Michigan Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on January 30, 2007

Click here to view bill details.

From Gov. John Englers veto message of the same bill in 1997: "Government cannot and should not be involved in all potentially hazardous aspects of life. Individuals must be held accountable for their own actions."

This bill would restore the authority to set speed limits where it should be! We have pedestrians or bicyclists that have to walk on the road because there are no sidewalks are paths. We still have many horse riders. The law passed in November effectively makes all rural roads 45 mph which is unsafe. Lansing has no clue nor should they be involved in setting our local road speed limits. Hooray for John Stakoe!

I can't believe that the people who want to restore 25-mph speed limits on Oakland County gravel roads religiously obey every speed-limit sign they pass when they drive. So why do they believe that these signs have magical powers to control speeds in front of their houses? Research has repeatedly found that posted limits have virtually NO impact on the speed of auto traffic. This is doubly true on an unpaved road, where the condition of the road acts as a natural preventer of excessive speed. So any speed-limit sign re-erected on one of these rural roads will provide NO improvement in safety at all. The signs' sole purpose is to make people feel good, and you don't save lives with imaginary safety measures. If there is pedestrian or equestrian traffic, it will have to be provided for and made safe by some serious means (such as improved visibility and wider roads), not by posting an irrelevant speed sign. Artificially-low speed limits serve only to turn up to 100 per cent of all drivers into law-breakers, and give local governments an excuse to write profitable tickets. This was why the Governor vetoed this bill, and this is why she should do so again if it is passed again by the pandering hacks in the legislature.

Those who read the legislation passed in 2006 regarding the speed limits on rural roads will find that it allows for reduced speed limits on rural roads with many driveways and/or streets entering the rural road.  Additionally, those who read this proposed legislation will find that the requested exemption only applies to Oakland County.  Why should Oakland County receive special treatment in the courts?

Additionally, the "residential" 25-mph speed limits only began appearing on Oakland County's back roads within the last 5-8 years.  The vast majority of people living on those roads knew perfectly well that the default limit on these roads was 55-mph when they bought the property and yet chose to buy it anyway. 

Oakland County residents also are much more likely to allow trees and brush to grow right up to the road and their driveway, reducing visibility and making it difficult for them to pull safely on to the road.  Why don't you try cutting back the brush so you can see to pull out, instead of trying to legislate everyone else's speed?  You don't see this in Washtenaw or Lenawee counties; these residents take responsibility for their own safety by making sure their land is clear back from the road 5-6 feet.

If you want a residential speed limit in front of your house, buy a home in a subdivision.  If you want the joys of living in the country, put up with country speed limits.  Some of us like it that way.