OPINION: Lower Speed Limit Needed in Kirkwood Neighborhood

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by a resident of Fairwood Lane in Kirkwood.

The Area of Woodlawn Estates including the Streets of Fairwood Lane, Longview Blvd, Essex Ave, East Bodley, Claybrook and so forth are facing speeding cars and cars not stopping at the stop signs.

Presently on Fairwood Lane there are 18 children between the ages of 2 and 17. Most of them being on the younger side. I believe that with cars going over the limit that a young child will get hurt riding a bike or playing football and Lacrosse in the median of Longview Blvd.

Currently the limit is 25 mph on Longview, Fairwood Lane and on Bodley the limit is 20 mph when there is not nearly as many kids as on Fairwood Lane.

With recent emails and calls to the City of Kirkwood to the team that will go out and review the street to see if a lower limit is essential, officials investigated the area. After they did their investigation they came to the ruling that there is no need for a 20 mph speed limit sign when there is a considerable amount of kids present.

That tremendously irritates the neighborhood. An example of this absurd driving is while there is a block party cars will fly up and do not pay attention to their surroundings. Us the parents have to yell “SLOW DOWN” at them. Also there are residents that live on Fairwood Lane that speed up the street around 30 mph. Even they will not adhere to the residents nor the police force.

With all of this happening it’s time for change to occur and the City of Kirkwood to take major action for the protection of their residents that pay taxes and that have to deal with our recycling not being picked up because it is more than 1 foot away from the curb. 

Sign a petition to lower the speed limit on Fairwood Lane in Kirkwood. Click here to sign.

Send Letters to the Editor to Owen Skoler at owen.skoler@patch.com.