The 3rd Precinct’s top cop told the Village of Plandome Board of Trustees on Tuesday that the county police could help but not solve the problem of motorists driving through stop signs and speeding in the village.
“Nothing will work as well as you want it to,” said police inspector Sean McCarthy, who is commanding officer of the 3rd Precinct.
Residents had complained to the board about motorists driving through stop signs and speeding throughout the village, and ideas had been brainstormed at last month’s meeting with a particular focus on the area surrounding Village Hall and along Brookside Drive and Rockwood Road.
McCarthy said the police could send additional officers to patrol the village, but it would not be a viable long-term solution.
Signs flashing a motorist’s speed, he said, tend to work well to curb speeding.
Village of Plandome Mayor M. Lloyd Williams said that the board would look into the cost of installing the cables needed for flashing signs, as well as measuring speed and traffic volume throughout the day on those roads.
The speed limit on village roads is 30 miles per hour.
“We need to build up a base of information on this,” said Williams.
He said he has seen the flashing speed signs quoted between $2,500 and $3,000.
One resident who lives on the corner of Pinewood Road and Park Woods Road said that Pinewood and Rockwood have become “literally a thoroughfare, as an alternative to Plandome Road.”
Another Rockwood Road resident suggested installing speed bumps or a speed camera on the road, but McCarthy said that to his knowledge there are no speed cameras in New York and speed bumps wouldn’t work because “a car doing 40 mph hitting that bump would go airborne.”
The same Rockwood resident later suggested that the board “really think outside the box” and suggested building a sidewalk on Rockwood Road and making it a one-way street.
Carlyn Casey, of 30 Brookside Drive, reiterated her request for stop signs to be placed along Brookside Drive, which had been denied at last month’s meeting
“There is no stop sign before people enter what is essentially a park,” she said.
McCarthy explained that stop signs aren’t meant to control speed, but to control traffic flow. He added that adding stop signs is rarely a good solution.
“The answer to people not stopping at stop signs is usually to take out some of the ones you already have as opposed to putting in more. People get desensitized and chronically irritated,” he said.
McCarthy said in his 28 years with the police department, most village crime problems stem from traffic concerns and non-compliance with stop signs, and suggested the village gather data to pinpoint the specific nature of its speed problems.
“Good intentions have unexpected consequences sometimes,” he said.
