Pasco Street Will Undergo Major Speed Reduction

If you drive a stretch of Burns Road in the Broadmoor area, you're going to see a significant reduction in the speed limit soon.

The Pasco City Council last night approved a proposal to lower the speed limit from 50 MPH for a variety of reasons. The vote, however, was not unanimous.

Councilman Pete Serrano told his fellow council members that he's driven Burns Road, west of Broadmoor Boulevard. He thinks reducing the speed limit to 35 MPH is drastic.

"It seems to me that we could drop it safely adequately to either 45 or 40," Councilman Serrano said. "You still have that orchard that sits on both sides of the street, down south. I question whether or not it's prudent to go all the way to 35."

The 50 MPH stretch of Burns is a straight road with far fewer visible homes than its counterpart to the east of Broadmoor Boulevard where the speed limit is 35 MPH.

However, the surrounding roads have speed limits of 35 MPH.

"One of the things that we try to avoid is having too many streets that have different speed limits on them because then there starts getting to be driver confusion as to which street has 35, which one has 40." City Attorney Eric Ferguson said. "I think the traffic engineer looked at those and said, you know what, because those are all 35, it made sense to do it 35."

With the area experiencing new residential growth and increased traffic volume, the city hired CivTech, a traffic engineering consultancy, to perform a study on Burns Road. It found:

• None of Burns Road's segments currently meet the tolerance levels of the posted speed limit.
• The highest average speed clocked was 43 mph, seven mph below the former limit.
• Most drivers on Burns Road are heading to residential areas.
• Speed limits on most of the City's Principal Arterials range between 25 and 35 mph.
• The road is a two-lane stretch without sidewalks, curbs, or gutters and does not allow on-street parking.

For the city council majority, they felt the results of the study and feedback from the public were compelling enough to make the change.

The speed limit will be reduced to 35 MPH on November 15.

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