A St. Marys woman’s worries about traffic near her home have prompted a traffic study in the area.

We have more on why some residents think the speed limit is too high.

While putting her fourth grade son on the bus, Denise Geyer says she’s noticed drivers going too fast, and she even called police Monday after someone passed the school bus.

In August, the Blackberry Lane resident asked city council to study Bucktail Road/Highway 120 east of town. Minutes show they voted 5-2 to ask for a PennDOT traffic study.  Some neighbors agree with her concerns.

“The traffic’s bad. The cars pass where they’re not supposed to be and they do drive very fast,” says neighbor Nancy Eckert.

“My main concern down here sometimes is the speed that the traffic goes, especially at nighttime, they really whiz by here, especially motorcycles, and we have ATVs,” says neighbor Joe Hoffman.

Geyer says she did get a letter back from PennDOT recently, but when it comes to the area in front of her house, they do not plan to change the dotted lines, or the areas where cars can pass.

Geyer says they do plan to put up signs next spring to make people aware of their speed, perhaps the type that shows your current speed.

“Being that this is a long straight stretch, there’s a lot of times they do come pretty fast through here. In the wintertime, even the plows come pretty fast,” says neighbor Gil Rowley.

“You get used to it, I guess, but sometimes there are some awful fast people,” says neighbor Bill Krellner.

Police Chief Tom Nicklas says after Geyer’s request, they did use a hanging speed sign for a couple weeks more than a month ago. Nicklas says there are no painted speed lines in that area to help them ticket people, and the traffic isn’t worse than other parts of town.

Geyer thinks the speed limit should be 40 instead of 45 to 55.

“I don’t know about changing the speed limit. It’s just the people themselves are going to have to be more aware, be more cautious,” says Eckert.

“I think that it should be a little bit slower, yeah, because we have some small children down here,” says Hoffman.

Geyer says now she’s waiting to see what PennDOT does in the spring.