Excerpt From The Daily Astorian – August 24, 2007

City Manager Benoit calls it [excessive vehicle noise & speeding] a quality of life issue. "If you live on an arterial certain things come with it. I have no doubt it's noisy. It's a legitimate complaint," he said of ALN's concerns. But there are few accidents, he said, and Astoria's police department, like most in Oregon, uses discretion in writing tickets. "Do our citizens want police to be writing tickets for 26 mph?" Benoit asked. "There's nothing worse than a city perceived as having a quota".

ALN Comment

Quality of Life Issue:

ALN is happy City Manager Benoit has borrowed from ALN that speeding and excessively loud vehicles are quality of life issues!

Tickets:

Benoit’s spin on speeding tickets is a weak attempt to diffuse ALN's criticism of the City of Astoria's dangerous policy and practice of not issuing speeding citations in 25 MPH zones until speeds of 35+ MPH are reached:

• ALN does not advocate “police …. writing tickets for 26 mph”;
• ALN does not advocate police having a ticket “quota”.

Accidents:

As far as the comment that “there are few accidents”, City Engineer Carole Richardson reports that between 2001 and 2005, there were 22 collisions on 16th Street. More than one house on 16th Street has been hit by a vehicle. One house was even knocked off its foundation by a speeding & out-of-control car. Between May and November of 2007, five pedestrians were hit by vehicles while in crosswalks.