We welcome the stepped-up enforcement of traffic violations in
the Downtown through April. Merchants, too, are praiseworthy of the
effort.
We welcome the stepped-up enforcement of traffic violations in the Downtown through April. Merchants, too, are praiseworthy of the effort.
Officers are monitoring the motorists’ speeds as they travel downtown in the mornings and evenings. And, by the way, the speed limit downtown is 25 mph.
Undoubtedly, the traffic is tedious through downtown during commute hours, and some people might think it’s a good idea to just blow through there as fast as they can to get it over with at other times of the day.
We all know speeding can be dangerous – especially for pedestrians. It also can result in a ticket.
But what scares many residents more than the downtown speeders are the crosswalk scofflaws, those motorists who completely ignore the fact that pedestrians might want to go from one side of the street to the other.
This is not such a problem at Main Avenue downtown, or at Monterey and Second Street, where there are traffic lights at the intersections.
But just try crossing at some of the other streets. All too often it is a harrowing experience.
The city has installed florescent signs to mark the crosswalks. That has made some difference but not enough. Pedestrians should not have to wait for a kind motorist to stop.
The next step is for the city to place more signs along Monterey Road directing through traffic onto Butterfield Boulevard, just a few blocks over. Butterfield was designed to handle that traffic load.
