The photo illustration (by Carrie Cronk and Phillip Hemphill) shows a car travelling just under the posted 25 mph speed limit on OCCC's campus.
Drivers exceed campus speed limit
Do you know the speed limit around Faculty Circle?
Neither did one-third of the students heading to and from class one October morning.
To find out how many drivers were speeding on campus, this reporter set out with a radar gun.
Here are the results:
- Faculty Circle, the street that circles the campus, has a speed limit set at 25 mph.
- There are 14 speed-limit signs clearly posted in both directions on the circle, all of which say 25 mph.
- Nineteen of the 29 vehicles that were clocked were driving over the speed limit.
- Fourteen of the cars speeding were less than 10 mph above the limit, but five others exceeded 35 mph.
- One car was going around a turn on the loop at 41 mph — 16 mph over the limit.
- Not every car was speeding, though — two cars were clocked at 15 mph.
- Of the 29 cars clocked, the average speed was 29 mph.
Ike Sloas, Safety and Security director, said the speeding didn’t surprise him.
He said he was pleased the average speed was only four miles over the posted limit.
Sloas said security officers can’t issue tickets for speeding, but they can issue citations for reckless driving, which covers speeding.
Keith Bourque, Safety and Security coordinator, said the fine for reckless driving is $25.
Sloas said, that in addition to issuing fines, officers can be a deterrent to speeding by letting their presence be known.
In addition to fines, Sloas said, Safety and Security officers could use traffic control mechanisms to curb speeding.
“To limit the speeding we can put up more stop signs and even speed bumps,” Sloas said.
He said speed limits are necessary.
“If there is an accident, Oklahoma City Police investigators can tell whether a person involved was speeding,” Sloas said. “The formula used is called the drag coefficient.”
Also, Sloas said, the Oklahoma City Police Department and the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department can come to the campus and assist with traffic control if OCCC requests it.
Staff Writer Phillip Hemphill can be reached at SeniorWriter@occc.edu.
