MDOT Working with Secretary to Crack Down on Speeding

(SECRETARY, Md) – The small community of Secretary only has one major roadway, state route 14 running through it, but as I found out this morning – it’s been a point of concern in the community, specifically around Warwick Elementary School.

Secretary Mayor, Susan Dukes says the work with the Maryland Department of Transportation is only starting in keeping the road around the school safe.

She says reckless driving has been going on for too long.

Mayor Dukes tells us, “We have asked them over the years to help us with the speeding problem we have here in town, which has been quite a lot. It’s been very serious over the years. They have come up with the idea of the quick hit…”

The Quick Hit is part of the Department of Transportation’s “Complete Roads” program, with the department installing safety measures.

Shane Sarver with the department walked us through just one of of the facets that will help slow down drivers.

“What this quick build project will do is temporarily install speed cushions, which are kind of like speed bumps, but a little bit flatter. And they’re shaped in a way that emergency vehicles aren’t affected by them,” says Sarvers.

Mayor Dukes ran some of the numbers with us of how bad the speeding problem is along Route 14.

With a RedSpeed study showing over 300 drivers going 10 miles over the 35 miles per hour speed limit.

She says, “It’s very dangerous. There’s a lot of pedestrian, there’s a lot of kids riding bicycles. It’s become a very serious problem. As a small town, we have do not have our own police force. We rely on the sheriffs department. They do not have the manpower. They do not have the money or the funding to be able to handle traffic control in a town like ours.”

And while the plan for complete streets is to ultimately install RedSpeed cameras on route 14, the goal isn’t to send out speeding tickets.

“We’re just trying to slow them down. If we can slow them down and not give out any tickets, we’ll be happy. But if we have to give out tickets to people to slow them down, we will do that,” says Dukes.

The Complete Road features will be installed through the fall of this year, with some becoming permanent if they prove to be successful.