Study finds low incidence of speeding in Washington
By Matt Pelkey
Speeding in the Town of Washington may not be as rampant as outcry from some town residents would seem to suggest.
Over a four-day period last month only 2.3 percent of vehicles broke the speed limit on Washington's Main Street by 10 miles per hour or more, a speeding study conducted in March found.
"Main street basically has no problem," said Major Scott Jenkins, second in charge at the Rappahannock Sheriff's Office.
The sheriff's office, which arranged the study, does not enforce the 25-miles-per-hour speed limit on Main Street until vehicles break it by 10 miles per hour or more, he said.
Jenkins said that in one direction of travel on Main Street, just one percent of vehicles exceeded the 35-miles-per-hour cut-off for enforcement.
"Once we get to this enforceable category, you see them drop way down," Jenkins said.
He said that most police departments would consider such a small degree of speeding infractions almost ideal.
"I think any of those agencies would be happy to see a one-percent violation number as far as enforcement action," he said.
But the study found that one-third of vehicles were nonetheless traveling faster than the posted speed limit.
And of the 3,275 times vehicle speeds were clocked in the study, 16 were in excess of 50 miles per hour, with five hitting speeds faster than 60 miles per hour.
Jenkins said that four of the vehicles recorded traveling faster than 50 miles per hour were sheriff's office deputies chasing speeders.
Most police departments do not target vehicles until they hit 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, Jenkins said.
He said that especially at speeds under 35 miles per hour, a vehicle's speedometer can be off. He said they are often not calibrated correctly, and other factors, such as varying tire pressure, can result in inaccurate readings.
The sheriff's office does not condone speeding, Jenkins said, but deputies recognize that some drivers may not realize they are exceeding the speed limit.
"...it's just the way it is with mechanical (devices)," he said.
The study was conducted at the request of the Washington Town Council and comes as the latest in efforts to crack down on speeding in town.
Jenkins said that at least part of the speeding issue, which has long been an agenda topic for the town council, is that vehicles can appear to be traveling faster than they are.
"From my experience it's often a perception problem, where you have citizens who believe a vehicle is traveling at a higher rate than it actually is," Jenkins said.
Much of the town council's efforts to curb speeding have focused on Main Street. Despite frequent pedestrian traffic, the street has only short strips of sidewalk, and residences and businesses are set back not very far from the road.
And after impassioned calls from town residents, the council voted 4-2 in March to place a second stop sign on Main Street. The sign is scheduled to be put up in May or June. The council is also considering upping speeding fines within the town boundaries.
Little discussion at council meetings has been devoted to Warren Avenue, which leads into Washington from U.S. 211, but the study found that the road had a greater incidence of speeding than Main Street.
Of the 3,032 times that vehicle speeds were clocked on Warren Avenue during the study, 6.6 percent of vehicles were found to be traveling faster than 35 miles per hour.
Speeding was worse in the west-bound lane leading into town, with 8 percent of vehicles exceeding 35 miles per hour. In the east-bound lane heading out of town, 5 percent of vehicles were traveling faster than 35 miles per hour.
The speed detection devices used in the study resembled small bumps in the road and did not record information that could be used to identify individual vehicles. They were placed in front of The Hair Gallery on Main Street in both lanes.
On Warren Avenue, the devices were placed outside the center of town, about 100 feet from Gay Street. Major Jenkins said the location was chosen to capture vehicle speeds before drivers would have to slow down for the stop sign farther down the road.
"We wanted a realistic number," he said.
The Culpeper Police Department owns the speed-monitoring devices and installed them for the study, Jenkins said. The department also produced the report of the study's findings.
The study was conducted between Thursday, March 13, and Sunday, March 16, in order to provide information about weekday and weekend speeding patterns.
"...that's as good of a four-day window as you're going to get," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said that traffic was clustered in the morning and evening during the weekdays, and spread throughout the day on Saturday. Traffic tapered off on Sunday, he said. He had not analyzed the data to determine when speeding most often occurred.
The sheriff's office would be willing to conduct similar studies on other problem roads in Rappahannock County, Jenkins said, but he would first want to try to address speeding with extra enforcement or a unit that displays how fast vehicles are traveling. The Rappahannock Sheriff's Office does not own the speed-detection devices used for the study, he said, and he would have to rely on the resources of nearby police departments.
"It's just a case where we don't want to overburden our brother and sister agencies...," he said.
Results in
The Washington Town Council -- the only town governing body in the county -- requested the study in Washington, but businesses and residents can contact the sheriff's office about speeding problems in other areas in the county, he said.
Jenkins and Sheriff Connie Compton Smith presented the study's findings to Washington Mayor Eugene Leggett and Town Clerk Laura Dodd this past Monday.
Mayor Leggett said in an interview that he had not reviewed the study in depth, but that he took issue with a few of the take-away messages of the sheriff's office.
"I'm not sure I'm in agreement with their interpretation of everything on it," he said.
Leggett said that even the low incidence of speeding that the study found warrants attention.
"...even if it was 1 percent, it would still be something we would have to analyze and determine if we needed to do something," he said.
"We would address it," he added. "I don't know if that means we would want to take action on it or not, but it only takes one car to kill somebody."
Leggett said that the four-day span of the study that included weekdays and the weekend was well chosen, but still might be limited. He said that members of the town council might want a second, longer study.
The meeting on Monday established a good working relationship between the council and the sheriff's office, Leggett said.
"I feel very positive about that," he said.
Leggett said the council will continue to work with the sheriff's office address speeding in town.
E-mail the reporter at mpelkey@timespapers.com.