BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
A group of residents concerned about cars speeding along Prospect Avenue asked the Little Silver Borough Council Monday to lower the speed limit on the busy roadway.
Kathleen Mancini-Ferrigno, who lives on Prospect Avenue, asked that the speed limit be lowered from 35 to 25 mph.
She said that John Cheevers, Kings Road, chair of the borough’s Traffic Safety Committee, did the research for her presentation.
Mancini-Ferrigno and a group of residents have gone door-to-door collecting signatures of people who support lowering the speed limit. They have collected 166 signatures so far, she said.
Mancini-Ferrigno also said constructing sidewalks along Prospect Avenue would help the dangerous situation. She told the council she believes that many residents who live on Prospect Avenue would not mind giving up a few feet of property for the sidewalks.
Borough Administrator Michael Biehl said that sidewalks would only be feasible on the west side of the street.
“What history has always said is that residents on Prospect did not want sidewalks,” said Biehl, who used to live on the street. “But I will defer to a more recent survey.”
Cheevers also spoke about his concerns about Prospect Avenue.
“Drivers take advantage of our beautiful, straight, tree-lined streets,” he said. “The Traffic Safety Committee will support any effort to make the town safer.”
Mayor Suzanne Castleman was receptive to the request.
“You don’t have to sell me, because I know how bad Prospect Avenue is, as well as other streets,” Castleman said.
Several residents brought up how unsafe they feel when walking along Prospect Avenue with their children to go to Sickles Park
“I walk to Sickles Park every day,” said Lisa Walsh, Silverton Avenue, “and I totally divert from Prospect because it is so dangerous.”
Matthew Dodds, Church Street, said he supports having a 25 mph speed limit on every road in the entire borough.
“The town is only 1 mile wide,” Dodds said. “There is no reason for speed limits in the borough to be over 25 mph, anywhere.”
Castleman reminded him that there is a bureaucratic process that must be followed to change the speed limits on roads, and that there are county roads that run through the town over which the borough has no control.
“The DOT [state Department of Transportation] is backed up to 2002 with applications to change speed limits,” said Castleman. “And we would have to wait for their approval before we could enforce it.”
She agreed that there are too many cars going too fast on streets that are too narrow.
Little Silver Police Chief William Wikoff was present for the meeting and had some words of caution for the crowd.
“We can’t allow requests for changing speed limits that are based on emotions,” he said, “They can’t be based on anything but engineering studies and traffic studies. I, myself, don’t see why the speed limit has to be lowered at this time, but I am willing to discuss it.”
Cheevers also said he spoke with the DOT and he might have found a way for the borough to lower the speed limit on Prospect Avenue without going through all the bureaucratic channels.
Cheevers said he spoke to Biehl, who told him there is no ordinance in place setting the speed limit on Prospect Avenue. Biehl confirmed there was none that he knew of.
According to DOT spokesman Marc Lavorgna, if there is no ordinance setting the speed limit in a residential area — which the state defines as a street that is at least half lined with homes — the municipality has the right to set the speed limit without engineering or traffic studies.
“If there is no ordinance, then the speed limit was never 35,” Lavorgna said in an interview on Tuesday. “They just have signs that say 35. If they want to lower the speed limit, they would just be changing the signs.”
Councilman Declan O’Scanlon said he is worried about setting arbitrary speed limits in the town.
“There is a difference between changing speed limits and changing the way people drive,” O’Scanlon said. “If you set arbitrary speed limits, people will start losing respect for all speed limits.”
“Speed limits don’t dictate the speed at which people drive,” he said. “They reflect the speed at which people drive.”
Michael Metlitz, Prospect Avenue, said he does not believe lowering the speed limit on the road is the answer. Instead, he said more enforcement of the speed limit already in place is needed.
O’Scanlon said he has seen the records of police traffic stops.
“People are getting pulled over,” he said.
Castleman said she would like to see the speed limit lowered but believes that just lowering the speed limit will not keep people safer.
She said she would like to see sidewalks put in. She asked Mancini-Ferrigno to speak to the people who live on the west side of Prospect Avenue, from Crest Drive north, and find out how many people would support having sidewalks.
The council also agreed to look into whether or not an ordinance would be necessary to change the speed limit on Prospect Avenue since there is no ordinance on the books setting the speed limit at 35 mph.