By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- At the Dec. 3, township board of trustees meeting Lt. Lance Cook from Michigan State Police gave a presentation about speeding on the dirt roads and the possibility of a speed study.
“People drive a speed that feels safe and reasonable to them,” said Cook. “The thing with gravel roads is that, especially in rural areas, what’s the problem we’re trying to fix? Do you have a lot of crashes on your gravel roads? Most of the time, the answer is no, and it’s almost never any serious crashes.”
Residents have voiced their concerns about cars driving too fast on the dirt road and have been asking for the MSP to preform a speed study.

Residents have voiced their concerns about cars driving too fast on the dirt road and have been asking for the MSP to preform a speed study.
However, there are multiple factors that make MSP think that the speed study wouldn’t change anything.
“To do the speed study, we have to come out three to 14 days after they grate the road and lay down the chloride, typically when we do a speed study on most normal roads, we try to get a minimum of 100 cars,” said Cook. “On a main road in Oakland County we can get that in a few minutes. I had one of my guys come out and do a couple roads in Brandon Township and we’re averaging about 13 cars an hour. We need 100 cars to do a valid study, and you don’t start to see a pattern emerge until 30 or 35 vehicles on a paved road. If we don’t have the volume, we’re wasting everybody’s time.”
In addition to the possibility of not having enough cars pass by to collect data, Cook also said that if the speed were to be lowered from the default of 55, it could actually have detrimental effects.
“The signs are primarily to make people feel good. People like the idea of having a sign out there that has a little number on it because it makes them feel safe,” he said. “The numbers on the signs give non-motorists a false sense of security, people will feel it’s okay to walk in the street, ride their bikes in the street when the sign says 25, but they don’t feel that safe when there’s no sign and it’s 55, even though the cars are driving exactly the same speed they were before.”
Though nothing was voted on, the township board discussed agreeing to the presentation and not pursuing speed study from MSP.