Cranberry Township launches radar speed sign pilot program with neighborhood

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Getting drivers to slow down permanently: that’s the goal of the Cranberry Heights HOA and township officials, who, together, launched a pilot program to install permanent radar speed signs in the neighborhood.

As of Thursday, you’ll find two solar-powered speed signs in Cranberry Heights to remind drivers not to speed. Kelly Maurer, the director of public works for the township, said the initiative is focused on communities where the average speed is 10 miles per hour over the speed limit or more and where there are more than 1,000 drivers a day.

“This was a perfect location,” Maurer said. “There’s a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, bus stops…you’ll see the neighborhood sidewalks. They have little pedestrian pockets…it’s heavily used.”

Each sign collects data that is sent back to township officials. While police cannot issue tickets from just the data alone, they say it’s helpful in more ways than one.

“We can see – is the sign working? Are the speeds going down? Is there a certain time the police should patrol?” Maurer said.

“We do not enforce the speed off of these signs, we can’t do that. However, if we are monitoring speed by other means in the neighborhood, we can enforce that,” said Lt. William Ahlgren of the Cranberry Township Police Department.

Each sign costs $2,500, paid for by both the neighborhood HOA and the township. Parents in the area told Channel 11 they’ve already noticed drivers slowing down since the signs were put in on Thursday.

“It’s just perfect that the installation is the same time as the children are getting out of school and we’re entering into our slow down campaign,” Maurer said.

“The kids are back, they’re out of school, they’re going to be running around, we gotta pay more attention,” Ahlgren said.

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