Sunday, April 09, 2006

Signs could be better

Get in your car, and proceed toward Commonwealth Avenue from The Plaza. Turn right at the stop sign, toward Pecan. A few yards after you do you’ll see a speed limit sign: 30 mph. Now between The Plaza and Pecan on Commonwealth is about one-tenth of a mile. You certainly can reach 30 mph on that stretch, but why would you?
Now turn left from Commonwealth onto Pecan, toward our fair neighborhood. You’ll go almost three-tenths of a mile before you see the first speed limit sign: 25 mph sign.
I am glad Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are targeting speeders on this street. People drive way too fast on Pecan -- you know who you are. But I do think another sign is in order for the people coming off Commonwealth who might think the speed limit is 30, as it is on Commonwealth, or 35, which I believe is the city-wide speed limit (unless otherwise posted). I assume police aren’t stopping folks doing 30 mph. I assume they have enough business nabbing the leadfoots. But the proper speed limits here could be better displayed.
And no, I haven't been stopped.


2 comments:

John McBride said...

Your best bet is to attend an ECA meeting (second Tuesday each month) if you haven't already. Talk to Brad Miller, the ECA traffic committee chair. Find out what if anything the ECA has asked the city to do about Pecan and go from there. I'm sure most of us would support four-way stops and speed bumps. (If they can have them on Laurel, we ought to have them on Pecan.) Once you figure out what's been attempted so far and where the ECA stands on the issue and what strange rules the city has, you'll have a better idea how to proceed. Also, if you're attending the Progressive Dinner Saturday night, you'll no doubt run across ECA movers and shakers. Good luck and welcome to Elizabeth!

Anonymous said...

Good luck with that one. We've been trying to slow down traffic (and the city busses) on E. 5th Street for years. In going through with this, we found out that when the speed bumps were put in on Laural, the fire dept, police, etc., raised cane (due to slowing their responses/its proximity to hospital). It caused major grief and now everything like that takes an act of congress, so we were to understand. Even 4 way or 3 way stops are hard to get enacted now. The only thing they told us they could do was to have cars parked on both sides of the street to slow traffic down. They did take the signs down and you can park on both sides. When there are enough cars parked on each side, it is slowed, otherwise, it's bus and car races each day...