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Staff Photo by Angela Lewis A vehicle drives past a speed limit sign on Mississippi Avenue in Signal Mountain.
Signal Mountain officials are getting serious about slowing down speeders.
At its last meeting, the Signal Mountain Town Council heard Police Chief Boyd Veal pitch the idea of buying traffic cameras to help reduce speeding around the town.
Speeders are not just on Taft Highway, the main road running through the center of town, but in all neighborhoods, he said.
"The vast majority of people coming through are speeding," Chief Boyd said.
And a high percentage of those speeders are going at least 11 mph over the speed limit, he said.
Chief Veal said he isn't trying to convince the town council, but is just suggesting ideas to help curb the problem.
"They're the ones that have to make the decision," Chief Veal said.
American Traffic Solutions -- the company that runs Red Bank's traffic camera program -- will give a presentation to the town council Monday.
Signal Mountain Mayor Bill Lusk agreed that speeding is a problem but wants to hear more public opinion on the idea.
"But thus far, public opinion hasn't been favorable," he said.
Signal Mountain resident Dotti Hamilton said she doesn't think speeding is much of a problem on the mountain because most people know to be careful.
"We do have a reputation for enforcing traffic laws," she said.
The Signal Mountain Police Department has no traffic enforcement unit. Instead, officers split time between patrol, answering calls and traffic enforcement, Chief Veal said.
"Our officers do everything," he said.
Most streets within Signal have a speed limit of 25, 30 or 35 mph.
Ms. Hamilton said the speed limits are too low as it is. She said city leaders would only use traffic cameras as a "money grab" to increase revenue.
"Don't you think the city of Chattanooga and the city of Red Bank are just using them as a source of revenue?" Ms. Hamilton said.
But Chief Veal and Mr. Lusk stand by the speed limits.
"I think our speed limits are appropriate, given the makeup of our community, given that we are a residential community and we have children that live on or play near those streets," Chief Veal said.
Chief Veal said he isn't banking on the financial viability of the cameras just yet. He expects the cameras to pay for themselves over time, but isn't sure beyond that.
"Whether they would generate significant revenue -- that remains to be seen," he said.
IF YOU GO
* What: Signal Mountain Town Council
* When: 6:30 p.m. Monday
* Where: Town Hall, 1111 Ridgeway Ave.
OTHER CITIES
* Chattanooga -- Eight fixed speeding cameras, three mobile speed cameras and eight red light cameras.
* Red Bank -- Three traffic cameras along Dayton Boulevard. All three monitor intersection violations and two of the cameras monitor speeding.
* Dalton, Ga. -- Had traffic cameras monitoring intersection violations, but they were removed in March after the state Legislature passed laws regulating traffic cameras, which hurt the program's financial feasibility.
Kevin rejoined the Times Free Press in August 2011 as the Southeast Tennessee K-12 education reporter. He worked as an intern in 2009, covering the communities of Signal Mountain, Red Bank, Collegedale and Lookout Mountain, Tenn. A native Kansan, Kevin graduated with bachelor's degrees in journalism and sociology from the University of Kansas. After graduating, he worked as an education reporter in Hutchinson, Kan., for a year before coming back to Chattanooga. Honors include a ...
If the majority of your rivers are "speeding" then your speed limits are too low.
Those "slow speeders" in the headline are certainly the ones we need to watch out for.
Salsa got it right. If the "vast majority" is speeding, either they're all devious or they're comfortable going that speed limit. Either that or they don't know that the speed limit changes several times on Taft Hwy alone. Instead of justifying traffic cameras, it's time to justify the speed limit. I haven't heard about a increase in crashes due to these speeders. Isn't that the reason for the speed limit? To keep us safe? If people can go 35 in a 25 with no decrease in safety, then raise the speed limit.
if the cameras will pay for themselves, then why wouldn't they continue to make money afterward? That's stupid. Don't worry, they'll pay for themselves, but don't worry this isn't something for us to sit back and make money on.
If there's so much speeding on the mountain then how about getting all the police cars that sit around in parking lots all day and all night out on the roads enforcing the speed limit.
The fastest car I've seen on the mountain lately actually was a SM police car doing about 75 on Taft WITHOUT the blue lights on.
These cameras are a joke. Cities know that they are illegal and that they can't legally enforce the laws. They are 100% used for revenue generation. Complete extortion of people on the oart of Big Brother. I wonder what happens when the cameras catch a cop or city councilman speeding? The Man uses these cameras to prey upon people too gullible to know any better and extort them out of money. If you ever get one of these tickets, fight it. They're easy to get out of. There also may very well be a class action lawsuit coming up against City of Chattanooga for their speeding cameras quite soon. There is already court precedence on the side of the people on this matter.
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