Want a lower speed limit in our neighborhood?

The city is now allowing neighborhoods to request that their speed limit be lowered from 30 mph to 25 mph. To accomplish this, a petition must be signed by 75% of the residents of the neighborhood. Limberlost Acres has 68 houses, so that would be 51 signatures required. Once approved, the city would post signs at our entrances, although the association would have to pay for the signs at approximately $50 a piece.

Anyone interested in petitioning for a lower speed limit is asked to contact Scott Naltner. Scott is not organizing the effort, but would simply put those interested in contact with each other so that there would be no duplication of effort. Scott may be reached at snaltner@theallianceonline.com

For more information, call the city’s trafic engineering office at 427-1172.

Following is an article from the Journal Gazette about this issue:

Published: September 9, 2010 3:00 a.m.
City to allow speed-limit petitions

Benjamin Lanka | The Journal Gazette
Fort Wayne neighborhoods can now require drivers to go slower when traveling their streets.

The Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved an amendment to the city’s street-calming policy to allow residents to petition to have neighborhood street speed limits lowered to 25 mph.

Gina Kostoff, board chairwoman, said the change will help people who feel traffic is unsafe in their neighborhood.

“We do get a lot of complaints about traffic going through very quickly,” she said.

Under state law, vehicles on any city street without a posted speed limit must follow a 30 mph limit. In Fort Wayne, most neighborhood streets have no speed limit signs, making 30 mph the default.

Councilwoman Karen Goldner, D-2nd, suggested lowering all neighborhood streets to 25 mph, but such a change would cost the city about $300,000 in new signs.

Shan Gunawardena, city traffic engineer, said state law allows the city to lower any speed limits to 25 mph without conducting a traffic study, which is why that new limit was selected.

Residents or neighborhoods who want to take advantage of the new policy must petition his office and obtain signatures from 75 percent of all property owners. For more information, call the city’s trafic engineering office at 427-1172.

Residents asking for the change would be responsible for paying for the signs, which Gunawardena estimated at $50 each. The city would install the signs.

Goldner said the new policy is a good compromise because it gives residents the opportunity to lower speeds and spares the city additional costs.

She said the petitions don’t have to come from an official neighborhood organization but can come from any resident.

The policy applies only to neighborhood streets, not residential areas on collector streets such as Fairfield or Vance avenues. Neighborhood streets are typically the last to get snow removal.