A pair of residents urged the Sherwood Traffic Safety Committee on Monday to act on speeding and missing signage along the curved stretch of road between two 90-degree bends, saying unsafe speeds have led to multiple crashes and near-misses.
The comments came during the meeting’s public-comment period, when an unnamed resident said enforcement was “the committee that it has to be before” and urged a review of signage on the stretch she described as a 25-mile-per-hour zone. She told the committee that the area “is actually a 25 mile an hour zone” and that there is ‘‘no signs there other than the Amber, you know, 20 mile an hour turn advisory.’’
Nut graf: The residents’ remarks focused committee attention on a corridor that crosses multiple jurisdictions and that residents say lacks clear speed signage and regular enforcement. Committee members and city staff described several short-term measures — temporary resident signs, a speed trailer deployment and police enforcement — and said longer-term changes will require intergovernmental coordination.
Sammy Brown, a Sherwood resident who said she moved to the neighborhood in July 2023, described personal safety concerns at a blind corner where her father uses a driveway. Brown said three crashes have occurred near that corner in the two years since she moved there and described repeated “very, very close calls” involving her children. “I just don't want anything to happen to me or my children,” she said.
City staff and the committee acknowledged the complaint and said jurisdictional complexity complicates permanent fixes. Councilor Dan Stankey, who attends as a nonvoting liaison between the committee and the City Council, said the corridor runs near the urban-growth boundary and that “the county has a little bit of that,” creating a patchwork of responsibility across jurisdictions.
Police and staff described immediate and low-cost steps under their control. A police captain who spoke at the meeting (listed in committee materials but not named in the transcript) said residents can pick up temporary yard speed signs at the police station and that the department will continue targeted enforcement. Committee members also said the committee has placed centerline striping and fog-line re-striping on the street to improve driver awareness.
Staff said they have begun using a speed trailer and plan to move it along the corridor in two-week placements to slow drivers and collect data; they also noted plans to subscribe to a data service (Urban SDK) for remote speed monitoring and analysis. Staff emphasized that permanent speed-limit changes or large capital improvements will likely require intergovernmental agreements and state-level approvals.
Ending: Committee members asked staff to keep the item on the agenda for follow-up and to report back with speed-trailer data and any enforcement logs the police department can share. Residents were encouraged to bring complaints or new evidence to staff so the committee can prioritize longer-term capital or speed-limit requests.