Des Moines resident urges Polk County to cut speed on Northeast 64th Street; county staff says a corridor study is underway

Carol Maru, a Downtown Des Moines resident, used the public-comment portion of the Polk County Board of Supervisors meeting to ask the board to reduce the speed limit on Northeast 64th Street at the Chautauqua Valley Trail from 55 mph to 40 mph and to require safety countermeasures such as pavement markings, medians and flashing beacons.

Maru told supervisors that "reduced speeds will save lives" and cited a tragic fatal bike crash earlier this year as motivation for the request. She asked the board to consider these changes during the current budget cycle and urged a thorough review of at-grade trail crossings.

In response, a county representative said Polk County is conducting an inventory of the trail system and crossings with the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and Polk County Conservation and that a corridor study focused on the referenced accident is underway. The staff response acknowledged the safety concern but did not announce a specific change in the posted speed limit during the meeting.

The board later listed, as part of the consent/resolutions section of the agenda, a resolution establishing the recommended speed limit on Northeast 64th Street (agenda item 17), which the board approved by roll call. The transcript does not include detailed engineering data, cost estimates or an implementation timeline for speed-limit changes; staff were recorded as continuing study and inventory work.

The meeting record shows the board handled numerous routine resolutions and administrative items that day; the speed-limit request and staff’s corridor study were the only items in the transcript that centered on a specific local traffic-safety concern.