Slow down, Flagler Beach: the City Commission on Thursday voted 4-1 to drop the citywide speed limit to 20, from a variety of higher speeds–30 along some streets, 25 along others. Speeds along State Road A1A and State Road 100 will remain at 25.
The 20 mph speed limit will apply only to city roads. State Road 100 and State Road A1A will remain at 25 or higher in the city, John Anderson Highway and Roberts Road, which have speeds of up to 45, will not be affected. By law, police may not ticket a driver who breaks the speed limit by 5 miles per hour or less, so the effective speed limit in the city will be 25.
The unanswered questions are twofold: whether, and to what extent, the Flagler Beach Police Department will be able to enforce what for many residents and visitors will be a significantly lower speed limit than they’re used to, and what sign that may send visitors who may end up with traffic tickets more expensive than a dinner at Next Door Bistro or The Anchor. And how much changing the signs will cost the city.
When Palm Coast considered lowering its speed limit from 30 to 25 on its 550 miles of streets, city staff estimated the cost in signage alone at $1.6 million. Sign-changing costs were never discussed during the Flagler Beach commission’s debates. (The city manager said a cost for changing 50 signs will be calculated by early next week.)
“You can change speed limit to two and a half miles an hour, and if as a city it’s not enforced, or not enforced to the degree it needs to be, changing the speed limit will not get us anywhere. And that’s the concern I have,” Commissioner Eric Cooley said.
The city commissioned a study from a consultant to determine what would be the best speed limit in town. The consultant put that number at 20. That, plus various safety concerns, the lack of sidewalks and agreement on the commission about the character of the city as a walkable, street-sharing city, swayed commissioners toward the same number, even though all agree that it’s a steep change. There’s a sense on the commission of wanting to take back some control over the city’s pace.
“When I’m out is the car, and this happens all the time, they are doing probably more than 40 when they’re they’re going by,” Cooley said. He did not say who “they” are. “I’ll be out walking the dog, work in the yard, just in the kitchen, looking out the window and somebody’s flying by. Now, obviously our police can’t be everywhere. However, the focus is on different things, bringing change in behavior. So the rationale behind the 20 is golf carts are ordinance-limited to 20. Bicycles, they tend to stay below 20. Pedestrians, certainly. But if we can get everybody closer to one uniform speed limit, the safer you’re going to be. I’m all about data, and if the study recommended 20, then I feel confident with going with that, even though there’s a lot of people that would rather have 25, and those people are probably the ones doing 40.”
Cooley thought changing the limit from 30 to 25 would just be a costly sign-change that would not make much difference on the streets. He said with the influx of visitors and the city being built up, it is no longer the city it was 30 years ago, warranting a change in pace.
Commissioner Rick Belhumeur, who opposed the 20 limit, preferring 25, said the focus should be on uniformity in speed limits. He’s had a golf cart less than a year. He’s logged 2,200 miles on it already. It goes no faster than 25. He goes at that speed, but slows down when he encounters people walking their dog or with a baby carriage, or simply walking along. “I think most of our locals do that,” he said. “But if you’re going to change it to 20 miles an hour, you’re going to have that same idiot” going at the faster speeds, “whereas I think it’s going to frustrate some of the locals, dropping the speed limit 10 miles an hour.” He said that would create a sense of frustration among locals.
Mayor Patti King favored the 20. She said 25 matches A1A, yielding no benefit to people changing their driving habits. To Commissioner James Sherman, the city is all about sharing the road, which should mean uniformity in speeds–and encouraging drivers who want to go a bit faster to take A1A.
Commission Chair Scott Spradley has been of two minds on the issue. He’s been asking those who attend his weekly town hall what they’d prefer. The 25 has tended to win. But Spradley gives weight to different ideas. His colleagues on the commission have swayed him to his conclusion. “Where I have finally landed on this is that differential, the safety aspect of it,” he said, “combined with giving a disincentive to jump off A1A onto the interior roads has me leaning towards 20, even though I know there’ll be some fresh frustration with that. But for me, the balance is a little frustration here versus safety overall.”
“well, now you killed it for me. I was going to agree with Eric,” Commissioner Jane Mealy said, laughing: the seemingly immutable rift valley between Cooley and Mealy has become one of the commission’s standards, though they do agree with each other more than they let on. “We did ask a professional to do a study,” she said, a study that scientifically measuring what the speed should be. Mealy lives on Lambert Avenue., where the consultant is proposing that additional measures be considered, such as speed bumps, because Lambert is a “different animal”–a street with no stop signs.
The few residents who spoke were supportive of going 20. “It’s what the data supports. It’s what would provide for the safest streets, which you said you want,” one resident said. “I agree with those of you who said it helps define who we are. We are fun, we are walkable, we are a place people want to be. And we’re going to be in good company when we do this, the Villages US military bases and the entire nation of the United Kingdom encourage 20 mile an hour speed limits.” (In fact, while that may be true of Wales, it is not true of the United Kingdom, where uniform street speed limits are 30 mph.)
Leann Koch, a Flagler Beach resident of 33 years, was also appreciative as “someone who our whole family bikes, walks, roller skates, everything on the back street,” she said. “We appreciate your consideration in lowering the speed limit, not to 25 but to 20. We’ve got cats, kids, dogs, coyotes in the neighborhood. We have employees speeding down the roads to get to the two restaurants in our neighborhood. And I clocked one. I was on A1A going 42 one day, and I noticed, boom, this vehicle was doing the same on the back street on North Central, going 42 miles an hour.”
