LONDONDERRY — Royal Lane residents are hoping for a speedy solution when it comes to the persistent problem of motorists failing to adhere to traffic regulations around their neighborhood.

On Monday night, around two-dozen residents met with members of the town’s Traffic Safety Committee and local police officials to address safety concerns following frequent reports of speeding vehicles.

According to Police Capt. G.J. Dussault, members of the Londonderry Police Department have been monitoring the neighborhood, which sits off High Range Road, over the past several months using a traffic-monitoring device to collect data.

Dussault said the local police have conducted various radar and traffic enforcement assignments around the Royal Lane neighborhood, and have paid extra attention to the area following residents’ concerns.

“In response to some community concern, we sort of took some steps we don’t normally take,” Police Chief Bill Hart said on Monday. “We did a traffic survey and have also tried to get some comments from some community members.”

Dussault said increased patrols of the areas have determined that the majority of offenders appear to be younger drivers.

Local police noted that the monitoring device was used on three occasions over the past several months.

In most areas of town, the speed limit is 30 mph.

In late March, 98 percent of drivers passing through were traveling at or under the speed limit, with 1.6 percent found to be traveling over 45 mph.

In mid-June, 99.4 percent of monitored drivers were traveling under the speed limit, while .06 percent were traveling over 45 mph. In late July, nobody was recorded to be traveling over 45 mph.

Dussault said most of the residents surveyed felt that the majority of speeding instances occurred during the morning and early evening commuter rush on weekdays.

Others said they haven’t noticed any speeding vehicles at all recently.

“I do think it’s important that the police respond to a community and a neighborhood,” Hart said in response. “Some members of this neighborhood had an opinion this was a speed issue, so it was our duty to respond.”

Over the past 5 to 8 years, the police department has made around 10,000 motor vehicle stops annually, according to Hart.

“From our perspective, while there may be some outlying speed issues in this neighborhood, there isn’t a major problem here,” he said. “But colloquially, if you need cops, call us. We’ll come right down and help you out.”

Committee Chairman Robert Ramsay said the town went through an extensive study several years back and the end result was lowered speed limits throughout the town.

Beforer the study, most areas of town had a 35-40 mph speed limit. Town officials said they doubted that lowering the speed limit again would solve the speeding problem and enforcing a new speed limit is always difficult with residents already set in their ways.

“Essentially, some people might have thought the problems would go away when we dropped the speed limit to 30,” Ramsay said. “But there’s no magic solution.”

Highland Drive resident Cheryl Buchanan asked how much the recent speed enforcement efforts cost the town over the past year.

Dussault said initial cost estimates suggest the study cost the town several thousand dollars.

“It’s expensive in man hours,” he said. Hart stressed that the department was able to conduct the study without using overtime hours.

Royal Lane resident Mike Dolan said he disagreed with the study’s results.

Dolan said he’s witnessed police pulling speeders over, but motorists still tend to accelerate through his neighborhood at various hours.

“I still think it’s a big problem, and I don’t want to see anyone get hurt,” he said.

His neighbor Mark Hetzer agreed.

“We also have a big problem with people crossing the wrong side of the road,” he said. “In our cluster, there’s a lot of children there and even if just one person gets hurt, that’s too many.”

Dussault said the department would continue monitoring Royal Lane in response to the residents’ concerns.

aguilmet@newstote.com