Businesses Fear Higher Boulevard Speed Limit : Thousand Oaks: City mulls a 40-m.p.h. rate. Merchants say potential customers may be discouraged from stopping.

A city proposal to raise the speed limit along Thousand Oaks Boulevard has some merchants worried that their businesses will suffer.

Shoppers already race by, some say, and raising the limit on the boulevard from 35 to 40 m.p.h. might encourage them to hit the gas pedal a little harder.

“You give me more permission, I’m going to take more, you know what I mean?” said Dennis Carlson, owner of Carlson’s Building Materials on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

Carlson and some other business owners reason that the faster the traffic, the harder it is to catch the eye of potential shoppers.

Because of a 1972 state law prohibiting police from setting up speed traps, posted limits must reflect average speeds driven by most drivers. Lawmakers were trying to prevent police from hiding out and issuing tickets whenever a city’s revenues needed boosting.

Traffic studies show that most motorists disregard the 35-m.p.h. signs along Thousand Oaks’ main corridor, zooming along at an average of 43 m.p.h. instead.

City officials say the increase is needed to allow police to enforce the limit with radar guns. Legally, officers are prohibited from staking out areas where they know average speeds are far above posted limits.

Traffic engineers point out that the 85% of people exceeding the speed limit do so because they feel comfortable and safe driving at higher speeds, not because they are wild drivers.

“Studies show a speed limit sign has little effect on what people are driving,” John Helliwell, the city’s traffic engineer, told business owners at a Mayor’s Business Roundtable meeting Thursday. “People will respect signs only if they feel they should.”

Helliwell said that all research indicates that motorists won’t go any faster if the posted limit is raised by 5 m.p.h.

Posting speed limits that are too low makes lawbreakers out of too many drivers, Helliwell said. Around the city, 48 other street segments also are under consideration for revised speed limits. Traffic engineers are expected to recommend revisions to the City Council in March.

Thousand Oaks Police Lt. Mike Brown reassured business owners that changing the signs probably will have no effect on how motorists drive on the boulevard.

“We don’t think we are going to see a big increase in speeding along Thousand Oaks Boulevard if the speed goes up to 40 m.p.h.,” Brown said.

During 1994, officers issued 1,400 moving-violation tickets along the boulevard, but 75% of those were for illegal turns. In general, Brown said, the boulevard is safe, with a collision rate below average for a street with its size and activity. An estimated 20,000 cars travel it daily.

Planning Director Phil Gatch said part of the conflict arises from the fact that Thousand Oaks Boulevard serves two major functions. It is one of only three major east-west arterials through the city and, at the same time, it is the central business district for Thousand Oaks.

If people get frustrated with slow traffic on the boulevard, he said, they might hop on the Ventura Freeway or take Hillcrest Boulevard instead.

“We have businesses that rely on that constant flow of traffic,” Gatch said. “But if you cut traffic down too much, you could hurt business as well.”

Mayor Jaime Zukowski was among those at the meeting who questioned the sense of the 1972 law. She said residents she speaks with are interested in lowering speed limits rather than raising them.

“I’m just really surprised that with so very few cities actually wanting this that there isn’t some unified approach to challenging this law,” Zukowski said.

Jeff Alexander, who owns a feed store on the boulevard, said he was not convinced that drivers wouldn’t start traveling a lot faster.

“I’ve heard the words, but I’m not sold,” he said.

“We are trying to do business on the boulevard, and that requires that our customers feel safe and comfortable,” Alexander said. “And that includes being able to make a right- or left-hand turn easily.”