South Burlington City Council revises school zone speed

A speed zone resolution recently passed by the South Burlington City Council was revised Monday night, raising the speed in school zones to 25 miles per hour to comply with state guidelines.

After multiple requests from the school board since February, the implementation of school zones, along with a four-way-stop at Rick Marcotte Central School on Market Street, was approved by the city council earlier this month.

The South Burlington Speed Limit Resolution, part of the city’s motor vehicle and traffic ordinance, did not include a provision for the establishment of school zones until it was updated last October to address concerns about traffic speeds, specifically on White Street. There is presently one school zone — on White Street near the Chamberlin School— established under the resolution.

But for the city to implement more speed changes and school zones, the areas had to first undergo engineering studies and analyses.

Studies presented to the city council last month by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission found that of the 4,414 cars observed per day on Market Street, most were traveling slightly higher than the 25 miles per hour posted speed limit.

“Based on all of those different things, the Chittenden County Regional Planning engineers have recommended a school zone be implemented on Market Street,” Erica Quallen, South Burlington’s deputy director of capital projects, said, noting that the school zone would be marked at 20 miles per hour. “It would be time-restricted to be about an hour or so during drop off in the morning and pick up in the evening. That would be signified by the flashing lights and the radar speed feedback signs, and that goes to a few 100 feet in either direction.”

But city staff received an update from regional planners stating that, per state statute, municipalities cannot set speed limits lower than 25 miles per hour.

“It kind of confounds me how this state can upend what I think is a good speed limit,” city council member Meaghan Emery said.

No one from the Vermont Agency of Transportation could be reached to answer exactly why speed limits cannot be lower than 25 miles per hour, but in its guidance to municipalities, the agency says, “Towns sometimes tend to set speed limits too low. This merely creates more speeders, since the majority of motorists drive at speeds they perceive to be safe. Speeds set too low can also create more, and sometimes dangerous, passing.”

The school zones impacted are in the vicinity of the Gertrude Chamberlin and Rick Marcotte Central schools, but these locations will still be designated as school zones.

The $30,000 in signs and equipment necessary to establish the school zones was approved from the city’s surplus funds of over $2 million at the close of fiscal year 2023.