SNOHOMISH — Slowing cars on north Pine Avenue might be hard to do, but it’s exactly what frustrated neighbors hope to see.
Drivers are using the street as a quick route to jump over to Park Avenue, which turns and connects to Highway 9 at King Charley’s. This behavior began after north Pine was paved, neighbor Casey McLaughlin said.
Eighty neighbors petitioned the city to lower the limit.
Instead of the posted 25 mph, some neighbors estimate cars fly by at 45. And the residents who go the speed limit get tailed and bullied by other drivers to go faster, Gary Fagerness said.
The city will institute a 20 mph limit on Pine Avenue north of 16th Street. It’s being floated as a test to see if other neighborhood streets should get reduced speed limits, city engineer Yosh Monzaki said at last week’s council meeting.
However, lowering the limit won’t change drivers’ behaviors without enforcement, Councilman Steve Dana said.
That’s tough, too. The Police Department doesn’t have the capacity to conduct constant enforcement along Pine, Police Chief Keith Rogers said. However, lowering the limit could cost speeders higher fines when caught, Rogers noted, since they might now be going 35 mph in a 20 zone versus 35 in a 25.
The concerns from Pine residents echoed into a few comments to reduce all the town’s roads by five miles per hour, which Avenue A resident Jakeb Elton suggested.
Dana suggested speed bumps along Pine, which prompted council members to weigh in. The jolts annoy drivers and some people accelerate between speed bumps to make up for lost time, council members said.
Mayor John Kartak doesn’t like them, saying they’re “just not fun to go over.” (“Slow down,” Dana mouthed in response as Kartak spoke.)
“As long as I’m mayor, speed bumps will be treated as a last resort” on traffic issues, Kartak said.
One thing the city can’t do is needlessly add stop signs. Traffic engineering standards say this is unacceptable, said city administrator Steve Schuller, who spent six years as Snohomish’s public works director.
The 20 mph signage is coming to north Pine Avenue this summer.
The council does not approve speed limit changes. The Pine Avenue speed limit change was put before council to let them evaluate it, Monzaki said in an interview.
Both Councilman Tom Merrill and Councilwoman Linda Redmon said speeds along Pine Avenue was the area’s No. 1 complaint each heard while campaigning.
