Drivers, slow down on two Fayetteville thoroughfares.
A proposal last month to decrease the speed limit along South Jeff Davis Drive in Fayetteville by 10 miles per hour ended Oct. 6 with a vote by the City Council to reduce the speed limit by 5 mph and review the matter again in six months.
The Fayetteville City Council on Sept. 15 heard a proposal that would reduce the speed limit on Beauregard Avenue and South Jeff Davis Drive from 45 mph to 35 mph and to continue the expanded school zone along Grady Avenue. The proposal was made by Police Chief Steve Heaton.
The part of the proposal pertaining to South Jeff Davis led to a request by Councilman Al Hovey-King at the September meeting to see the details upon which the recommendation was based.
Heaton at the Oct. 6 meeting presented the results of a traffic analysis showing that approximately 30 percent of the more than 29,000 drivers traveling through the study area on South Jeff Davis were exceeding the speed limit anywhere from 5-30 mph.
Council members were told that the study conducted over a period of 108 hours in July showed that 29,473 vehicles passed through the analysis area traveling at an average speed of 47 mph. Of those, 8,728 were traveling 50-75 mph.
The report also showed 21 traffic accidents with eight injuries on South Jeff Davis during the period of September 2010 through September 2011.
Councilman Walt White after the presentation agreed with Hovey-King’s assessment, noting that he had been told by area residents that lowering the speed limit to 35 mph would be too low. White suggested a compromise that would put the speed limit at 40 mph for the time being and review the matter again in six months.
“That’s a good compromise,” Heaton said.
The vote also lowered the speed limit to 35 mph along Beauregard Avenue and expanded the school zone along Grady Avenue.
The council at the request of Councilman Paul Oddo will also review the Beauregard Avenue speed limit in six months. Oddo suggested that the speed limit in the area of Beauregard Avenue from Apple Orchard to Ramah Road could also benefit from a 40 mph speed limit.
