New Philadelphia, Ohio (WJER) - The Tuscarawas County Commissioners want to lower the speed limit for a road shared by the county and Newcomerstown. 

The commissioners passed a resolution last week asking to have ODOT drop the speed limit from 45 to 40 miles per hour for 1.4 miles of East State Road that goes in and out of town. County Engineer Joe Bachman says a group that conducted a traffic study recommended the change, so he asked the commissioners to pass this resolution.

“It would be almost from state Route 258 to the railroad tracks, and then there’s a little piece of that road which is totally within the village, and then the village can set their speed zones according to [their] code,” he says.

Bachman says the study took several factors into account to come to this determination. 

“They actually go out and measure the prevailing speed. They do radar studies. They did traffic counts, et cetera, et cetera,” he says. “Then they do a calculation that says, well, the speed should be thus.” 

Bachmann says it is up to state transportation departments to set speed limits to have consistency through the states and nation.    

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