The speed at which drivers will be traveling along U.S. Route 58 will decline in the foreseeable future. Not necessarily by new enforced lower speed limits, which were introduced by city staff this week, but rather by necessity, as the amount of traffic increases due to the new CenterPoint project.

The optimists believe that a solution to the traffic woes will be indeed be implemented, but all the realists understand that in the current economy the millions of dollars needed to resolve the situation just aren’t accessible.

There’s no doubt that altering the speed limit on the stretch of U.S. Route 58, locally known as Holland Road, won’t make a substantial difference to the congestion problem the road faces now and is expected to see in the near future. But considering the cost from alternative solutions, which include either a new bypass or adding lanes, this small step makes sense and hopefully will help reduce the number of crashes and fatalities that have occurred on the road.

The changes to Route 58 are being made based on information from a traffic study. The study showed that the road produced 249 crashes, with 60 injuries and four fatal wrecks over the last three years. These are staggering statistics, which deserve the attention of the city. Although reducing the speed limit is a sign of giving the problem some thought, this is an issue that should be high on the cities priority list for each year until a sustainable solution is afforded.