Board wants residents' input on speed limit

By Sally Voth - svoth@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- The Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors' public safety and code committee is encouraging residents to contact them regarding a proposal to limit vehicles traveling on unpaved roads to 35 mph.

The topic has been discussed for a couple of years, District 5 Supervisor Dennis Morris said.

Jerry Copp, the Virginia Department of Transportation's Edinburg residency administrator, told the committee that unpaved roads have an unposted speed limit of 55 mph. However, drivers going that fast can be charged with reckless driving if that speed cannot be safely maintained, he said.

Copp said he gets calls about speeding, and when residents are told that the speed limit on gravel roads is actually 55 mph, "they just don't understand that."

"That's not even a reasonable answer that they're hearing," he said.

Shenandoah County has about 250 miles of unpaved roads, Copp said.

State code allows localities to lower the maximum speed limit on dirt and gravel roads to 35 mph without posting a sign. Ten counties, including Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Rappahannock and Loudoun, have enacted such laws.

Law enforcement might not have the resources to enforce the lower speeds on those roads, Copp said. Education, he said, might be the way to go.

"It may be an opportunity if you go into the 35 mph [limit] to do some outreach through your schools and so forth and through your community effort and so forth to get out the word," he said. "It may be something you can work on as a culture change other than an enforcement [effort]."

Shenandoah County Sheriff's Maj. Scott Proctor, who was at the committee meeting, said enforcement on gravel roads is problematic because they don't have a hard shoulder on which to stop a vehicle or from which to conduct radar enforcement.

He said the department, with its current resources, would do its best to make whatever the county decides work.

Morris said surrounding counties have adopted the lower speed, and common sense made him wish to see Shenandoah County do the same.

However, District 1 Supervisor Dick Neese said he had an issue with drivers being caught without knowing the limit had been changed. He said he would prefer that in problem areas residents ask the sheriff's office or state police for extra monitoring.

"I just hate to legislate common sense," District 4 Supervisor Sharon Baroncelli said.

Morris replied, "[The] common-sense approach says I want my family to be safe, my teenage daughter to be safe."

The proposal will go to the full board. The committee asked that the public contact their representatives with their opinions.