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9 Comments
HPD better order more citation books.
Thanks Holliston. Much needed. This will be a welcomed relief, for drivers and for the many walkers and alternative users of transportation.
What roads in Holliston will NOT be subject to the 25 MPH speed limit?
How far from an otherwise posted sign will it go back down to 25?
Concord, Washington, Highland, Adams, Ashland, Central, Fiske, Goulding, High, Hollis, Norfolk, Prentice, Underwood, Woodland, and South Streets are all posted at 30 mph or higher in areas. These streets will not be affected by the change.
The remaining 250+ local streets will see a reduction to 25 mph, from the current statutory speed limit of 30 mph.
Most residents do not know that if the street they live on has no posted speed limit, it was statutorily set at 30 mph. This changes to 25 mph on January 1, 2021 with the implementation of mgl chapter 90, section 17C.
A couple of these follow state route 126, and several of these are nice wide roads anyway, some even having sidewalks. Those are fine as-is.
But you have a number that are too narrow, many with blind curves and hills, many designated “scenic”. You are allowing these “cut-through” roads to continue to allow faster traffic: South St for RI commuters, Adams St to get lots of drivers between Milford and Hopkinton (but not Marshall, very similar in its usage), High St to allow drivers to cut off a bunch of Rt 126, Goulding to get drivers into Millis, Underwood (what? short, fairly densely populated – I don’t get that, unless you feel that that’s a feeder to Marshal and Adams and thus to Hopkinton.
As someone who takes walks on my particular “scenic road”, I know how maddening and dangerous it feels some times.
So, it’s true that these roads actually “go somewhere”. But that alone should not mean that they must have higher speed limits. If the nature or “quality” of the roads indicates that higher speeds pose dangers, then slow them down or find some creative ways to introduce traffic calming measures.
The Town of Holliston is not excluding any streets for lower speed limits with this decision. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 90, section 17C can ONLY be implemented to reduce speeds on streets without a posted speed limit.
Streets with a posted speed limit require a different MassDOT process, that includes a speed study in order to apply for a lower speed limit.
Thank you, Tina, for this clarification regarding MassDOT.
I am excited about the Holliston Complete Streets project; can I hope that traffic calming measures might be possible under the HCS for the narrow, dangerous streets mentioned previously?
I’ll get this out of my system in a bit 😉 I realize now that on the skinny streets that already have posted speeds the limits in fact are quite reasonable. So I imagine that there were speed studies in the distant past because these roads were used for a lot of “through traffic”, and that people (likely the residents) wanted limits posted (South St, for example, is 30mph the whole way, and Underwood and Adams have some sections as low as 20 & 25).
When there are cars going through at 45 in a 30 or 35mph zone — probably many of the same people every day — I guess the problem is lack of speed enforcement.