Two men living in homes at different ends of the same road, never having met, are thinking the same thing - for safety's sake, the speed limits in Falconer Estates subdivision need to be reduced.

Bill Prokopyk wrote a letter to the Burleigh County Commission asking the speed limits be reduced from the posted 35 mph to 25 mph.

"In my opinion, many vehicles drive faster than the posted speed limit. Each day I see cars and trucks speed by narrowly missing pedestrians," Prokopyk wrote. "This is especially concerning when children wait for buses and people driving their children to school always seem to be running late. Often my children have to back way up onto the grass to avoid the speeding vehicles."

Falconer Estates is south of Bismarck, just off University Drive to the east, with Prairie Rose Elementary located at the corner of Apple Creek Drive and Oahe Bend.

Jon Sanstead also lives on Apple Creek Drive and didn't know anyone else had complained until he contacted commissioner Claus Lembke to express his concerns on the same subject. Sanstead attended Monday's county commission meeting to see if posted speeds can be lowered.

"On Oahe we have Prairie Rose Elementary, to the north is Apple Creek Drive, Walker Drive and Falconer Drive. When the 35 mph speed limit was first posted there weren't a lot of homes, but since then the area has been developed in great part by young families," Sanstead said.

"In the morning and afternoons we see a lot of children coming and going to school and during the evenings and weekends they're out playing and riding their bikes. There are no sidewalks, and if you're going out for a walk you have to use the streets,"Sanstead added. "The 35 mph speed limit is not seen as the ceiling, and most people treat it as the floor. They're going much faster in a very developed area. Studies show that by dropping speeds from 35 to 25 mph substantially increases a vehicle's ability to stop."

Commissioners questioned whether changing the posted limit will make a difference. Commissioner Doug Schonert didn't think much enforcement would be seen in the area. Highway Superintendent Jon Mill also indicated that without enforcement the speed limit change will have little effect.

Mill said the county has no policy for setting speed limits in these situations and it is usually left to the developer. Commissioners discussed setting a policy for all the subdivisions, using density of housing to determine speeds, but took no action.

"The first step is to get the speed limit reduced the next will be getting it enforced," Sanstead said. "Right now they see 35 mph and are going 45 to 50. If you reduce it people typically drop their speed proportionately. If they see 25 mph maybe they'll go to 30 or 35 mph."

Lembke said one of the basic problems is that the roads in the subdivision cater to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

"If you have a jogger and a vehicle, the jogger has to yield the right of way. Because of the width and size of the road, the two cannot coexist," Lembke says.

"That's the problem we have," Sanstead said. "Right now there are so many families and it's hard to keep your kids penned up. If you have two cars coming down the street in opposite directions, well it's every parent's nightmare out there."

Commission chairman Jerry Woodcox asked Sanstead if the other residents of the subdivision were like-minded. Sanstead admitted he couldn't vouch for everyone, but said he had talked to neighbors who felt the same way.

Sanstead was asked to put together a petition with at least half of the residents of the subdivision signing on in requesting the speed limit be reduced and turn the petition into the auditor.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)