In response to drivers’ speeds and the roads they travel, the
city will raise speed limits in mostly commercial areas and lower
them in mostly residential areas, but a few exceptions show how
traffic has trumped the concerns of families whose streets have
become alternative thoroughfares for rushed motorists.
Gilroy – In response to drivers’ speeds and the roads they travel, the city will raise speed limits in mostly commercial areas and lower them in mostly residential areas, but a few exceptions show how traffic has trumped the concerns of families whose streets have become alternative thoroughfares for rushed motorists.
Over the next month or two, nine streets will see a reduction in speed limits, six will see an increase, and 11 streets that didn’t have posted limits to begin with will get signs, according to City Transportation Engineer Don Dey.
The city hired a private consultant company to study collision records over the past five years, the location of schools and parks and of speed-prone shopping areas, and also how fast the average Gilroyan drives.
Dey reported the recommendations of Higgins Associates to the City Council Monday night, and the body unanimously passed their speed suggestions that bring the average Gilroy speed limit to 30 mile per hour.
“We’re striving for consistency and uniformity, trying to match up the purpose of a street with the hazards on that street,” Dey said, referring to roads such as Church Street that cut through pedestrian-heavy neighborhoods and run along park areas yet have also become a favorite conduit for drivers trying to avoid Monterey Street.
Dey called these types of roads “collector streets” because they tend to collect the traffic that avoids major avenues.
“Most collector streets carry more traffic and tend to have 30 mile-per-hour speed limits, like Sixth and Third streets,” Dey said. “But a 30-mile-per-hour limit doesn’t necessarily change the speed with which people drive.”
This is what Higgins found when it used radar guns to determine the speed at or below which 85 percent of cars would drive at on particular roads.
George Sandoval, 19, is a mechanic and lives with his family on Church Street north of Mantelli Drive, where the city will raise the speed limit from 25 to 30 mph. He said he would worry about children who play up and down the street.
“A lot of kids are around here. I have a little sister and three little brothers,” Sandoval said after a taxi whizzed by just before two young girls ran across Church Street. “I definitely slow down when I come into the neighborhood,” he added before getting into his turquoise Honda and driving off.
Dey said streets such as Sandoval’s are the ones that drivers prefer and, as a result, they have affected average speeds.
“If you’re looking at it from citywide perspective, there are streets fronting homes all over the place, and we have varying speed limits,” Dey said.
Under the California Vehicle Code, cities must set speed limits based on surveys every five years,
Dey said signs would be posted along Monterey Street south of 10th Street to warn motorists to slow down.
But motorists don’t slow down, said Gino Oliveri, co-owner of Pinocchio’s Pizza near the corner of 10th and Monterey Streets who said he welcomes the new 25 mph limit, down from 35 mph.
“People fly by here. They don’t abide by the speed limit, especially at night. Cars go by at 60 miles an hour.”
The new 25 mph speed limit between Eighth and Tenth streets makes the entire downtown corridor from First to 10th a 25 mph zone, a testament to the area’s recent development, Dey said.
“As the corridor develops more and more, then probably the next time we do a survey – if we’ve got enough development – then we’ll reduce the outlying area to 45 mph,” down from the 50 mph it’s at now. “If there’s no development occurring, then there’s no reason to bump down the speed limit.”
