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Date: 8/30/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Something needs to be done about speeding on local roads, but a blanket 25 mph limit might not be the best solution.
That was the message from several West Springfield residents at a Town Council public hearing on Aug. 21. Councilors are considering adopting a new state law that would allow them to drop the speed limit on most streets to 25 mph. Council President Edward Sullivan said after the hearing that he wants to gather more information from the town’s police and engineering officials, and continue the discussion at the council’s Sept. 19 meeting.
The proposal is a response to recent complaints about speeding on residential roads, and the death of a pedestrian crossing Piper Road last winter, but critics questioned what effect it would have on people who are already violating the existing 30 mph limit.
“To think that people have themselves trained on our roads to do 40-plus mph, and they’re going to knock it down to 25, I think that’s wishful thinking,” said town resident Todd Steglinski. “If [some] people did 25, how’s everybody else going to react? You’re not going to get good compliance. … It’s going to incite road rage. They’re going to be passing, they’re going to be tailgating, there’s going to be a lot of road rage.”
He pointed to the example of Holyoke, which recently instituted a citywide 25 mph speed limit. He said when he crosses the town line from Interstate Drive in West Springfield to Bobala Road in Holyoke, he doesn’t see many drivers slowing down.
The proposed 25 mph limit in West Springfield would apply to any public street maintained by the town in a business district or a “thickly settled” residential area, unless it already has a different posted speed limit. Town Engineer Connor Knightly said the state’s definition of thickly settled encompasses almost every road in town.
Asked what streets would see a reduction from 30 to 25, Knightly said it would be easier to list the streets exempt from the proposal. These include any state-maintained state highway, such as Route 5 and the western portion of Route 20; Ashley Avenue and Baldwin Street (posted 30 mph); Churchill and Harwich roads (already posted 25 mph); Kings Highway (some sections 30 mph, some sections 35 mph); and Piper Road and the downtown section of Westfield Street (posted 35 mph).
Many of the public hearing participants asked not for lower limits, but stricter enforcement of the current speed laws, including the 30 mph limit that applies to most town streets.
“Dropping the limit by 5 mph is just going to make more criminals,” said Don Davidson, a Birnie Avenue resident. He suggested writing more speeding tickets based on the current speed limits.
Prospect Avenue resident Jeanne Wainwright said regardless of what limit is set, the town needs to post more signs and enforce them better. She said she’s been asking for a speed limit sign on her street since 2012, when a speeding car hit her husband on his lawn tractor. She asked again in 2022. In July, she said, her car was totaled on Piper Road when a truck failed to stop at the end of Brush Hill Avenue and collided with her. The driver said he didn’t see the two stop signs, she said.
Knightly said the town plans to install flashing lights on the Brush Hill Avenue stop sign, similar to the lights on the sign at the end of Interstate Drive.
Joyce Corbett, a Piper Road resident who has spoken with the Town Council several times about speeding and traffic volume, said she is encouraged to see the council, mayor and Police Department taking the problem seriously.
“The town is really working hard, not just at the 25 mph [proposal], but they’re looking at traffic calming solutions throughout the town as a whole,” Corbett said. “Prior administrations did very little for our traffic safety and pedestrian safety. … What gives me hope is that we’re heading in the right direction.”
Corbett said the police have stepped up their speed enforcement on Birnie, Dewey and Piper. She said she knows when police are on her street, because she can see and hear Piper Road drivers slow down.
“The quality of our life is so much different when somebody’s doing 30 or 35 rather than 50 or 60,” she said.
Sullivan said West Springfield police this year are writing traffic tickets at two or three times the pace of last year.
But “police can’t be on every corner,” he said.
Christopher Hall, a Dewey Street resident, said speed limit signs won’t work. He said he doesn’t know what the solution is.
“The idea of 25 or 30 is irrelevant until you have something to slow people down,” he said. “If it’s 25 or 30, I don’t think people are going to notice it, because they’re doing 70 on the street. They can’t even read it.”