The City of Saco follows the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Device standards to manage vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the interest of maintaining a standard that is easily recognizable by all those utilizing public roadways, whether they are motorists or pedestrians.

These standards are established and designed with safety in mind and are universal in nature. Therefore, to maximize their effectiveness, a strong discipline should be followed in utilizing such signs to ensure they maintain their integrity in meaning. For instance, "SLOW CHILDREN PLAYING" signs were originally designed to notify motorists that they are approaching a public playground and that children may be present. The City of Saco has adopted the policy, based upon recommendations from traffic engineers, that these signs would not be placed in neighborhoods to warn motorists that children were at play. We had been advised that placing these signs up was a disservice to citizens as they only served to provide a false sense of security to parents as they became so commonplace that motorists were no longer paying any attention to them, thereby not providing the protection that parents were expecting.

Speed limit signs have the greatest impact on everyone and are probably the most misunderstood traffic control devices on the road today and are certainly the most talked about. While they are truly designed with safety in mind by ensuring that motorists are aware of what at safe speed is for a particular area, they also produce the strongest emotional impact on society due to common misconceptions.

The greatest misconception is that lower speed limits will reduce the average speed of traffic. According to the MAINE LOCAL ROADS CENTER, and based upon many studies over several decades in all parts of the country, unrealistically low speed limits can actually lead to crashes for the following reasons:

• A driver's speed is influenced more by the appearance of the roadway and the prevailing traffic conditions than it is by the posted speed.
• Some drivers will obey the lower posted speed while others will feel it's unreasonable and simply ignore it, thereby disrupting the uniform traffic flow and increase crash potential between the faster and the slower drivers.
• When traffic is traveling at different speeds, the number of breaks in traffic to permit safe crossing is reduced. Pedestrians also have greater difficulty in judging the speed of approaching vehicles. Another common misconception is that people always exceed the posted speed limit by 10 miles per hour.