Archive: News

Village of Lansing Mayor Donald Hartill may have felt that no good deed goes unpunished on September 21 when Richard Durst came to the Village Trustee meeting to complain about speeding on the beautifully repaved Cayuga Heights Road.  But the Mayor, who also lives on Cayuga Heights Road took Durst's complaint seriously, and Monday reported on measures the Village is taking to try to control speeding there.  He also had a warning for all residents who drive there.

"As a warning to my fellow Lansing residents, we're going to have random selective enforcement as soon as I have enough data to persuade the State Police and the County Sheriff's department to perform such random enforcement," he said.  "So be aware."

Speeding has been a problem in the Village for some time, but without its own police force, the Village has had to resort to signage and occasional patrols by the State Police and Sheriff's Deputies.  After a major Triphammer Road reconstruction project was completed in 2006 Village Trustees installed a radar sign in the southbound lane just after the point where the speed limit changes to 30 miles per hour, which they say has helped slow traffic on Triphammer road.

At Trustee Lynn Leopold's suggestion the radar sign was moved to the southbound lane of Cayuga Heights Road recently.  The sign is capable of collecting statistics, and the preliminary findings Hartill reported on Monday are startling, especially because the Cayuga Heights Road is a winding, hilly, rambling road.

In the southbound lane alone the sign is counting about 500 vehicles per day.  56% of those are travelling between 30 and 40 miles per hour.  22% were clocked between 21 and 30 mph.  11% went between 41 and 50 mph, and 1.2% between 50 and 60.

Hartill says he will move the sign to the northbound lane to collect more data, and will use the statistics to convince the State Police and Sheriff's  Department to patrol the road more frequently.

Meanwhile, The New York State Department Of Transportation (NYSDOT) recently installed 45 mile per hour signs on East Shore Drive in the Village.  Previously the State Speed Limit of 55 miles per hour prevailed, but after years of lobbying by Village officials NYSDOT lowered the speed limit, installing the signs about a month after notifying the Village.  Leopold says that the signs are slowing some traffic, but notes that some people still speed down Esty hill.

Enforcement prevents small municipalities like the Village of Lansing from making effective laws, but Hartill says that establishing a village police force is exorbitantly expensive.

"To have a full time police force I would have to triple our tax levy to pay for that," he told Durst.  "It's a very expensive business.  We have police protection from the State and the Sheriff's Department.  We have a satellite office in the Shops at Ithaca Mall.  I am perfectly happy to periodically remind them to spend a little of their time here."

Hartill says the Village will buy a second radar sign to be permanently placed on Cayuga Heights Road once the current sign is returned to Triphammer Road.

"It's unfortunate," he says.  "We fix the roads and people take advantage.  I'm not sure it wasn't the same before we fixed the road, but people are now more sensitive to the speeding."

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