SPEED TRAP: Plan to reduce 30A speed limit draws fire(WITH PHOTO AND MAP)

Joan Vienot's business can't afford to see the speed limit lowered on 30A.

"We operate about eight trucks every day on 30A," Vienot said at Monday's Friends of Scenic 30A forum. "We all know that we need to drive appropriately during peak times and on the weekends. That’s not an issue."

The problem for Vienot, the owner of Pool Pals, is that her trucks need to average a dollar per minute in order for her company to "operate as it does."

"I did some math and if you needlessly slow us down just five minutes a day, times our eight trucks, you are going to cost us $200 a week,” Vienot told the board members.  “That is $10,400 you would cost me a year."

Vienot's plea to the Friends of Scenic 30A was echoed by almost all of the 30-plus people in attendance.

Tom Stein, director for the Friends, said it became apparent that after last month’s meeting "there were more issues” than just low speed vehicles, and that is why they called for a second meeting.

"We have had a bunch of great feedback since the last time we met," Stein said. "We worked with Prebble-Rish Engineers to show you where the speed limits change along 30A.

Cliff Knauer, an engineer with Prebble-Rish, joked they were put on a "fact finding" mission by the Friends.

"There are some places where the speeds overlap depending on which direction you are driving," he said.

Knauer added that there are 62 speed limit signs on 30A and the speeds change at least 10 times traveling eastbound.

"Eastbound it would be very difficult for someone to use their cruise control," he said.

Gulf Trace resident Rick McQuiston was one of the first people to speak up.

"I am opposed to any speed limit changes that would cause us all to go slower," he said. "I think we are a pretty sophisticated population along the coast. We are capable of exercising good judgment."

McQuiston said the bicycles on the roadways were already causing problems for motorists and that lowering the speed limit would just make matters worse.

Fellow Gulf Trace resident Hank White expanded on McQuiston's thoughts.

"From reading the media reports, you look like you are trying to lower the speed limits to accommodate less than 1 percent of traffic that would ever be on this road," he said. "I am very much against changing it. It works now."

Although he was largely outnumbered, Kevin Nelson, operations manager at Street Legal Carts, spoke out in favor of lowering the speed limits.

"The use of LSVs and the introduction of the electric carts to the area can be a really good thing for the environmental aspect and bringing in tourists," Nelson said. "While the LSV is not the answer to polluting automobiles, it can be a beginning. This gives us the opportunity to put ourselves on the map as an area and as forward thinkers moving toward a more environmentally friendly alternative form of transportation."

Stein said that all the information from the public forums will be forwarded on to the county and then it will be up to them to decide what to do with it.

"We just wanted to get a feeling for what the residents had to say," Stein said. "Now we have a good idea."