Thomas Younger, Town Administrator assigned this issue to Stoneham Police Department

Is there any solution to this other than the wild, almost unbelievable expectation that drivers would be more cautious in a school zone? Realistically, drivers have a bit of open road between the lights at Main and those at Pond, and they use it to zoom between them. The speed sign is only visible going toward Main from Pond. Coming out of Pine, the sign is tight on the corner, and it’s not visible to them either.

Peter,
In reality, the signs do not matter. Speeding has gone on for so long unchecked. The minimal signs at each end of the road have no effect. Without enforcement, the signs are useless. In fairness to the police, it is not possible to put in the amount of hours it would take to get this stretch of road under control.

The town has said that they feel that signage is adequate. If you turn onto Summer Street from Main, you will not see the sign, even though you are aware it's there. It is right at the intersection where cars are pulling in and out of the convenience store on one side, and in and out of the gas station on the other. It is ridiculous to think that drivers will be staring up at the telephone pole looking for a sign with all that congestion. At the Pond Street end, it is about as minimal of a school sign as you can get. In other towns you will notice large school zone signs that are much more visible.

On days I drive home this route from work, even after school hours, the traffic is still insane. I'll often stop for cars pulling out of their driveways or trying to turn on from Pine Street. The design of this road and it's use as a shortcut to the highway, has made it a treacherous residential and Elementary School Zone area.

It is an accident waiting to happen here. The town needs to make this a priority and take some action here before there is a tragedy. The town has been fully aware of this for long enough.

The Town does not have any by-law that would mandate that the wall be repainted.

I am guessing that this issue was closed by mistake with an incorrect response.

The police department has not even acknowledged this post assigned to them by Thomas younger, Our Town Administrator.

Speaking with someone from the town office, I found out that the police department did send a cruiser to the area a few weeks ago and stopped a few cars. That limited response has had no effect on the speeding on this street. Having a cruiser come by now and then and making a few traffic stops is not going to solve the problem.

Changes to this road need to be made. It is unsafe to allow vehicles to drive at whatever speed they see fit. This issue will not go away.

Thank you for the SeeClickFix post. This area of Summer Street has received additional traffic enforcement in recent weeks which will continue, The repainting of the crosswalk at Pine Street should be completed soon.

Thank you for the SeeClickFix post. This area of Summer Street has received additional traffic enforcement in recent weeks which will continue, The repainting of the crosswalk at Pine Street should be completed soon.

Thank you for the stepped-up enforcement. I drive this route some early mornings between 5:30 and 6:30. It seems like the same group of commuters are racing down the street at extremely high rates of speed during those hours. If there is a some enforcement that could be out just a couple random weekdays during these hours, I think enough of the same drivers will get the message that there is stepped-up enforcement and slow down.

Thanks again for your attention.

P.S Do you think we could get a center line on this road. Many mornings I run into vehicles way over the center of the road and they make a last-minute swerve to get onto their side of the road or I have to lean way over against the curb.

It's great that the police are stepping up patrol in this area. That is definitely one part of the solution. The other part, and maybe more importantly is to make improvements to this road.

The centerline is missing. The inadequate paint job on the crosswalk has disappeared. The school zone signs are minimal.

This is a very heavily congested area. Between being a 20MPH school zone, a residential area, and heavily trafficked, there is no reason cars should be continuously driving 30 to 40 miles an hour.

Something needs to be done that does not involve the police having to use their precious resources monitoring this area continuously. This road needs to be designed so that it is more self regulating.

The center line needs to be applied. The crosswalks need to be done correctly. More visible signage that drivers are in a School Zone. Maybe one of those crosswalks that is slightly raised. It would make it more visible and bring traffic to a more acceptable speed.

Drivers will continue to drive on this road as fast as they perceived conditions allow. There is no justification to allow this type of driving on this less than 1/4 Mile stretch of road. This is a school zone, and people drive on it like it was Main Street.

Every resident of Stoneham should hope that the police will use their limited resources to patrol town more and spend less time monitoring poorly engineered roads.

It seems backwards that residence are working hard to maintain town laws, while Town officials choose to put in minimal effort to enforce them.

With prominent signage and visible police speed traps drivers do take notice, and if they don't we realize more revenue to the town through ticketing. Our neighbors in Melrose and Reading seem to have a handle on this.

Or Stoneham can just continue with their untenable approach until we finally have 3,000 pounds of metal doing 40 mph splattering children/parents in the roadway. Guess what our leaders response would be then..."Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this unexpected tragedy".

Another race day on Summer Street. I had to pull over at the corner of Pine Street this morning and take a couple pictures. Cars travel faster here than any speed limit set on Main Street!

I know the police are doing what they can. The BOARD OF SELECTMEN and the TOWN ADMINISTRATOR must address this issue. They are the ones that will be held responsible when something bad happens here.

Than you for the SeeClickFix post on this issue. The police department has and will continue to conduct traffic enforcement in the area of South School.

Back to work today and just finished lunch time. Nothing has changed here. Cars still racing up and down this neighborhood past the South School at 30 to 40 miles an hour. I know this is a 20 mile an hour school zone, because there is a tiny sign at the end of the street that says so.

I don't know why the town is so reluctant to put a better school zone signage. The police said that this is adequate signage, but obviously it is not. Think about the "school zone strictly enforced" signs you see in other towns and compare them to these.

The police obviously have no intention spending time monitoring this area. The crosswalk is long since faded and gone. There's not even a center line on this road. At least some decent school zone signage might help a little.

I live in the area and saw the police in the parking lot last week watching for speeding vehicles. I don’t know if they stopped anyone, but to say they are doing nothing is not true. The town speed limit is 25 mph, unless posted otherwise, as in school zones or on Main St, for example. I doubt we would find any well traveled street like Summer St where the vehicles do not travel well over 25 mph. I grew up in Nova Scotia, where outside the city areas, there are a lot of empty roads and drivers would go over 100 km/h. People around here drive like that only on densely populated streets and even in school zones. It’s the culture, and it is just too hard to overcome with one flashing sign going west, and a poorly visible sign going east. Nothing will change this.

Not only do the police watch for speeding vehicles, they watch speeding vehicles. A few weeks ago I drove up Summer from the light at Pond Street. I was third in line. The two cars in front of me went through the speed radar sign at 34 miles an hour. As I drove by, I noticed a unmarked police cruiser parked on Pine Street watching them go by. He didn't move. I'm not sure what point speeding in a 20 mile an hour school zone in the middle of the school day becomes an issue. It's no wonder people driving around Stoneham have no respect.

I drive by there often and have not seen the cruiser there since. I'm guessing that as long as they can mark down in their log that they put time in patrolling the area, they're covered.

I just wish the Town Administrator and Police Department would just come out and say what is obvious, that they have no intention of enforcing the school zone safety speed limit.

Mike,
Thank you for the post. Please feel free to contact the chief of police at 781-438-1215, extension 3107 to discuss your observations on Summer Street. Additional information would be helpful in identifying the officer that was monitoring traffic at that time.

Thank you for your response. I wish I could help you more, but I cannot remember exactly what day or time the unmarked cruiser was on Pine Street. I can tell you it was parked by the boulders facing Summer Street. It was a black SUV.

I am guessing that the single cruiser facing hundreds of cars speeding by the school zone was overwhelmed. I'm not sure what he was expected to do. Even if he chased every car that sped by him, he would still only have time to get a fraction of the cars that speed by.

I don't think I can shed any more light on what's going on there beyond what's been posted in numerous threads on seeclickfix.

I see this on my frequent rides between Wakefield and Winchester. My observations, and that of others posted in these recent threads, should make it obvious to town officials there is a serious problem here.

It is obvious to me, that the elected and appointed town officials have no intentions at this point to take corrective action here.

By all rights, I should take the hint and give up. But if the Town Administrator and others are not concerned with the safety of this area, who will be?

This issue has been marked as a duplicate of issue 5002226.

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