Long Beach aldermen talk speed limit change on East Railroad Street

LONG BEACH, Miss. (WXXV) — The latest speed limit reduction on East Railroad Street is causing pushback from residents as it’s set to go into effect on January 20.

In a social media post… the City of Long Beach announced the change, dropping the speed limit on East Railroad from 40 to 30 miles per hour. Alderman Joey Giuffria introduced the proposal which passed with a 5-2 vote by the board.

“We realized that our city has changed. Our city is growing, which is a great thing. We need to make some changes for that growth. we perceived a clear and present danger as far as people that were pedestrians that were walking on Railroad Street. We have a lot of businesses there, and we have a lot of people that were concerned about it. It was called to my attention,” said Alderman Giuffria.

We spoke with Alderman-at-large Donald Frazer, who opposed the change.

Frazer says he “didn’t see the justification for it,” claiming that there have been no instances of issues in the past resulting from the speed limit. He also noted the pushback from the community seen on social media, stating, “It seems like the majority of them (citizens) don’t like it.”

We asked Alderman Giuffria for comment on the opposition.

“We are being very proactive. We see something that can happen… we’re not looking for it to happen before we do something,” Giuffria said. “A lot of times we’ve seen in the past where we’ve had fatalities in intersections, then we see a traffic light being put there. Well, I think this board is being proactive. We saw a danger, and we’re trying to do something before it happens. I think that’s important, and that’s the right thing to do. Everybody may not agree with that philosophy, but I think it’s the right place to be.”

This comes just weeks after the city reduced the speed limit on the popular downtown strip, Jeff Davis Avenue, from 25 to 15 miles per hour, with the city once again citing pedestrian safety as the cause for change.

Both aldermen did note that though disagreements arise, they continue working together to do what’s best for Long Beach citizens on a wide range of issues. Mayor Tim Pierce says the city hopes the transition to the new speed limit on East Railroad will be smooth, especially since the limit on that road is already 30 miles per hour in Gulfport city limits.

“We understand that there’s going to be a transition period from 40 to 30 miles per hour, and we’re going to do what we can to work with our public to get acclimated to that 30 miles per hour. We’re going to advise our officers, ‘look, warnings, courtesy citations, lets help our public learn that new speed limit and just slow them down,'” said Long Beach Police Department Captain Patrick Craig.

Despite differing opinions across the Long Beach community, the change will go into effect on Tuesday, January 20.