By Town Crier Staff Report

Motorists may have to put on their brakes on four Los Altos streets. The Los Altos City Council decided last week to consider dropping the speed limits on additional city streets pending a staff review. The city already lowered the posted speed limits on a portion of El Monte Avenue and Springer Road earlier this month as part of a citywide speed limit study.

Fremont and Grant roads and the portion of El Monte Avenue from Foothill Expressway to Interstate 280 are additional streets that could have their 35 mile-per-hour posted speeds dropped by as much as 10 mph. The council agreed last week to lower the speed limit on Miramonte Avenue from 35 mph to 25 mph.

Resident concerns and a new state law prompted the recent speed limit overhaul. The new law makes it legal for police to use radar in the lower speed zones.

Until California Vehicle Code 627, police officers were prohibited from using radar to enforce the speed limit unless the posted speed limit was within 5 mph of what 85 percent of motorists on that particular road traveled. Police were unable to use radar to ticket on many streets because the disparity between the posted speed limit and the surveyed speed limit would have led to tickets that would have been thrown out of court.

The updated law allows cities to use pedestrian and bicycle safety and residential density, when setting speed limits.