City Questions the Need for Speed

Here’s something authorities don’t hear everyday.

A local resident is requesting the city raise the speed limit on Beaumont Avenue, said Jeff Peterson, Associate Engineer with the City of Loma Linda.

It’s more common for people to express concern that speed limits are too high, he said.

“But this gentleman feels the speed limit on Beaumont is too low,” Peterson said.

He identified the man only as a retired law-enforcement official. Peterson said the man has pointed out, and correctly so, that the 35 mph speed limit along that street should be higher based on a 2007 city commissioned speed survey.

Cities survey the speeds of free flowing traffic on their streets every five years. Speeds are normally set according to how fast 85 percent of traffic is flowing. Beaumont’s traffic averaged 47 miles an hour. That meant the city could have set the limit in that range unless there were compelling reasons that need to be noted in the survey.

No reasons were noted, Peterson said.

Still, the entire stretch of Beaumont, from Mountain View Avenue east to the railroad tracks, is 35 mph. The council chose the speed out of concern for runners, walkers, joggers and cyclists that they know regularly use the road.

“The council knows there is pedestrian traffic here, especially on (weekends),” Peterson said. “Why the survey did not pick that up is unknown.”

But lowering the speed limits Loma Linda Police’s enforcement along the street. Any citation issued can be effectively argued in court because the limit is set so low, officials said.

“We don’t use radar on the street,” said Loma Linda Police officer Mark Addy during a recent Traffic Advisory Committee meeting. “We issue warnings not citations.”

It will be up to the council to decide to raise the limit.

The committee decided Thursday they will look at the speed limit on Beaumont after the next speed survey, which is scheduled for next year.