Speed Limits’ Rise Should Take a Fall

* Re: “Some Speed Limits To Rise,” (March 6): It was quite a shocking and disappointing thing to read that speed limits on primarily residential streets would soon be dictated by drivers, rather than by prudently established criteria.

I live on a street in Anaheim that has been posted as 35 m.p.h. for over 30 years. Our house is within half a block of an elementary school, and the street is posted for a weight limit of 6,000 pounds, yet there is only casual traffic monitoring of speeds, and no enforcement of the weight limit.

Complaints to the Anaheim police are brushed aside with the explanation that they cannot enforce the posted speeds anywhere in Anaheim because the traffic court judges will throw out any citations unless they are 16 m.p.h. over the posted speeds. This, according to the police, also applies to school zones.

I don’t really understand the mathematics of the “fair speed” argument in this light. During the rush periods on our street, these so-called “prudent” drivers would soon push the speed limit to 50 m.p.h., or over. Let’s face it: If left to decide for themselves, the drivers on our streets today will push to the limit of what they can get away with. And what, if we may ask, is “free-flowing traffic” meant to imply? Uncontrolled traffic? We do, as normal human beings, need to be controlled, and in a realistic manner.

RICHARD YOUNG

Anaheim