DUBLIN, Ohio — It’s warming up and the urge to cruise with the top down is growing, but be sure to watch the speedometer driving through Dublin.
Dublin launched its “Slow Down Dublin” campaign last fall. Dublin Sgt. Dave Gatterdam said speeding is an issue year-round, but the issue moves from place to place.
In the fall, the city also dropped the speed limit on Riverside Drive in Bridge Park to 25 miles per hour from 40 miles per hour.
“It’s all about safety. We don’t want any pedestrian crossing the road to go to Riverside Crossing Park to get hit and injured,” said Gatterdam.
Since the change was made, officers in Dublin have made about 800 stops and have written 375 citations since Nov. 6.
Around the same time, the city also obtained four speed cameras. Those cameras, by law, can’t be used to issue tickets. They can be used to give city officers a better understanding of what is happening in the city’s neighborhoods.
The cameras are part of a pilot program at the moment, but eventually will be used to send warnings to the worst offenders.
“We’re focusing on doing our pilot on 25 to 35-mile-per-hour zones on streets that we know we’ve had issues in the past. Most of those due to a formal complaint,” said Gatterdam. “We’re now averaging about 230 complaints per year. Every complaint comes to me and I respond to that citizen.”
Another issue the city is cracking down on is noisy vehicles and “showboating.” The top of the library parking garage has become a magnet for people to do burnouts.
“We’re working with our facilities management team to put some barriers up there that will help prevent the burnouts or whatever we’ve heard or seen ourselves,” he said. “During the summer we definitely see more of the noise complaints, especially in the Bridge Park area because we have large buildings reverberating the noise.”
He said they’ve worked with the prosecutor to determine how loud is too loud so that it can be enforced.
One issue that they aren’t seeing is street racing, which typically worsens with the warming weather. He said that usually doesn’t pop up on Dublin city streets and they take a zero-tolerance approach to that.
Gatterdam added that they’ve partnered with surrounding agencies to crack down on speeding in an attempt to cut down on the number of fatal accidents.