SPEEDING, SPEED LIMITS AND CONTROL OF LOCAL ROADS

Mount Holly Has More Local Control Over Traffic Than Has Recently Been Indicated

October 20, 2024 By Nick Sodano

SUMMARY: Mayor Banks claims that shutting down a purely township-owned road is “tough”.  A petition about speeding served on Township Council prompts Deputy Mayor Jones to claim that the township cannot act because “there is a standstill between us and the County”. The County Engineer’s office explains which roads are controlled by the township and how speed limit studies are conducted by the governing body that controls the road.  A national organization of engineers criticizes the “percentile” study method.  Local road speed limits are compared.

CONTROL OF ROADS

During September 2024, a Mount Holly Township Facebook video was posted which featured the owner of Zaddy’s sandwich shop asking Mayor Banks whether events like Fire and Ice could be brought closer along Washington Street to Zaddy’s shop.  The Mayor answered that would be “tough” because Mount Holly doesn’t control County Roads. The Mayor did not explain that Washington Street is a local road.   

While investigating the subject, the Mount Holly Reporter was given a free map from the County Engineer. The map above is adapted from that County map. It shows Washington Street, to its intersection with Madison [where “Zaddy’s” is located], is a 100% township controlled road.  When the Mount Holly Reporter asked if Mayor Banks could close local roads without County permission, the Burlington County Engineer said,

“As long as County roads are not impacted, yes. But if they are going to place signs and/or detour traffic to CR, a road occupancy permit is required – but they are not difficult to obtain.”

While opinions between the County and the Township differed sharply regarding the difficulty of local road closure, there was agreement that the issue required dialogue.

But when it came to the issue of safety and speed limits as raised in a petition, there appeared to be disagreement about whether a dialogue was needed.

A petition from residents regarding speeding was presented to Township Council at its meeting on October 7, 2024.  As noted in a previous article [see “Traffic Fail”], the Council knows that speeding is a problem all throughout the Township.  Still, Deputy Mayor Jason Jones held the petition aloft and stated:

“I reached out to the County Engineer, invited him to come to this meeting tonight.  Because there is a standstill between us and the county. We are waiting on reports from the County…”                                                        Deputy Mayor Jason Jones

Two days later at the meeting of the County Commissioners, the County Engineer stated that he had only just received a “warrant report” for Mount Holly.  With regard to speed limits or stop sign placement on local-control roads, he said that Mount Holly Township could choose to do its own studies with no County oversight.

Both County Route 537 [Washington, Mill and Branch] and County Route 617 [Garden] become local-control roads as they approach the center of town [see map].  Anywhere along these stretches of local road, the Township Council could order its own “warrant analysis” and avoid the delays referenced by Deputy Mayor Jones.

One reason the Township might want to wait for the County is that they have to bear 100% of the costs for the study and any intervention suggested by the study if they choose to work on a purely local-control road.  That is not the case with roads under County jurisdiction.  In those instances, the township need only bear a portion of the cost. The tradeoff is that the township must wait while the County fits the task into a schedule that includes 39 other townships.

HOW SPEED LIMITS STUDIES ARE CONDUCTED

The Mount Holly Reporter inquired with the Burlington County Engineer’s office about the study methods used to set speed limits and received a summarized response.  An attempt to conduct a more detailed review of the federal guidance for such studies was made, but that guidance was found to contain a level of detail that exceeds the scope of this article.

STUDY PROCEDURES

There are two (2) accepted methods for establishing speeds: statutory and/or speed surveys.  The statutory approach may include considerations about school zones, pedestrian traffic, the number of driveways or other access points to the road, etc. Outside of the statutory method, the 85% percentile study method can be used.  This involves a speed limit based on a "speed survey" done by Radar or by cables placed on the road for 5 to 10 days. The measured speed, traffic volume, and vehicle "Class" are considered.  Stats are produced on the resulting data and the "85th percentile" speed is used as the limit. This can be understood as the speed 85 out of 100 drivers are observed to use in each direction.  Since this type of study can result in a speed limit being increased, it is noted that enforcement of the existing speed limit in advance of a speed survey is a good practice. 

• Notes: An upcoming article about local enforcement will be published soon. The following section of this article touches on enforcement.

CRITICS OF THE 85% METHOD

The National Association of City Transportation Officials published a document called Designed to Fail: THE PROBLEM WITH PERCENTILE-BASED SPEED LIMITS.  It states:

“Traffic engineers who use the 85th percentile method are instructed to raise the speed limit when more than 15% of drivers are driving faster than posted signs. This method forces engineers to adjust speed limits to match observed driver behavior instead of bringing driver behavior in line with safety goals and the law. When it comes to safety, [the 85th percentile] method is designed to fail. Percentile-based speed limit setting methods fail at keeping people safe because they set a permanently moving target based on current human behavior, not safety.”

SPEED LIMIT DIFFERENCES IN MOUNT HOLLY

The Mount Holly Reporter reviewed posted speed limits on High Street and Garden Street. The lowest speed posted on Garden Street, which is a strictly residential street until its intersection with High St, is 30 mph.  The lowest speed posted on High Street is 25 mph, which is posted just north of Hillside in a residential section of the street.  It is noted that a flashing signal was constructed at Bartram Avenue, which may reflect a speed study conducted sometime before 2008.