Neil Avenue Speed Limit Might Get Raised to 35 MPH

[byJody]

@titleist just because you could squeeze a bike lane in does not make it a good idea. Most bike advocates prefer sharrows over door zone bike lanes that you are suggesting. If it was a cycle track or protected bike lane, that is an upgrade, but a stripe of paint in a door zone sucks. Sharrows are better. At least they are semi helpful.

[Graybeak]

Temporary 25 mph speed-limit signs have been in place on parts of Neil, King, 3rd and 5th avenues in the Victorian Village and Harrison West neighborhoods since 1995, but the city hasn’t been able to legally enforce them since 2003.

Columbus police usually do not ticket drivers for the posted speed limit there, though it is possible officers unfamiliar with the area might enforce the signs, said Jeff Furbee, the city’s police legal adviser.

25 MPH Speed Limit Just Wrong

[Rockmastermike]

Graybeak said:
Temporary 25 mph speed-limit signs have been in place on parts of Neil, King, 3rd and 5th avenues in the Victorian Village and Harrison West neighborhoods since 1995, but the city hasn’t been able to legally enforce them since 2003.

Columbus police usually do not ticket drivers for the posted speed limit there, though it is possible officers unfamiliar with the area might enforce the signs, said Jeff Furbee, the city’s police legal adviser.

25 MPH Speed Limit Just Wrong

lol yeah. the speed limit already IS 35 they were just hoping nobody would notice.

[Walker Evans]

So the Dispatch stance is that the speed limit needs to be raised because some guy got a ticket for speeding through there once?

[Rockmastermike]

Walker said:
So the Dispatch stance is that the speed limit needs to be raised because some guy got a ticket for speeding through there once?

did you actually read the article?

no. they report that the speed has legally secretly been 35 the whole time, the 25mph limit is not legally enforceable, and that folks, including the City, are trying to now get it legally lowered.

Cordetti said the city plans to ask ODOT to permanently reduce the speed limit to 30 mph on King and W. 3rd between Olentangy River Road and High Street and on Neil between Goodale Street and King Avenue after completing speed studies last year.

“The signs, as they’re posted, are not enforceable so most officers have not been proactive in enforcing that 25 mph speed limit,” said Amanda Ford, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety.

The Short North Civic Association has asked the city to set the limit at 25 mph, said Jeff Smith, the organization’s president. The association will have a public meeting to discuss the change at 6:30 p.m. Monday at 120 W. Goodale St.

go to the meeting if you want to support the effort.

This is a mess that needs to be cleaned up. HAS needed to be cleaned up for a decade. non-legal signage and unenforcible unofficial speed limits for a full decade now is not acceptable behavior.

[byJody]

Columbus Dispatch, Letter to the Editor, 1/11/14

35 MPH FOR THE SHORT NORTH? NOT SO FAST

The article “25 mph speed limit just wrong,” in Sunday’s Dispatch,notes that the Ohio Department of Transportation years ago revoked the city of Columbus’ authority to post a “temporary” 25 mph limit on Neil, King, 5th and 3rd avenues in the Short North, although the invalid “temporary” signs remain in place.

READ MORE:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2014/01/11/35-mph-for-the-short-north-not-so-fast.html

[ehill27]

Amen!

[Rockmastermike]

given the city, the short north association and everyone else appears to hate the idea of posting it back to 35 I seriously doubt (and have doubted from the start) that it would happen. Kudos to folks for making noise about it.

This should have been done a decade ago! The way it stands now, folks can drive fast on the street and can’t even get legally ticketed and have it stand up in court. And even up to (if I recall the law correctly) 40 it’s only a single point so no cop is going to bother.

[byJody]

Bump: Public Meeting Tonight at 6:30 pm at the Goodale Park Shelter House

[Tom Over]

byJody said:
Bump: Public Meeting Tonight at 6:30 pm at the Goodale Park Shelter House

Thanks Jody, prolly’ll miss it to be at a time bank orientation at Whetstone Library scheduled for 7pm. Please bring up the point that lower speed limits are, generally, causally associated with fewer accidents and injuries, better fuel efficiency, and are more in tune with Columbus being a cyclist-friendly city (and hopefully friendlier toward the skaters and folk in wheelchairs too.) Consider how various cities, including Upper Arlington, are installing road diets. There’s one on Brandon Rd near Lane, for example.

[GreatOutdoors]

I was riding the #7 up Neil Ave this morning, and noticed that signs for a 30 MPH speed limit have been put up. There was also one of those “your speed is…” electronic signs in the vicinity of 5th.

[Caleb]

New speed limit signs posted in Victorian Village, Harrison West
Signs corrected to reflect higher limits, but police will be keeping close watch
By Rick Rouan
The Columbus Dispatch • Tuesday April 8, 2014 7:33 AM

The “temporary” signs that posted the wrong speed limit in parts of Victorian Village and Harrison West for the past decade have been replaced.

A week ago today, city workers replaced 25-mph signs with 30-mph signs on parts of Neil, King and 3rd avenues and put up 35-mph signs on a stretch of 5th Avenue.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/04/08/back-up-to-speed.html

[goldenidea]

From the above-linked Dispatch article:

“City engineers will conduct another set of speed studies this year to determine whether vehicles have slowed down enough to lower the limit to 25 mph again, Tilton said.”

What does this mean?? That they’ll (re)lower the speed limit IF speed drops first, without that lower limit? How likely is it that this would happen? Perhaps those wanting to reclaim a 25mph limit could flood Neil with cars driven by people who crawl along intentionally at say 15mph to lower the average speed?

[Author]

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