[BikeLongmont] 25 mph speed limit proposal

[Richard Masoner]

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 20:10:27 -0700, Nenad <nenad at bicyclelongmont.org> wrote:

> I am wondering what is causing the city to consider lowering the speed
> limits. Do the accident statistics indicate these streets have traffic
> moving too fast?

Here's the main issue: The city is *constantly* receiving complaints
about too much/too fast traffic on residential streets. There are some
high accident areas (the whole neighborhood around Longmont High,
Coffman south of 9th, Lashley south of 9th, Longs Peak west of Martin,
etc), but in reality our streets are fairly safe.  The perception,
however, is more important than the reality.

There's also the secondary issue of encouraging more walking for
quality-of-life issues. If traffic is so fast on Mtn View Ave that you
feel like you can't walk across it but have to drive to get to the
YMCA or corner store (or whatever), you'll feel like you have to drive
to get there.

The city is exploring ways to deal with what residents say they want:
quiet, residential streets. Reducing the speed limit to 25 mph on
*all* residential streets (including collectors) will direct more
traffic to the non-residential collectors and arterials and discourage
the use of these residential streets as shortcuts or byways.

We'll be discussing this at the Transportation Advisory Board meeting
this coming Monday night (7 p.m. at the Civic Center), and the city
council will discuss this at their meeting on Tuesday night. Come to
either of these if you want to give your input.

I would also encourage members of this list to attend the Street
Design Forum on Saturday at the Senior Center in Roosevelt Park
starting at 9 a.m. Info about this at http://www.ci.longmont.co.us/

Richard Masoner