By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com
WHITMAN – Changing a speed limit sign is not going to solve the problem concerning traffic along Auburn street police officials say.
A traffic study requested by a resident on the speeds along Auburn Street last year saw the Whitman Police concentrate on four locations along the roadway, according to Chief Timothy Hanlon in a recent report to the Select Board. The locations were along a stretch from Washington Street to the Brockton line.
“We do traffic enforcement all over town,” he said. “Sometimes it’s by request, sometimes it’s by necessity.”
Posted speed limits on that section of road are between 40 and 45. It is not considered a thickly settled district.
He gave a location on Temple Street after an overhead light that “everyone was complaining about,” as an example. “[DPW Superintendent] Bruce Martin got that posted as a school zone and then we went from there and did our best to add those traffic signals that identify it as a school zone and we’ve been doing traffic enforcement up there because it’s changed.”
Hanlon said he was aware that residents were among those asking that the speed limit be lowered on Auburn Street in the interest of pedestrian safety as he reported the study’s findings about the roadway that is also state Route 14, to the Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 9.
“Often MassDOT is asked to address special speed limit concerns by simply changing speed limit signs,” Hanlon quoted from the mass.gov website. “Research and experience, though, have taught us that changing the posted speed limit alone does not typically change the way people drive – at least, not by itself.”
His conclusion was that state officials would not likely favor reducing speeds in the area.
The last traffic study of Auburn Street was done in 2008-09, Hanlon said.
“They didn’t find much of a deviance,” he said. “The 85th percentile of the speed was 45 miles an hour and, based on what the speed limits are … between 40 and 45 miles an hour, that’s where they want to be.”
Select Board member Shawn Kain said he would like to see something done to help the Auburnville population.
For Whitman Police, that would come down to enforcement.
Hanlon said he had additional questions – about a section of Auburn Street east of Bedford Street, which showed the only real deviation, going from the 85th percentile of 38 miles an hour in 2004 to 45 miles an hour; the timing of previous studies and whether there is a specific threshhold for reducing the speeds along Auburn Street.
“They’re not exactly sure what the cause of that is,” he said. “It could be that the traffic counter was placed in a slightly different spot to register a different speed, depending upon how far down in that area that it was placed.”
Hanlon said the exact placement of previous traffic counters was evidently not recorded.
The earliest study he found was conducted in 2004 and others were done in 2008 and 2009, on traffic in both directions. There was also no specific speed threshold.
“If the cars were going a lot faster, would you want to drop it down, and the answer to that is no,” Hanlon said. “This location does have existing special speed limits and that does make it more difficult to change the speed limit, as the existing state law would have to be repealed first.”
After researching the matter on the ma.gov website, Hanlon found that lower posted speed limits “don’t affect driver behavior that much on their own.”
“It’s in combination with other things, like traffic enforcement, and we really haven’t done any traffic enforcement up there since the construction has taken place,” he said. “There was no need for it up there because the roads were all dug up, and now that it’s done, it’s let’s see how this process is going to play out.”
Whitman Police can, however, make enforcement a priority on their own, according to Hanlon.
“We’ve been running radar in various locations, one of which is Raynor Avenue,” he said. “We can slow people down while we’re there and then, when we adjust as necessary, but we can’t be everywhere all the time, so we have to decide where we’re going to do traffic enforcement and go from there.”