Elizabeth Park 15-mph Speed Limit

Before a human tragedy happens at Elizabeth Park due to the speeding cars and careless drivers who make illegal U-turns within the park, especially the fishermen and the hundreds of soccer parents and grandparents, something needs to be done. I am one of many daily visitors in Elizabeth Park in Trenton. On any given day and time, there are several walkers, joggers, and people with strollers/bikes/skates/walkers. The park also has its own residents: the squirrels, ducks, geese, deer, and raccoons. We have seen our share of flattened wildlife.

There are THREE 15-mph speed limit signs in the park (even one just as you cross over the bridge), but they and the TWO No U-Turn signs and SEVERAL No Parking/Stopping/Standing signs are widely ignored by those speeding through the park. Often, the drivers are distracted while on the phone and come too close to those pedestrains along the sides of the road. Sometimes, people miss the jog on West Jefferson and inadvertently end up driving through the park, but it’s a PARK, not a racetrack. There is no excuse for speeding.

We pedestrians have voiced our traffic concerns to City Council and the law enforcement officers of Trenton and of the Wayne County Sheriff’s office.   I have spoken with the church group who sponsors the soccer teams and with the coach himself to advise the parents of the 15-mph speed limit, but each year it gets worse. I am often met with hostility when I try to remind the speeders of the limit.

Follow the law and the signs. There are enough of them in Elizabeth Park; just look at the photos.