The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
November 6, 2007
PET PEEVES - CHAPTER 1
We're debating the benefits of speed limit signs or speed bumps on downtown sidewalks.
One side of the argument is that the expense to the taxpayer for the speed limit signs and the engineering required to find the proper placement of the signs could be far too expensive.
Add to that the time spent in committee meetings determining the high traffic areas and proper visual placement of the signs along with the policing, enforcing and ticketing of the set speed limit and it could take a while to see any action. Not to mention the time and effort spent on trying to determine what the proper downtown sidewalk speed limit would be.
The other side of the argument is a quick phone call to the first name that comes to mind of someone who owns and operates a backhoe and the expense of a can of spray paint to mark designated speed bump sites.
There has to be a way to slow down those crazy little sidewalk speeders and so far these are the best options we could come up with.
Granted, not all of them are whizzing by faster than the average car, but imagine the damage if you were to step out of a downtown business and get knocked down by an electric scooter zipping along the sidewalk, as close to the buildings along that street as possible, at what appears to be Mach 2.
Well, we were just about mowed down by one of these crazy little sidewalk speeders the other day. We didn't even get an apology. We suspect it would have been different had we actually collided and both of us ended up flat on our backs.
We'd suggest a public education program where each and every scooter owner/operator had to write an exam which explained the importance of traveling along Princeton's downtown sidewalks at a reasonable speed and use the curb side of each sidewalk for travel keeping in mind that they are sharing the sidewalks with kids on bicycles, pooping dogs and the odd pedestrian but that would be far too easy.
Or maybe they should have something like deer whistles on them so at you'd hear them coming and have half a chance to take a step back into wherever you were coming from to avoid a possible head on collision. Nope, we're still leaning towards the speed bump idea.
