Local woman seeks to change speed on Boundary Street

Fifteen-year-old Nell Davis was biking down Boundary Street on Nov. 3 when she attempted to turn left into her driveway. A truck tried to pass her on the left hitting Davis and sending her to the hospital for two days with a fractured skull and pinkie finger.

Three days later, Davis' mother, Rachel Ruhlen sent a request to the Kirksville City Council for the speed limit on Boundary Street to be decreased.

City Manager Mari Macomber  said she received the request from Ruhlen, but because Boundary is outside Kirksville city limits, there is nothing the Council or city can do about it. Macomber then sent an e-mail to MODOT Area Engineer Phil Sandifer and told Ruhlen to contact him about it.

Ruhlen said MODOT came out and did a traffic study on the road and told her half the drivers were going over the speed limit and half were going under, so MODOT wasn't going to change it, which Ruhlen said didn't make sense to her.

 "This is 55 mph traffic and there's no shoulder  and no sidewalk," Ruhlen said.  "People are trying to run, bike and walk their dogs on this street and it's really fast traffic on a narrow road."

Because MODOT declined to take further action, Ruhlen drafted a petition and is asking people to sign it in an effort to lower the speed.

The petition states that Boundary/Highway H is heavily used by both pedestrian and high speed vehicles   that could be made safer by extending the 35 mph speed zone south to Shepherd Road or by introducing a 45 mph zone between Shepherd and the current 35 mph zone.

Ruhlen said she took the petition out Saturday and has 60 signatures as of Wednesday night. She said her goal is 100 signatures, but will keep asking for signatures for a few weeks. Her next step is taking the petition to local government groups and getting their support. She said she will then present the petition and the local support to MODOT.

Sandifer said the petition probably wouldn't sway MODOT's opinion on the issue.

"If we got the petition from her, I don't think that would change our opinion on what it should be," Sandifer said. "If people don't go the speed limit it doesn't help to lower the speed limit. We did talk with the city of Kirksville about increasing the amount of enforcement in there and they said they didn't have the time or the personnel to sit out there and watch it and try to enforce the speed limit."