Slowing it down

When mothers became fed up with the number of deaths from drunken driving several years ago, they got organized and changed the culture. Closer to home, when Bangor officials decided that pedestrians should be able to cross the streets without serving as traffic targets, police got serious and made the downtown much friendlier. If the city wants to similarly reduce speeding, it can take steps that neither distracts from other law-enforcement business nor turns Bangor into Speed Trap, USA.

Make no mistake, speed kills. Of the 185 highway fatalities in Maine last year, 73 included excessive speed as a contributing factor. And that doesn’t count the thousands of accidents in which drivers and passengers merely were injured. But as dangerous as speeding is, most of the time it is a quality-of-life issue. Residents don’t use their front porches, neighbors don’t meet for an outdoor chat, children are warned endlessly to stay away from the road all because some leadfoot feels entitled to roar down a residential street.

And why shouldn’t he or she feel safe in stepping on it? The chance of getting a speeding ticket in Bangor, as today’s stories demonstrate, is minuscule. Police apparently do not look for speeders on any but the most-traveled streets and generally do not begin ticketing until someone exceeds the speed limit by 15 mph. A recent radar-gun survey of residential streets routinely found drivers going well above that lax standard with no chance of being pulled over.

As the public response to today’s stories indicate, Bangor harbors a widespread sentiment that speeding has gotten out of hand, a conclusion reinforced, perhaps, by the fact that the Bangor writes few tickets compared with other Maine communities. The result is seen in the comments from readers: Hundreds of unhappy residents who want a greater police presence to control the traffic.

Bangor Police Chief Don Winslow makes the case that his staff is already stretched thin over the duties they currently perform. He could very well be correct, and though the public could nit-pick over his assignment strategy, it might better spend its time considering the added cost of directing the department to hire an additional full-time officer to handle traffic. That officer, presumably, would be included in the general rotation of duties of the police department, but his or her presence would mean that, for 40 hours a week, someone is assigned to control traffic as a primary task. That does not necessarily mean issuing an endless number of tickets – greater police visibility and a large increase in the number of warnings could help. A few more tickets, however, wouldn’t hurt either.

The city might be worried about getting a negative reputation as a speed trap. It shouldn’t. Some industrious Maine drivers have their own computer Web page called Maine Speed Traps that lists more than 100 places around the state for drivers to use caution. Just about all of Bangor’s neighbors are listed, but except for a short stretch of I-95, the city itself doesn’t merit a mention. What’s been the harm to Veazie or Hampden or Orono for making the Web list? Nothing at all, and they get the benefit of having drivers use extra caution without the police devoting an additional minute of time to patrol.

Besides, enforcing the speed limit isn’t anti-car — it’s pro-people. It is announcing that Bangor thinks the ability to have safe and pleasant neighborhoods is more important than a driver’s right to drive fast. The City Council might hold a hearing on the issue, seeking public comment and explaining the costs associated with the added position. It might seriously consider some of the traffic-calming techniques used effectively in other cities.

Reducing speed could save lives. Almost as important, it could return neighborhoods to neighbors, giving residents safer places to live and enjoy their lives. The city can and should act on this problem.