Letter: Don’t Lower Speed Limit On Okeechobee

Editor’s note: The following letter is in response to the article “Implementation Of Lower Speed Limits Divides Lox Council” published last week.

I recently read that the speed limit on Okeechobee Blvd. will be lowered from 45 mph to 30 mph. Are you kidding me? That is laughable!

Instead of taking a serious look at the bad conditions on Okeechobee Blvd., our town is going to make the road less safe.

The speed limit on Okeechobee Blvd. has been 45 mph for at least 25 years, and many impatient drivers will try to pass, causing many more serious accidents and head-on collisions.

A 30 mph speed limit is fine if you are taking your grandma to Publix at 10 a.m., but I have to leave every weekday at 6:30 a.m. for work. I need to get to work on time, and I don’t need anything else in the morning slowing me down!

I am a safe driver with no tickets, but I, along with hundreds of other daily Okeechobee Blvd. drivers, will simply ignore your bright shiny new signs.

The answer is not lower speed limits, it is proper speed enforcement by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, repaving and restriping the potholed-filled road, and have better street lighting on Okeechobee Blvd. through Loxahatchee Groves. We can fix the road, but we can’t fix stupid.

Edward Betcher, Loxahatchee Groves