Speed Limit Raised Along Roscoe Blvd.

The City Council on Friday voted to increase the speed limit on sections of Roscoe Boulevard from 35 to 40 m.p.h. to make it easier for police to crack down on speeding drivers.

This seeming paradox stems from a state law saying that police may use radar guns, which police consider to be the most accurate gauge of traffic velocity, only if a speed limit reflects prevailing speeds.

In December, 1993, the city conducted a speed study on Roscoe Boulevard in Van Nuys between Balboa Boulevard and Haskell Avenue and in West Hills between Jason Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard. The study found that prevailing speeds warranted increasing the limit to 40 m.p.h. so that the city could begin using radar for enforcement.

“These things always sound backwards in a sense,” said Ken Bernstein, an aide to Councilwoman Laura Chick, who supported the limit increase. “The only way to get solid traffic enforcement in an area is to allow radar testing to be done, and to do that you have to set a realistic speed limit.”

The 1972 state law was intended to ensure that cities and police do not conspire to set up speed traps, where radar-toting officers lurk along streets with artificially low speed limits and issue a large number of tickets.

But Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., said increasing the speed limit is the wrong way to deal with the problem.

“They are going in the wrong direction,” he said. “If they increase the speed limit, it’s going to be even more dangerous.”

Schultz said he is particularly concerned about people speeding eastbound on Roscoe between Balboa and Hayvenhurst Avenue, where the road curves. Poor visibility has caused a number of accidents between cars traveling on Roscoe and drivers entering or exiting a home-supply store along that stretch, Schultz said.