Speed limits and tiny rotaries
I’ve lived in and out of Brookline for more than 30 years. Since I could drive I felt the insanity and stress of driving on Lee street and fearing a speeding ticket, and I just accepted it since it’s always been vaguely a speed trap right at Warren when the limit drops. But now it’s going up and down between 20-25 all along it and I recently noticed (somehow just for the first time) that there are so many significantly smaller streets with higher speed limits around town.
Main question: why is the speed limit so low on Lee street? There’s no schools, almost never anyone walking across it, why is the speed limit 20-25mph?
But also over the last 10-20 years we’ve also seen a rise of these little micro rotaries (two that come to mind are behind the high school and on south street all the way by putterham) - and especially the south street one seems to have exclusively made driving there worse - more dangerous.
So basically I’m an adult now and back living here again and just want to know how these decisions get made. Where do they get made? Who are the loud neighbors talking to to get these things changed or not changed, and how can I talk to them too? It makes me feel kind of crazy anyone thinks these are good or helpful ideas, but maybe there’s some information I don’t have about these choices that made them reasonable? And knowing it would make me less frustrated? How do I use my vote to help this sort of thing?