Broken Arrow City Ordinance 23-53 regulates the speed limit shall be “Twenty-five m.p.h. on all streets and upon the streets adjacent to schools at times other than specified, unless otherwise posted”. Therefore, unless another speed limit is posted, the legal speed limit on all streets by ordinance is 25 m.p.h. Even if your neighborhood street has no posted speed sign, the legal speed limit is 25 m.p.h. Compliance with residential speed limits is one of the biggest complaints received by the Police Department. For this reason, we offer the following steps you can take to help reduce speeders in your neighborhood.

• The reality is the majority of motorists that are speeding past your home are your neighbors, the same people who live in the area. Due to complacency and familiarity, your neighbors will routinely drive too fast to get to and from their own homes. We recommend the first step you take is to approach your homeowners association to intervene to remind your neighbors of the importance of abiding by the speed limits in our residential areas. The Crime Prevention Specialist of the Broken Arrow Police Department can refer you to educational materials that can be distributed to your neighbors through the homeowners association. Call the Crime Prevention Specialist at 918-451-8200, ext. 8213, for additional information. We can also refer you to resources to provide yard signs, bumper stickers and other materials, such as Keep Kids Alive Drive 25 that can serve as supplemental reminders to people who drive near your home of the importance of abiding by our traffic laws. Peer pressure can be a successful way to encourage your neighbors to drive safely.
• The Broken Arrow Traffic Specialist Unit operates a “Traffic Hotline” for residents to call to report traffic problems, which may give you additional relief to your concerns. If you call 918-451-8357 you can provide details as to what type of traffic problem you have, when the problems are most prevalent and we will address your concern through traffic enforcement. Upon receipt of your complaint, an officer will be assigned to work enforcement in the area in an attempt to decrease the occurrences of violations through increased police presence. However, there are limitations to our affect on the number of violations occurring. Assignment of an officer to a neighborhood traffic enforcement request will be a temporary fix and must be conducted on a priority basis.

A common fear expressed by parents is that “my child might be struck by a speeding car”. The misconception exists that if a car strikes a child, then the driver of the vehicle must be responsible for the crash. The reality is that most auto versus pedestrian collisions are caused by improper actions on the part of the pedestrian, especially small children who run into the street in front of traffic. It is a rare occasion that a vehicle driver will be found to have caused a crash involving a pedestrian. That’s of little significance till you are a grieving parent. We must remember that streets are designed for cars, not as playgrounds for children. As parents, we have the responsibility to ensure the safety of our children by keeping them away from the streets. This is the only way that we can ensure the safety of our children from passing traffic.