HUNTINGTON BEACH : Council to Set Speed Limits on 2 Streets

The City Council on Tuesday will try once again to set permanent speed limits on two busy streets that children use on their way to school.

The council usually convenes on Mondays but this week will meet on Tuesday because of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday today.

A controversy over speed limits began last August when city traffic engineers, after making a radar speed survey of traffic on the streets, raised speed limits on sections of Brookhurst Street to 50 and 55 m.p.h. and on Bushard Street to 50 m.p.h.

Parents and school officials protested, claiming that the higher speed limits endangered children.

Huntington Beach City School District Supt. Duane Dishno said that in the last two years four district schoolchildren have been struck and injured by vehicles, three of them on Bushard.

Heeding the concerns, the City Council in October lowered the speed limits to 45 m.p.h. on both streets. But the issue is going back to the City Council again because members failed to pass the measure last October in the form of an ordinance, officials said.

City Traffic Engineer Jim Otterson said Friday that surveys continue to show that higher speeds should be posted. He is recommending that the City Council take that action.

Council members acknowledge that they are caught in a dilemma. While surveys show the speeds should be 50 and 55 m.p.h., they said, they are sure that parents and school officials will vigorously oppose the increase.

City traffic engineers set speed limits by using radar to measure the speeds of 100 or more vehicles.

Cities must set the posted speed at that which 85% of the vehicles drive if they are to use radar as a traffic enforcement device, officials said.