Drivers may have noticed lower speed limit signs in Holmes Beach.
The new signs lower the speed limit from 35 mph to 25 mph on seven-tenths of a mile from the intersection of Manatee Avenue and Gulf Drive to Holmes Beach City Hall, 5801 Marina Drive.
According to Holmes Beach Police Chief Bill Tokajer, the next step is taking the 25-mph speed limit all the way through Holmes Beach, on as many of the roads as he can.
Tokajer did a 29-day study of the traffic traveling north and south on Gulf Drive between Manatee Avenue and Marina Drive that demonstrates the lower speed won’t have a profound effect. Over that time, he counted 461,444 cars and only 1 percent traveled at 35 mph or higher. His study showed 79 percent of cars traveled at less than 29 mph before the speed limit was reduced.
“We have shared roads,” he said. “We share them with pedestrians, bicycles and golf carts. We are here to protect our visitors and our residents. Our residents understand our roadways. Our visitors do not.”
Tokajer went on to say that the reduction in speed limit is to help give drivers more time to stop in case a pedestrian crosses into traffic or a cyclist veers into a traffic lane.
Streets located near the city’s primary roads, East Bay Drive, Gulf Drive and Marina Drive, already are set with a 25-mph speed limit.
Tokajer said the next reduced limit will be on a 1-mile stretch of Marina Drive to Palm Avenue.
“It will make a 42-second difference in travel time,” Tokajer said of reducing the speed limit on the 1-mile stretch of Marina Drive.
Florida statutes allow municipalities to set the speed limit on residential roads to a maximum of 20-25 mph after an investigation determines it’s reasonable.
“We have no commercial roads in Holmes Beach,” Tokajer said. “It’s all residential.”
Roadways that remain unaffected by the changing speed limit are Manatee Avenue and East Bay Drive, both state roads. But Tokajer has submitted a request to the Florida Department of Transportation to lower the speed limit there.