- September 13, 2024
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Flagler Beach could soon have a 20 mph speed limit on city roads.
The Flagler Beach City Commission approved a first vote on the city-wide reduction of speed limits at its Aug. 22 commission meeting in a 4-1 vote, commissioner Rick Belhumeur dissenting. The speed limit change reduces the speed on Flagler Beach roads by 10 mph.
The original ordinance proposed a 25 mph speed limit, but Commissioner Eric Cooley suggested it being lowered further to 20 mph, so long as the enforcement is there.
“The concern is cars are going down streets doing 40 [mph],” Cooley said. “If, as a city, it's not enforced … changing the speed limit will not get us anywhere.”
Cooley said that he’d like to see the speed limit at as close to a uniform speed limit as possible as well, pointing out that golf carts are limited to 20 mph by city ordinance.
“If you’re going to change the speed limit from 30 to 25, are you really doing anything other than just spending a lot of money on signs? You’re essentially … not doing anything,” he said.
The ordinance only impacts city roads. But the concern is that drivers on State Road A1A turn off of the scenic road to avoid congestion and then speed through the residential neighborhoods.
If the ordinance is approved at the second vote, Commission Chair Scott Spradley said there will likely be a community outreach to make drivers aware of the changes.
Mayor Patti King and Commissioners James Sherman and Spradley all pointed out the safety hazards to pedestrians for people speeding through neighborhoods. Spradley called Flagler Beach is “a city without sidewalks” and said the pedestrians in the roadway are there because they have to be.
“When you have the interior streets being lesser [speed] than A1A, then that sort of gives a disincentive to jump off A1A and go to our interior streets and rev it up,” Spradley said.
Most of the commissioners seemed to agree that dropping the speed limit to 20 mph was worth any frustration from the slower speed.
Belhumeur said that the people are currently speeding through the neighborhoods won’t slow down by changing the speed limits to 20 mph. Most people already slow down to that slow when approaching pedestrians anyway, he said.
“Yes, you have the idiot that's driving down the road 40 miles an hour,” he said. “But if you change it to 20 miles an hour, you're going have that same idiot, whereas I think it's going to frustrate some of the locals.”
The ordinance will return for a second vote at the next Flagler Beach Commission’s business meeting.
