Residents of Edmonds often look to the city for help. Today, I am asking for your help in an area that affects us all.
The most common complaint I hear these days involves cars going too fast. Speed limits are determined by City Council action. The complaints seldom mention that the posted speed limits are too high. It is always a case of going over the speed limit.
So, if the speed limit is appropriate, what’s the solution to getting drivers to slow down? Of course, the most common response is to have more police presence on the streets. I can only say that we have a large city with a small police force, only five to six officers on the street at any one time. We set up the speed trailer, which shows drivers how fast they are going. We set up emphasis patrols and write speeding tickets, which of course brings out the claims that we are trying to balance the city’s budget by writing tickets.
By law, we can only put up stop signs, in an effort to slow down traffic on a particular street, if certain criteria are met. If the guidelines are not met, by law we cannot just arbitrarily put up a stop sign. Speed bumps are most often a deterrent to mandated fire department response times and they take their toll on very expensive, taxpayer-funded emergency equipment. Traffic circles are a possibility if the street is wide enough and other criteria are met.
The city, however, can only do so much for you in this area. The real answer lies with each one of you. When we do speed-emphasis patrols, we often are writing tickets for the very people who live in the neighborhoods in which we are working. I’m sure we all try to drive conservatively near our own homes. But what happens when we are on our hurried way to school, to the store, or heading out of town? Many complaints come from areas near schools. Shouldn’t we be even more cautious in these areas?
So, what can you do? For one thing, slow down! No matter where you drive in Edmonds, slow down! If your kids are driving, talk to them about slowing down. The city cannot solve this problem for you. This is a citywide epidemic. Please help us do our job by obeying the speed limits. Thanks … from all of us.
Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson writes a monthly Forum column for The Enterprise.
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