Windham, NH Police Chief Gerald Lewis said the 25 mph speed limit on Westchester Road recently set by selectmen is illegal and unenforceable.

Selectmen set the lower-than-normal speed limit on a motion by Selectman Bruce Breton after accepting the street as a town road. The vote was 3-2 in favor.

Both Lewis and fire Chief Tom McPherson, who leads the town’s Highway Safety Committee, said the speed limit won’t hold up in court if it’s ever challenged because the selectmen’s decision needs to be backed up with a traffic study. Under state law, a residential street is supposed to be posted for 30 mph unless a traffic study determines that a lower or higher speed is warranted, Lewis said.

“It’s not that we oppose a speed limit of 25,” McPherson said, “but there’s a process that should be followed. Otherwise, it could be successfully challenged in court.”

“It’s an illegal speed limit,” Lewis said. “If we wrote a speeding ticket and it was challenged, a judge would throw it out of court.”

Lewis said his department is equipped to do a traffic study to see if a speed limit below 30 mph is warranted, but to arbitrarily assess the lower speed limit causes a problem.

Breton said he will continue to push for 25 mph speed limits on residential roads when those roads come before the selectmen to be accepted as town roads.

“I don’t care about the bureaucratic stuff,” Breton said. “If residents in town want a new road to be 25 mph, I will try to do that when a new road is being accepted. If it gets people to slow down and saves just one life, I think it’s worth it.”

The fact that the town doesn’t have any sidewalks is one of the reasons Breton said he wants the lower speed limits.

I have no idea where this thing is; but, It’s pretty damned funny, if you ask me.

Lubbock, Texas delays installation of red light cameras after short yellow timing is discovered.

On Thursday, the Lubbock, Texas city council voted to delay installation of red light cameras after a local television station exposed the city’s short timing of yellow lights at eight of the twelve intersections where the devices were to be installed.

“Many folks believe this is a money grab and then we found out through KCBD Television there’s a discrepancy in timing,” Councilman Gary Boren said, as quoted by KCBD.

Earlier this month, the station cited the rule-of-thumb that Lubbock City Engineer Jere Hart asserted as the basis for timing lights at city intersections. At most of the proposed camera intersections, Hart did not follow his own rule.

At 82nd and University, the 50 MPH speed limit suggests the need for a 5 second yellow, but it currently set at just 4.3 seconds. At 82nd and Frankford, the speed of traffic requires 4.5 seconds of yellow, but the public is only given 4.0. Milwaukee and 19th, a 55 MPH intersection, has a 4.4 second yellow when it should be 5.5. Parkway and Zenith has a 2.9 second yellow which is illegal under federal regulations mandating yellow times of no less than 3.0 seconds. Hart admitted the light should be 3.5 seconds.

Last year, before the news investigation, Hart assured city council members that he would not increase yellow times.

“Jere said, if [the red light camera program is] implemented, the public would prefer to have an increased amber cycle, but stated the program will not adjust the amber/yellow time,” the city council’s traffic commission minutes of September 19, 2006 read. “Jere stated enforcement would generate revenue, more so in the initial phase, then most likely receding in subsequent years.”

Short yellows assure a steady flow of red light camera ticket revenue. A Texas Transportation Institute study found that an extra second of yellow time added to the current ITE formula yields a a 53 percent reduction in the number of tickets issued along with a 40 percent reduction in accidents.

Source: (KCBD-TV (TX), 2/22/2007)

Volunteers armed with radar guns will soon hit the streets of Oshkosh in a major campaign to crack down against speeders.

At school zones across the city, signs are already posted to warn drivers of a Citizen Speed Patrol, which consists of teachers and parents. Wednesday night the program was expanding outside of school zones to target whole neighborhoods.

“The speeding in front of our house — and we have a speed bump! — it’s just gotten out of hand,” said Paul Weinkauf, a Speed Patrol volunteer. “The police department is so busy, they can’t be watching our streets all the time.”

On Jackson Street, about eight volunteers practiced using a radar gun for the first time. “Hopefully they will slow down,” Weinkauf said. Almost immediately some drivers were hitting the brakes.

Volunteers expect to start patrolling in May. About 30 neighborhoods will be targeted, and drivers clocked going too fast will receive a written warning in their mail.

“What will happen is, they will complete a radar log, the radar log will be turned in to us, we will in turn run the plates, and then following, after we run the plates, send out a courtesy letter just asking people to please slow down, you were clocked at so many miles an hour,” Sergeant Steve Sagmeister, Oshkosh Police Department, said.

These aren’t citizen-run speed traps. By being visible, volunteers hope to send a clear message to drivers.

“I think it will help a lot,” Speed Patrol volunteer Angie Marciniak said. “It will give them a warning before they speed down the street again, in other areas.”

As a result of an upcoming traffic enforcement legal case, I would like to poll readers on the following question.

Please feel free to click on the “join the forum discussion“ link at the bottom of this post to add your comment after you’ve voted. Your opinions are very valuable.

Actually, your comment is vital to this poll, so that each vote may be validated by an actual person’s comment or explanation. If you have previously voted, but not left a comment, please do so. Ultimately, any vote without a corresponding comment will be deleted.

Thanks for your input. -STA Admin

Okay, the poll has been removed, because only one person has made a comment or posted to the forum about their answer. Without an explanation for your answer, and a record of what user voted for what, the numbers are kind of useless. Go to the forum topic on this question if you’d like to voice your opinion.

The question was:

If you saw a person like this, standing beside the road, waving to people, and holding this sign, could/would you think this “sign” is an “official traffic-control device”?

Join the forum discussion on this post - (10) Posts