From left, Busti Board Members Douglas Brown, James Andrews, Supervisor Jesse Robbins, Board Members Todd M. Hanson and Paul Gustafson discuss the New York Department of Transportation’s rejection letter received Dec. 2, pertaining to the town’s request to lower the speed limits on Garfield Road between Forest Avenue Extension and South Main Street Extension to 35 mph from the current limit of 45 mph. at a town board meeting Tuesday. P-J photo by Christopher Blakeslee

LAKEWOOD – The state Transportation Department’s denial of Busti’s request to lower speed limits on Garfield Road has left Busti Town Board members scratching their heads.

Board members requested that the speed limits on Garfield Road between Forest Avenue Extension and South Main Street Extension be lowered to 35 mph from the current limit of 45 mph.

However, a rejection letter from the DOT sent in November that was addressed to the Chautauqua County Deputy Director of Public Facilities and Engineering, was discussed by Supervisor Jesse Robbins during a recent Busti Town Board meeting.

The rejection letter reads in part, “The majority of motorists drive at a speed which they perceive to be reasonable and prudent for existing conditions. Experience has shown that if there is no apparent reason for driving at a reduced speed, the posting of signs with an arbitrarily lower speed limit does not result in voluntary compliance by the majority of drivers. Thus, the lower speed limit results in a larger speed differential which can make the road less safe.”

However, town officials are not buying the data-only approach the DOT utilizes in validating or denying a request.

“Requesting a change in the speed limit is no easy thing,” said Robbins. “Several residents who live on the road asked for us to lower the speed limit because people are flying down it – they’re afraid. There are kids who live near the road; our chief of police has supported this request. … I would think this would warrant a visit from state officials, and a more thorough look into this situation – then someone doing data analysis in Syracuse or Buffalo, in an office – several hundred miles away.”

The denial letter also stated that a lack of motor vehicle accidents along the requested roadway contributed to the state’s decision.

“We have reviewed the latest available three years of crash history along Garfield Road in the study area as reported to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Over that period there were seven crashes. Five crashes occurred at the intersection of Forest Avenue Extension and Garfield Road. Four of these crashes were right angle type (all attributed to a vehicle not yielding the ROW (right of way) and one was a rear end crash on Forest Avenue Extension. The remaining two crashes occurred on Garfield Road. One was a car/deer collision and the other was an illegal passing/side swipe type of crash. The crash history does not indicate a pattern of collisions attributed to excessive speeding,” the letter stated.

Based on the radar data obtained and the lack of a crash history related to excessive speeding and the use of USLIMTS2 – a web-based expert system tool designed to help practitioners with conducting an engineering study for setting reasonable, safe, and consistent speed limits for specific segments of roads – state officials did not recommend decreasing the speed limit.

“That’s my point,” said Robbins. “You shouldn’t make a decision based solely on statistical data alone – what is it going to take, someone getting hurt, or God forbid killed, before change happens.”