Road have a speed limit of 15 mph.

Most of the roads reviewed by the STC received recommended speed limits of 25 miles per hour, with the  majority of the remainder receiving 20-mph recommendations.

The town-owned roads or road sections for which the STC is recommending 25-mph speed limits include: Birch Hill Road, Bradley Lane, Button Shop Road, Cemetery Road, Cherry Street, Cold Spring Road, Flat Swamp Road, Head of Meadow Road #2 and #3, High Bridge Road, Hundred Acres Road, Little Brook Lane, Narragansett Road, Old Bethel Road, Old Green Road, Orchard Hill Road, Palestine Road, Peck’s Lane, Philo Curtis Road #1, Pine Tree Hill Road, Pocono Road, Pole Bridge Road, Scudder Road, Swamp Road, Violette Road, Walnut Tree Hill Road, and Yogananda Street.

The STC recommends 20-mph speed limits for roads including: DG Beers Boulevard, Dickenson Drive, Keating Farms Avenue, Oakview Road, Pootatuck Park Road, Simpson Street, and Trades Lane.

Last March, in a move to make the posting of speed limits on town roads more consistent and in conformance with applicable state standards, Police Commission members submitted to the STC a list of proposed speed limits for various town-owned roads.

The documents reviewed by the Police Commission on December 7 contained the STC’s responses to those Police Commission’s speed limit proposals.  

A past study by the police department’s traffic enforcement unit showed that many town roads had speed limit signs posted on that did not match the then-current STC-approved speed limits for those roads. The police traffic unit consequently submitted work orders to the town public works department to have the correct speed limit signs posted on affected roads.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe told Police Commission members that after the STC makes its final decisions on the speed limits for town-owned roads, the town would be required to post suitable speed limit signs, as needed, on local roads.

Speed limits are derived through an analysis of the width and gradient of a road, the development alongside the road, the sight lines for motorists traveling on the road, and the prevailing speed of vehicles that travel on the road.