By Adam Swift
Speeding and the prevalence of traffic violations in Revere continues to be a top concern for many city councillors.
At the council’s next meeting on July 22, it is expected to meet with the mayor, public works superintendent, and the police chief to discuss traffic enforcement and traffic calming measures, thanks to a motion filed by Council President Anthony Cogliandro at last week’s meeting.
“I believe I can speak for every single councillor – past, present, and probably future – that this is one of the phone calls we receive more than any other type of phone call,” said Cogliandro. “This motion was submitted on a day that I received eight phone calls from different areas of my ward alone. I think it is time that we all had a conversation with all the people included in public so we can all understand what the issues are, how we are going to rectify them, and what we are going to do to make our streets safer, because there are a lot of people scared right now.”
Several councillors praised Cogliandro for submitting the motion.
“I truly believe that we need a full, all hands on deck approach,” said Silvestri. “I think the only way to really curb this is, I hate to say it, is enforcement. The lack of people that want to obey traffic lights and signals, and even stops … is getting to be out of control.”
Ward 2 Councillior Ira Novoselsky said he has gotten a number of calls in the past week about speeding concerns on different streets in his ward, many in areas where children regularly play.
“I think it is time we got speed bumps put in,” said Novoselsky. “I don’t care what it costs, we have to protect our people.”
Councillor-at-Large Michelle Kelley said there are problem traffic areas all over the city, pointing out that Squire in particular is a dicey area that saw a major traffic accident recently.
“In terms of enforcement, I really hate to see the city become too overly prevalent with speed tables, although I know they are a measure to curb this behavior,” said Kelley. “I think we really need some enforcement measures as well.”
Cogliando agreed that he doesn’t want to see the city overburdened with speed bumps, but said they could be used strategically.
“I do know that we are still trying to fill positions in the police department, those (speed bumps) are essentially a 24/7 speed deterrents,” he said. “I don’t want them all over the place, but if they are strategically placed, then they can be very valuable to public safety.”
