SUMNER – Enforcement, not lower speed limits, is the key to reducing speeds along Route 219, Brian Keezer of the Maine Department of Transportation told residents last week. Ten citizens attended Tuesday’s selectmen’s meeting to share their concerns and hear Keezer’s views on traffic through the town.
Keezer said that he couldn’t stress enough the importance of enforcing the existing speed limits. He told selectmen that he has attended town meetings, to which law enforcement officers had been invited, so citizens could express the need for more police coverage. “If they really know it’s a problem, they may make an effort,” he said.
Keezer said that the state has recently purchased a radar speed trailer, which it intends to allow towns to use for free. The sign records speeds of passing vehicles and “may give law enforcement a hand up” in determining where there are speed problems, Keezer explained. He will look into bringing the trailer to Sumner to track speeds along Route 219.
Residents argued that the current speed limit of 35 mph through the town’s two residential zones, East and West Sumner villages, was too high. In addition, they said that the zones were too small and asked if the speed limit signs could be moved.
“That speed zone is in the books. It’s a legal speed zone,” Keezer answered. “I can’t just move the signs.” In order to change the speed zones, the state would have to do an analysis of the road, at the request of the town. Selectmen agreed that they would make a written request for a traffic analysis, although Keezer warned that sometimes such moves result in speed limits being raised.
Keezer said that “reduced speed ahead” signs could help to slow traffic coming into the villages. Those signs have recently been put up in Hartford, with a newly designed fluorescent yellow background. Keezer said he would be willing to put one of the new signs in East Sumner. There is already a sign with a white background in West Sumner.
Residents also expressed concerns about traffic in front of Hartford-Sumner Elementary School. Although there is a 15 mph school zone in front of the school, the speed limit immediately changes to 45 mph after the school.
Keezer said that the school zone “meets the letter of the law,” and that he could not change the speed limit outside of the zone to encourage drivers to slow down before the school. “You can’t artificially reduce a speed limit because there’s a school in that zone,” he argued. He recommended asking for a police cruiser to be parked in the school driveway to remind drivers of the 15 mph speed limit.
Keezer said he had driven Route 219 through town that day and felt that the 45 mph limit is “a reasonable, comfortable speed.” He stressed that “the best tool of enforcement is voluntary compliance,” and that setting reasonable speed limits is the best way to keep people from speeding.
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