In a Raleigh City Council meeting Feb. 20, members of the city council presented a petition for a speed limit reduction on Trailwood Drive.

According to the Council’s Web site, it proposed additional stop and yield signs on various streets and traffic-control programs along with a speed limit reduction on portions of Trailwood.

Dail Smith, City Clerk, said the council’s minutes referred to Raleigh resident Tom Kwak of Trailwood Drive who submitted a petition.

“Kwak explained that the street is primarily filled with single family homes, and the number of homes, lack of sidewalks and curbs, and the amount of heavy traffic, result in the request for the speed limit to be reduced to 35 mph,” Smith said.

Smith said Kwak gave information detailing 30 accidents on Trailwood last year including one fatality.

“The road is part in the city of Raleigh and partly in the county,” Smith said. “As soon as the state gives permission, the requested actions will go into effect.”

The speed limit reduction will create consistency on the road and alleviate confusion, Smith said.

“The speed limit changed from 50 mph at one point to 25 mph at another and this was causing people to speed and increase accidents,” Smith said.

A problem lies in two blind hills on Trailwood, Brandon Allen, a junior in economics, said.

“It was raining, and I came over one of the hills, and a car was trying to do a U-turn, and I barely had time to stop, and the two cars behind me did not,” Allen said. “I was rear-ended, and it then caused a four-car pileup.”

Last week there was another four-car pileup, Allen said.

“I’ve been passed at night before, and it’s a double yellow line,” Allen said.

Allen said it is necessary to reduce the speed limit, but it won’t curb aggressive driving.

“People our age just don’t care,” Jason Boner, a sophomore in business management, said.

Chris Jones, a senior in wood products said the speed limit reduction won’t affect him either way, but it may slow down time to class.

“It would be better to get out of my apartment complex if the speed was reduced,” Jones said, “but it would be more useful to have a stoplight.”

Allen said stoplights would help as well.

“Streetlights and mirrors and a decreased speed would all help,” Allen said.

A combination of the narrow and windy road and a lack of lighting makes it impossible to see while driving on Trailwood at night, Boner said.

He said the attempts to increase safety on the road are “worth a try.”