South Claremont Street between 16th Avenue and Birch Street is a residential neighborhood of about 50 homes a block away from Sunnybrae Elementary School. The 25 mph speed limit is clearly marked, both northbound and southbound, by numerous signs on both sides of the street. Drivers are further admonished to drive slowly by pavement signage. Stop signs exist at the intersections of South Claremont Street with Birch Street and 16th Avenue, but are ignored on a regular and frequent basis. The same is true for the signs at the same locations restricting commercial traffic in excess of three tons.
Despite city signage, drivers regularly attain speeds of 70 mph or greater on our street, as documented in a study performed by a third party for the city of San Mateo in September 2001. And traffic volume and speeds have clearly increased on our street in the 18 months since that study was done.
Our neighborhood group has been told that there is little police enforcement of the 25 mph speed limit because we do not have enough collisions. While South Claremont Street may not be configured for collisions, it's clearly been made into a speedway - even though South Delaware Street, a block to the east, is just as long, even wider, and has fewer stop signs.
South Claremont Street is the speedway of choice for the U.S. Post Office and mail delivery vehicles, tow trucks, big rigs, garbage trucks, taxi drivers, pizza deliveries, city of San Mateo vehicles, local business vehicles, and personal pick-ups, SUVs and cars.
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With Choi's lead article and Michelle Durand's column highlighting diminished San Mateo police enforcement of speeding and other issues in the Feb. 16 edition of the Daily Journal, it seems a clear message is being sent that (1) it's OK to drive even faster through residential neighborhoods because (2) there's even less chance of being caught.
Is that helpful in making San Mateo a desirable and safe place to live?
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.