PLACENTIA : Speed Limit Asked for Orchard Drive

The City Council tonight will consider a request from the Police Department that a speed limit be set for Orchard Drive.

Because there is no posted limit now, drivers can go up to 55 m.p.h. without being ticketed.

City officials say a speed limit was never established because until recently the street existed in one- and two-block segments.

But last year the city finished linking those segments, and the Placentia portion of the street now stretches from Lakeview Avenue on the east to just past Van Buren Street on the west.

Orchard continues for a few blocks east of the city limits to Kellogg Drive.

The city’s traffic engineer has recommended that the speed limit be 30 m.p.h. A recent study shows most cars travel from 23 to 34 m.p.h. on the street.

There is no record of how many motorists exceed that speed because without a posted limit, police can only ticket those who drive faster than 55 m.p.h.

Public Works Director Christopher Becker said that he has received no complaints from residents about speeding but that Orchard is the only street in the city without a posted speed limit.

Last year the city developed the segment between Richfield Road and Highland Avenue.

Though traffic on Orchard, estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 cars a day, has not increased since then, Becker said, residential development planned in the area could change that.