Councilors Concerned About Speeding Vehicles

By Adam Swift

Several Town Councilors want to see the town take a more holistic approach to addressing speeding in the town.

During the Town Manager’s report section of Tuesday night’s Council meeting, there was a discussion about vehicles speeding in several areas of Winthrop, and steps the town is taking to address the issue.

“There was a vehicle accident in that 270 to 280 block of Pleasant Street around that sharp bend, and I’d like to get some clarification because we (were awarded) a grant for the speed limit signs, and there will be five, six, seven of them throughout Pleasant Street, which is great,” said Council President James Letterie. “But I’m hoping we are going even beyond that in terms of … making that area a little safer.”

Town Manager Tony Marino said there are some ideas being considered to help with speeding in the area, such as a small retaining wall or bollard near the curve, or a rumble strip in the area.

Marino added that the bid for the electronic speed limit signs is going out and that the town will be able to purchase them soon. There will be eight of the speed limit signs that will be able to be deployed anywhere along Rte. 145.

“There are speeding problems everywhere,” said Precinct 5 Councilor Joseph Aiello. “All of Washington Street, Pleasant Street, that’s a big speeding problem. I think speed signs are great, I think bollards are great, but we really need to have a traffic calming set of solutions across the town for all the places where we are seeing this stuff.”

Aiello said the police department should be setting up more speed traps in the town.

“There’s nothing like someone out there with a speed gun and writing tickets and the word getting around,” said Aiello. “I know they do some of it, I know they are shorthanded, but we really need this to be a holistic solution, because people are going to continue to get injured and worse.”

Aiello noted that it also helps to have more crosswalks in town.

“It gives a signal to drivers that people live here, that this is not a speedway for them to just get through town and get out of town,” he said.