Friday, May 13, 2011

Speed Limit on McConnell Road?

If you live in Woodstock, Ill. and drive on McConnell Road, do you know what the speed limit is?

On portions of it, the speed limit is posted. On some portions of it, the speed limit is not posted. Here's the chart from the City of Woodstock's City Code, 5.3.1:


McConnell Road   Illinois Route 47   Halma Lane   30  
  Halma Lane   City limits   35  
  Applewood Drive   1,300' to the east   45  


Many are, unfortunately, already familiar with the 30MPH speed zone between Route 47 and Halma Lane. Once you get up the hill and east of Rich's Foxwillow Nursery, the speed limit could easily be 35MPH. But then it wouldn't be such easy pickin's for Woodstock's radar team.

Just east of Harrow Gate Drive, there is a 35MPH speed limit sign for westbound traffic. So that'll be where the 45MPH speed zone starts for eastbound traffic. But you won't know it, because there is no sign. Therefore, you probably continue at 35MPH.

Actually, it's probably not a 45MPH zone, but an unposted 55MPH zone, because a driver is out of Woodstock at that point and in unincorporated McHenry County. But don't chance it.

For westbound traffic, there is a 45MPH speed limit sign just west of Greenview Drive. If you are coming in from east, you've been in a 55MPH zone all the way from Country Club Road, even after you pass Lily Pond Road and enter the City. (No sign lets you know that you are entering in Woodstock.) It seems a little fast to have a 55MPH speed limit past the entrance to the Sanctuary, but that's what it is.

Just opposite the 45MPH sign for westbound traffic at Greenview Drive, there could (should?) be a 55MPH sign for eastbound traffic, because that is beyond the end of the speed control zone designated in the City Code. Even though you are still in Woodstock, the City Council has not set a speed limit from Greenview Drive to Lily Pond Road. That would be from the point which is 1,300 feet east of Applewood Drive (sic). (Google Maps calls it Applewood Lane; which is it?)

Wouldn't it be nice if the City Council addressed that portion of McConnell Road which is in the City and east of Greenview Drive, and then posted the speed limit?

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