SIMI VALLEY : City Seeking Ways to Slow Speeders

The only way to make Royal Avenue in Simi Valley safer is to get drivers to slow down, city officials say.

The catch is that no one is sure how to do that.

The City Council hoped its decision Monday night to prohibit parking and to install turn lanes along portions of the street would make Royal Avenue safer, but homeowners along the street demanded that the council do something to slow the traffic down.

Residents said that at peak driving times, they cannot pull out of their driveways because of the speeding traffic.

And many said they fear for the safety of children playing in their front yards.

Over the last 20 years, traffic on the residential street has jumped from about 6,000 cars a day to about 21,000, city officials said.

Although the speed limit is 45 m.p.h., even Police Department officials concede that many drivers travel the east-west route through the city at highway speeds.

Mayor Greg Stratton told the homeowners that the city would consider installing more street lights along the route and demand that the Police Department begin pulling over speeders, but reducing the speed limit was not an option.

Stratton also said that more drastic measures--such as closing off the parts of the road, which was suggested by council member Sandi Webb--were unwise.

“That would only offend the 22,000 people that use that street every day,” Stratton said.

The city plans to set up a series of meetings in the coming months to search for other ideas on how to slow traffic on the route.