The Board of Selectmen has been continually told that there is not much of a practical nature that we can do to have slower traffic, except greater police enforcement.
To set an official speed limit, I have historically been told we have to do a traffic study with Mass Highway and set the speed limit at 85% of what everyone is actually driving. However, I followed Christian’s link and now see that the state’s materials actually say we can set the speed limit 7 MPH less than the 85% level, and that extra 7 MPH may well make it work. The danger at the 85% level mandated by Mass Highway is that the speed limit determined may actually be higher than the 30 MPH speed designated for an unposted thickly settled area – i.e. – sometimes it is better to not have a posted speed limit, because the posted speed limit will be higher.
There are a multitude of traffic calming techniques that are supposed to work – e.g – fog lines painted on the sides of roads to visually narrow the street, elevated pedestrian crossings, indentations into the street like on Rte 16 in Wellesley, round abouts like in Norfolk, and speed bumps. I am told that Ken Feeney does not like speed bumps because of the plowing issues, and I have witnessed that Mike Sullivan has generally opposed them. I have heard Ann say several times that everyone will want the speed bumps in front of their own homes, but not where they drive, and that can be a problem. The Chief recounts how after the speed bumps were installed in Dover the neighbors soon wanted them out because of the noise generated by the bouncing truck loads as they went over the bumps.
When the Board of Selectmen studied speeding on Indian Hill Road, the registration numbers of vehicles and their speeds were recorded, and it was determined that it was indeed we Medfield residents who were the ones doing the speeding.
In Safety Committee discussions over speeding on Knollwood Road, the suggestion was made by a resident who is a police officer in a neighboring town to post yellow, unofficial speed limit signs as they do where he works – unofficial because they have not gone through the process to determine if 85% of the drivers actually drive slower. I thought that technique was worth pursuing. Interestingly, the Knollwood Road speeding was solved by the Chief speaking with the headmaster of the Xaverian School.
I believe that any citizen generated issues would be best addressed via a petition to or appearance at Christian’s Safety Committee.
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