Agenda Item Title:
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Council Member Stroud presenting concern and inviting discussion on speeding in residential areas.
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Presenter:
Council Member Stroud
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Description/Background:
Sandy is a city connected by both major roads and small neighborhood drives. Speeding has become a frequent occurrence and complaint. In fact, a look into Utah speeding by the journalists at KSL found that Sandy placed 2nd in the state for most speeding tickets issued in 2018. That’s not a proud statistic. Sandy streets need to be safe for children, walkers, joggers, bicyclists, and all who traverse Sandy’s streets.
Sandy Public Works and Police should be credited for the work they are doing to address this issue with the tools they have, including traffic control devices, education campaigns, and focused enforcement. However, our City Council can take extra steps to help focus resources and efforts in areas where residents have submitted complaints of unsafe driving practices in their neighborhoods.
Many of these hot-spot areas of complaints center around residential areas with 25-30 mph speed limit roads. When people think of speeding, they typically imagine a driver going 10 mph or more over the speed limit. However, it’s important to consider speeding relative to the speed limit of the road. An individual driving 10 mph over on the I-15 is much less noticeable, and a smaller safety concern, than an individual driving 10 mph over in a 30-mph zone where children play, joggers occupy the sidewalks, and bicyclists share the streets.
These safety concerns suggest a need for a system-wide examination at speeding in residential areas. How can we combine our resources? How can we implement strategies that won’t simply push the issue to different streets, but instead make all streets safer? What other mechanisms can we use to address this issue at a broader level? These are all questions that could and should be investigated in a Sandy wide traffic control examination. ...
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