LIFE IN THE NOT-SO-FAST LANE SUPERVISORS MAY REDUCE TOWN SPEED LIMITS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

QUARTZ HILL - Los Angeles County supervisors are expected to lower speed limits into downtown Quartz Hill and to ask California Highway Patrol officers to use radar to catch speeders there.

The supervisors are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to lower 50th Street West's speed limit to 45 mph between Avenue M-8 and Avenue N, where it is now 50 mph, and to 45 mph between Avenue K and Avenue L, where it is now 55.

``The idea is to improve safety without causing increased congestion,'' said Tony Bell, an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who asked for the traffic study that recommended lowering the speed limits.

The supervisors also recently asked the CHP to use radar to catch speeders on 45th Street West, which has become a bypass route for motorists trying to avoid school traffic from Quartz Hill Elementary School on 50th Street West.

CHP officials have received calls from Quartz Hill residents requesting additional enforcement of traffic laws and complaining that motorists are driving too fast, Lt. Andria Witmer said.

``Like all areas in the Antelope Valley, people want more law enforcement,'' Witmer said.

Quartz Hill Town Council President Ruth Giles said townsfolk complain about motorists speeding through downtown Quartz Hill, where the speed limit is 35 mph, or 25 mph when children are walking to and from the elementary school.

``The cars are traveling too fast and we need more police to catch the speeders,'' she said.

One factor seems to be newcomers who aren't used to driving rural roads, Giles said.

``We have a lot of senior citizens, old-timers, and we have a lot of new people,'' she said.

Los Angeles County officials say catching speeders is safer with radar than with having an officer follow in a patrol car to clock motorists. By state law, radar can only be used on most streets if a recent survey has calculated the speed at which most motorists travel.

State law forbids cities and counties from arbitrarily lowering speed limits, in an effort to stop cities from creating ``speed traps'' to generate ticket revenue.

Speed limits must be set according to a radar survey of the speed at which 85 percent of traffic travels, on the premise that the majority of motorists will drive a safe speed.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Supervisors are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to lower 50th Street West's speed limit to 45 mph in Quartz Hill.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer