HOLMES BEACH – A new idea is before Holmes Beach city commissioners to help make streets safer for golf carts, low-speed vehicles, motor vehicles, bicyclists and everyone else – lowering the speed limit citywide to 25 mph.
In previous years, lowering the speed limit anywhere in the city has been met with concern from commissioners and residents because of a potential increase in time that it would take to travel along Holmes Beach’s main thoroughfares. Now, with a moratorium in place to give commissioners time to work on regulations for LSV rental companies and a boom in the use of the vehicles by residents and visitors, setting a citywide speed limit is being strongly considered with the support of Chief Bill Tokajer and City Engineer Sage Kamiya.
For the safety of golf cart and LSV users, commissioners have been considering lowering the speed limit along one stretch of Gulf Drive in the A-1 district from 35 mph to 25 mph and pushing the limited speed vehicles into more residential neighborhoods and off Palm/Marina Drive. During a Dec. 14 work session, Kamiya proposed a different solution – lowering the speed limit citywide to 25 mph or less.
In a Dec. 20 talk with The Sun, Tokajer said that he supports lowering the speed limit citywide for several reasons. The first is that it would eliminate the need to have a golf cart/LSV trail through Holmes Beach that would push more of the vehicles into residential neighborhoods where the speed limit is already 25 mph.
He said that by setting a 25 mph citywide speed limit, the need to educate visitors on the city’s LSV speed regulations and what streets they can drive the vehicles on would be eliminated because they could be driven on any city street other than Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive, where the speed limit will remain 35 mph for the foreseeable future. Those two streets are state roads and regulated by the Florida Department of Transportation, which has stated in memos to the city that golf carts and LSVs are not permitted to be operated on the two state roads.
In Holmes Beach there are only a few city-controlled areas where the speed limit is 35 mph – about three blocks in front of Anna Maria Elementary School on Gulf Drive, 10 blocks along Palm Drive and about eight blocks on Gulf Drive.
During his presentation to commissioners, Kamiya said that he drove three times through the city’s various 35 mph corridors to determine what the average time savings would be at 35 mph versus 25 mph. From White Avenue to 27th Street along Gulf/Marina Drive, he determined that the difference in travel time averaged 58 seconds. From White Avenue to Gulf Drive along Marina Drive, he determined that the average difference in travel time was only 28 seconds.
Tokajer said that the proposed citywide speed limit would be less confusing for motorists and golf cart/LSV users. He added that it would also reduce sign pollution in the city, eliminating the need for signs pointing to golf cart/LSV-friendly streets and allowing for many of the speed limit signs already in the city to be removed.
For Holmes Beach police officers, the change to a citywide speed limit would allow them to worry more about enforcing safety regulations such as the occupancy of LSVs and golf carts and the city’s seat belt regulations rather than being concerned about which speed zone the vehicles are being operated in.
The discussion will continue in January at an upcoming commission work session.
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