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Tag: Holmes Beach speed limit

Drivers slow down in Holmes Beach

Drivers must slow to 25 mph in Holmes Beach

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Featured, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Drivers beware. You’ll have to hit the brakes a little more than usual when driving through Holmes Beach.

Commissioners voted three-to-one to pass a resolution on Feb. 8 lowering the speed limit to 25 miles per hour on all city-maintained streets. The change takes effect as soon as Police Chief Bill Tokajer can have the 35 mph signs in the city removed.

Commissioner Kim Rash was absent from the Feb. 8 commission meeting and Commissioner Jayne Christenson voted against lowering the speed limit.

During commission discussion, Commissioner Terry Schaefer said he thinks lowering the speed limit city-wide will also lower the chance of vehicular accidents resulting in injuries.

Christenson argued that lowering the speed limit won’t reduce congestion on Holmes Beach streets. She said it would prevent people from driving faster in areas where it was permitted when traffic congestion isn’t an issue. Those sentiments were echoed by two residents who stepped up to speak on the subject during public comment.

“You’re penalizing the residents who live here, work here and are trying to get home,” Christenson said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Instead, she suggested having a 25 mph speed limit during the day and a 35 mph speed limit at night.

Commissioner Pat Morton said the traffic in Holmes Beach doesn’t stop after dark and he thinks it’s up to city leaders to bring some safety back to city streets regarding drivers.

By lowering the speed limit, low-speed vehicles and golf carts are permitted to be driven on all city streets except Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive, which are state roads, where the speed limit is set by the Florida Department of Transportation. Holmes Beach is the only Anna Maria Island city where golf carts are allowed to be driven. A golf cart is not required to be registered with the state and does not have a license plate.

Commissioner Carol Soustek said the different kinds of vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists and other users on city roads and sidewalks led her to believe that lowering the speed limit to 25 mph would help curb some of the safety issues on city streets.

“We’ve got to do something,” she said, adding that changing the speed limit wouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all solution but that she thinks it would give drivers more peace of mind on the road. If it doesn’t produce the desired results, Soustek said the decision could be revisited by commissioners in the future.

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Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Drivers may soon have to slow down when traveling through Holmes Beach and it won’t be because of the low-speed vehicles that travel on city streets.

Commissioners considered a proposal to lower the speed limit on all city streets to 25 mph at a Jan. 25 work session, agreeing to move the proposed ordinance forward to a regular meeting for a public hearing and the first of two votes.

If the measure passes both votes by commissioners, the 25 mph speed limit will apply to all city streets, but not the two state roads located in Holmes Beach, which are governed by the state of Florida. The speed limits on Manatee Avenue and on East Bay Drive will remain the same unless changed by the Florida Department of Transportation.

The idea was floated by Police Chief Bill Tokajer in response to safety concerns about speeding vehicles on city streets and the potential hazards to pedestrians, bicyclists and operators of golf carts and low-speed vehicles (LSVs).

An LSV is a mini car, golf cart or other type of lower speed vehicle that is required to be registered with the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles to be street legal. Most travel at a top speed of 25-30 mph. A golf cart is a traditional golf cart meant for use on a golf course that is not required to be registered through the DMV and travels at a maximum speed lower than 25 mph. City Attorney Erica Augello said that once a golf cart exceeds 20 mph, it is technically considered an LSV.

Issues that officers are seeing on Holmes Beach roadways include LSV drivers pulling over into bicycle lanes to allow motor vehicles to pass them, drivers traveling faster than the posted speed limit and golf carts traveling on roads with 35 mph speed limits, where they’re not allowed.

By lowering the speed limit citywide to 25 mph, Tokajer said it would ease sign pollution, make it easier for drivers of all kinds to know what the speed limit is, especially on Palm/Marina drives where it changes every few blocks, reduce confusion about where LSVs are allowed to be operated and allow officers to focus their enforcement efforts on keeping LSVs and golf carts off Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive.

Commissioners will consider the ordinance at an upcoming meeting not yet scheduled.

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LSV, golf cart talks take a turn

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

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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