The South Padre Island City Council unanimously approved lowering the speed limit on Gulf Boulevard this week.
The city council approved Councilwoman Theresa Metty’s proposal to lower the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles per hour on the road that runs closest to the beach on the east side of the island.
Steven Schaefer lives on South Padre Island and remembers when Gulf Boulevard didn’t have a bike and pedestrian-only lane.
“I think the biggest safety concern was before, they put these white posts in here, there was a lot of problems,” Schaefer said.
Although Schaefer believes the road is safer, city councilwoman Metty feels the road should be safer.
In a statement to CBS 4, Metty said, “Moving traffic is just inches way from parked cars, where I’ve seen small children emerge from between parked cars, leaving almost no reaction time for vehicles to stop.”
She adds that she would have liked to see the speed limit lowered to 20 miles per hour, but the council is not allowed to do that.
“We have issues on busy weekends, primarily and during the summertime,” said Brian Bell, the general manager of one business along Gulf Boulevard. “You’ll get just large amounts of people [around Gulf Blvd., so] the lowered speed limit makes a lot of sense.”
Bell also believes the road has become safer with the added bike lane, but he says there are still drivers that go over the 30 mile per hour speed limit.
South Padre Island Spokeswoman Nikki Soto tells CBS 4 the day in which the speed limit will change on Gulf Boulevard is still pending.
by Santiago Caicedo
