Missoula City Government
Council Discusses Speed Limits
By Robert Struckman, 12-01-08
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Update: The Missoula City Council voted Monday night 7-5 to increase, slightly, the emphasis of council input on speed limit changes. The alteration more or less skirted the broader issue discussed below, about whether speed limits should be set by city workers or by the council members. The new wording allows the Public Works Department to change speed limits on city streets with the approval of the council. The issue arose after speed limits rose on a short section of Duncan Drive in the Rattlesnake neighborhood.
Who sets speed limits?
The Missoula City Council will hold a public hearing on how fast you can drive and other ways the city limits the way Missoulians get around by car this evening at its weekly meeting starting at 7 p.m. at the council chambers, 140 W. Pine St.
Recent changes to the speed limit on Duncan and Greenough drives in the Rattlesnake neighborhood have prompted the scrutiny. One issue is who should be setting limits, and how those should be done. Are signs enough? City engineers say no. Speed limits that contradict the engineering of the street and the needs of drivers will result in constant infractions. On the other hand, what happens when city engineers make a change that’s unpopular in the neighborhood?
Councilman Dick Haines of Ward 5 said Public Works employees should make decisions like this, as technical expertise is required. “It shouldn’t be a political decision,” he said, likening the situation to one in which a politician imposes his will on what medical treatment a patient might receive.
“It’s about restriking the balance between policy and technical guidance, if it’s appropriate,” said Ward 1 Councilman Jason Wiener, who also said he didn’t want to make speed limit questions into fodder for political debate.
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Comments
The discussion has always focused on safety, mostly for people alongside on bikes or foot traveling on streets without adequate infrastructure. Given that, we would prefer compliance with the speed limit to revenue from enforcement.
While I'm commenting, I have to say my colleague Mr. Haines' analogy is inapt. Telling the City Council that they can do nothing but concur with the results of an engineering study is like denying a patient the power to direct his own course of treatment because the experts have already weighed in on what's best. In my experience, engineers sometimes inadequately account for human factors in their calculations of what would best be built. If we're still analogizing to medicine, I'd say the play W;t, adapted to film by Mike Nichols, dramatizes the situation aptly.
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