Speed limit to change near Royal Palm Beach High School

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Village of Royal Palm Beach is looking to change the speed limit on Okeechobee Boulevard in two spots that make a drastic change in a matter of blocks.

When drivers head east on Okeechobee Boulevard before Royal Palm Beach High School, the speed limit is 35 mph until they cross the light at Wildcat Way,  then it immediately becomes 50 mph in front of the high school.

"Right now I feel like it's a speed trap," Joseph Maria who lives behind the high school said. "I don't like how it just changes from 50 (mph) to 35 (mph).  I feel like it was set up to get us a (speeding ticket)."

Others simply don't like the fact that the speed limit is 50 mph in front of the high school.

"When I was in high school there I didn't ever try to cross that road," Maria said about the 50 mph part of Okeechobee Boulevard. "That was the road you didn't cross.  It was like an unwritten rule."

The Village Council of Royal Palm Beach is proposing changing the speed limit where it's 50 down to 45 and where it's 35 up to 40.

This means if you headed west on Okeechobee Boulevard,  once you passed Wildcat Way on the western part of the school headed towards the village,  it will only drop from 45 mph to 40 mph.

The current way drops it from 50 mph to 35 mph.

"I like the idea of changing it," Sofia Ruha ,who also lives nearby, said.  "I think it needs to be gradually lower."

The Village said a traffic study is how they come up with their proposal that will be discussed Thursday in their Village Council meeting.

Despite the study, Maria said he doesn't like the idea of raising the speed limit west of Wildcat Way as you head towards the village. 

"I think a lot of kids do cross the street in that 35 mph zone because people are going slower and because there are less zones, so I feel raising the speed limit could be unsafe for the students," he added.

If you'd like to weigh in on the discussion,  the first reading of the ordinance to change the speed limit will be at 7 p.m. at the Royal Palm Beach Village Chambers.