City OKs survey for speed limits 

Deputy Turk uses the radar to scan for any residents significantly going over the speed limit on McBean Parkway on Monday, Sept. 16. Habeba Mostafa/ The Signal
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As part of a state-mandated justification for local speed limits, the Santa Clarita City Council approved a $100,000 professional survey required by the California Vehicle Code. 

The law gives two reasons the city must complete the survey, according to the agenda for the Jan. 28 meeting in which the survey was approved: 

Posted speed limits along public roadways must be established and justified by an engineering and traffic survey; and if law enforcement officials want to use radar- or laser-based speed detection, then surveys must be updated every five to seven years to make sure the limits are based on current road conditions. 

The city last conducted the survey in October 2018, but the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department is one of the agencies that allows the city to have seven years of validity for its study, based on training and equipment calibration, per the city. California Highway Patrol officials were not immediately available to confirm Tuesday evening.  

“Conducting the citywide survey is vital to the continued use of radar or laser enforcement by the Sheriff’s Department,” according to a report prepared by Joel Bareng of the city’s Public Works Department. “Without a valid survey, Los Angeles County Superior Court will not uphold a speeding violation issued by the Sheriff’s Department in which radar or laser enforcement is utilized. In addition, if radar or laser is not used, the Sheriff’s Department must rely on less effective alternatives, such as pacing speeding offenders. The scope of work for this project includes an accident rate analysis, field review, speed surveys and a final engineering and traffic survey report.” 

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