Sanders
CLAYTON — City council passed three resolutions to reduce the speed limit on three roads at its July 18 meeting.
Speed studies were conducted for five roads, according to Randy Sanders, public service director. Two of the roads came back with “no change necessary” rulings, one of which was Haber Road and the other National Road.
The other three came back with recommended reductions in the speed limit. One of the main considerations that resulted in a reduced speed limit was crashes, especially for Main Street.
The first resolution reduced the speed limit to 35 mph on Main Street (State Route 48) from Greenview Drive north to the end of the corporation limit in front of Meijer.
“Just in that very short stretch, basically one block and that does include the Garber Road intersection, it is the south entrance of Meijer where most of the crashes took place,” Sanders said. “You know what that is like trying to hang a left or right out of there during busy times.”
Sanders noted that there were 38 crashes in that block during the four year study period.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with speed though Randy. If somebody is pulling out in front of me it doesn’t matter how fast, I am going still going to hit them, even if it’s 20 mph,” said Vice Mayor Tim Gorman.
Sanders agreed but stressed that there are a lot of crashes in the 100 block area mainly due to the south entrance of Meijer which does not have a traffic light like the north entrance.
“That’s one of the things we are working on as part of our Main Street project for a possibility of having a right turn in and right turn out only for that entrance / exit, so that would solve some of those issues, but again I think it is the only area with a 35 mph limit on one end with 45 mph in our section only,” Sanders said.
“When they did the speed study, because of the traffic between the hospital and that area in front of Meijer and where the restaurants are, was the worst section,” Sanders added.
City Manager Amanda Zimmerlin said the city talked to the engineers that conducted the traffic study and suggested that the speed limit be set at 35 mph all the way to the Westbrook Road intersection, but it took a little bit of an effort to convince the engineers to extend the 35 mph zone just to Greenview Drive.
She noted the engineers felt that since there was no development taking place along that stretch there was nothing to warrant lowering the speed limit to 35 all the way to Westbrook.
Councilman Greg Merkle said he has stood near the intersection of Westbrook and Main and has watched cars zip through that intersection going a lot faster than 45 mph. His father, the late Art Merkle, used to own a drug store on the northeast corner of the intersection.
“I’ve seen people coming down Main Street heading north miss the intersection, jump the curb and end up in the creek,” Merkle said.
Sanders agreed that there have been a quite a few crashes at that intersection as well.
Mayor Mike Stevens felt that because of the speed study and the recommendations, council should vote to lower the speed limit as suggested.
“I go back to many conversations I’ve had with chief; the lower the speed limit the lower the crashes and the lower the severity of the crashes,” Stevens stated.
Council pass the resolution to lower the speed limit on Main Street in the designated area by a 5-2 vote with Ryan Farmer and Ken Henning, Jr., voting against it.
A second resolution reduced the speed limit on Garber Road from 40 to 35 mph from Westbrook Road to Main Street. Council voted unanimously to pass the resolution.
A third resolution reduced the speed limit to 35 mph on Westbrook Road 0.37 miles west of Salem Avenue to Main Street while also reducing the speed limit to 45 mph on Westbrook from Diamond Mill Road to 0.37 miles west of Salem Avenue.
Council unanimously pass the resolution.
In a related matter, the city was notified by the city engineer that there is potential for full funding to place a roundabout at the intersection of Hoke and Westbrook roads.
“We have been in discussions with the city of Trotwood to split the engineering costs for the application for that and they are agreeable,” Zimmerlin said. “They are also agreeable since half of the road does belong to the city of Trotwood to change the speed limit to 35 in the section we are changing it to 35 and to 45 in the sections we are changing to 45 so that it will be the same on both sides of the road.”
If the roundabout would come to fruition, the speed limit in that portion of Westbrook Road would most likely be reduced to 35 mph, Zimmerlin noted.
Sanders added that the city for at least 10 years has been pushed by Trotwood to install a traffic light at Hoke and Westbrook.
“We know how dangerous that intersection is with the school, Caterpillar and all the stuff going on,” Sanders said. “This was an opportunity that we didn’t feel like we should pass up if it’s offered, because it is 100 percent paid for and that includes engineering and construction engineering which is very unusual. The state apparently has a lot of money for roundabouts.”
Reach Ron Nunnari at (937) 684-9124 or email [email protected].
