Yet another speed limit reduction has been declined by New York state, this time on a section of Garfield Road in Busti between South Main Street Extension and Baker Street Extension.

Neither residents concerned about ever-increasing speeds on roads nor the state Transportation Department are at fault. The statistics don’t show a need to reduce the speed limits, so we can’t blame the state for not recommending speed limit decreases. The fact that we’ve been lucky not to have more serious accidents in some of these areas doesn’t mean concerned residents were wrong to bring the issue up to their local government.

Speed is an issue on most area roads. Police are stretched thin, so it’s difficult to properly enforce speed limits everywhere. That’s especially true of rural police departments that try to cover expansive towns with a small police force only to see officers often responding to a few large retailers for shoplifting complaints as often happens with the Lakewood-Busti or Ellicott police departments. Jamestown police officers, too, find themselves pulled in hundreds of different, more important directions than speed enforcement.

“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.”

Reasonable and prudent speed is different for those behind the wheel and those who have children playing in the front yard of their home or riding bicycles on a rural road. Many people who choose to live on a rural back road do so because they wanted to get away from speeding cars and raise children in an area where life moves a little more slowly. Garfield Road wasn’t supposed to be Route 394.

But speed enforcement is what’s needed. The times when drivers slow down are when they see a police cruiser parked on the side of the road, not when speed limits change. Even if the state Transportation Department had reduced the speed limit on Garfield Road, it wouldn’t have magically fixed the problem. Tickets issued early and often will solve the problem.