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see if we can continue to bring the speed down. But if we have no ability to enforce the speed limits, it really takes away any of the other potential tools that we have. Mr. Brozosky felt in that section of Stoneridge the speed would keep creeping up and it is an entrance to a residential area, not a through street. His concern is people will be driving 40 mph and turning onto a 25 mph zone. By allowing a faster speed on Stoneridge we are going to have faster speeds on the residential streets right next to it. Ms. Ayala asked if the Committee realized there was a private school east of Santa Rita. Ms. McKeehan said that even if the speed is changed, the City could fix the speed concerning school children later if it meets the criteria. Mr. Campbell asked how the speed limits become more enforceable by increasing them. Mr. Roush responded by citing the way the State law is written. In order to use radar and give a citation that will be upheld in court, the legislature has said that a citation cannot be given for a speed trap. A speed trap by the definition under the State law is a speed which is not justified by a traffic and engineering survey. If the 85* percentile is established at 45 mph, for example, and the speed limit is set at 30 mph for reasons that are unrelated to engineering and traffic reasons, the courts will not uphold that citation because they will see that speed limit as a speed trap and the limit would be viewed as an arbitrary number. This puts the police officers in a difficult spot when they have to go to court and the judge says they cannot uphold the citation because there is no justification for that speed limit. Mr. Knowles said if the speed is not posted it becomes either 55 mph or 65 mph by state law. The State Code has a provision that allows us to set a lower speed limit only at, er doing a study such as this. If a sign is installed that does not conform to the survey, even the lower speed is invalid. Every single speed limit in the City has been reviewed and the findings are included in the staff report. Some of the limits may have to be revisited after major construction on a particular roadway. After reviewing all of the criteria and the law, the staff report recommends that only a few segments be modified. Mayor Pico said that if the City has a segment that is noncompliant, where the average speed is significantly in excess of the posted speed, the courts will not honor those citations issued by the police department. In fact, the courts discourage the police department to the extent that they are not enfoming speed limits on areas that are unenforceable from the court's standpoint. The situation now is if there is a segment that we don't modify the speed limit to bring it to within compliance, the police deparlment will be unable to enfome any of the speed limits on that segment, unless the vehicle exceeds 65 mph. By not adjusting the speed limit, we de facto make the speed limit on that segment 65 mph and people can travel at any rate below the 65 mph speed and the citation will not hold up in court. In addition to the citation getting thrown out the City may or may not have to have an officer go to court to defend the citation at a cost to the City. This is a real concern that we need to be aware of if we don't modify these limits as recommended by the study. We will have created a speed trap with the speed limits totally Pleasanton City Council 8 01/07/03 Minutes