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Ramsey County News <br />OM= of Public Iriforr,mat r Suite 250 <br />15 West Kellogg Boulevard. <br />St PauL Ktramesota 55102 <br />Telephone= (512) 266-8000 <br />FAX: (612] 256-8039 <br />Subject: SMART Unit is a reminder <br />for lead -foot drivers <br />For immediate <br />release: August 12,1994 <br />You are driving down a county road, late for work and see your speed recorded on. <br />a sign in front of you. The correct speed limit is posted and you realize you are going five <br />miles over the legal limit. You slow down and look around. You have just been recorded <br />by the new SMART Unit of the Ramsey County Sheriffs Patrol. Today you were lucky, <br />this was only a warning. <br />The SMART Unit, or Speed Monitoring Awareness Radar Trailer was purchased <br />this past year by the cities which contract for Sheriffs patrol services with Ramsey <br />County. These include: Arden Hills, Gem Lake, Little Canada, North Oaks, Shoreview, <br />Vadnais Heights and White Bear Township. <br />This self-contained unit is generally parked in a problem area, where accidents are <br />up or complaints are called in by residents. It monitors all cars passing on the same side <br />of the street as the unit and informs motorists immediately of their speed. The unit stores <br />this information and a print out can provide officials with car counts and average speeds. <br />This information is helpful when planning road expansion or knowing where more traffic <br />control is needed. <br />"Most people tend to stretch the speed limit by five miles -per -hour and feel safe, <br />says Ramsey County's Lt. Mike Shanley, who is in charge of the uniform patrol. "All <br />you have to do is look around you on your way to work to realize that most people are in <br />violation of the speed limit. The only perfect solution for traffic problems is to have more <br />officers on the roads. Taxes would go up, but accidents would go down." <br />Shanley's concern is that the habit of speeding on the freeways is carried over to <br />county roads and main streets. Now you add intersections, and accidents happen. There's <br />is a hope that this new SMART Unit will slow drivers down. Everyone looks for a <br />cushion in the speed limit, but sometimes a reminder is helpful when a road is traveled. <br />OVER. OVER OVER OVER <br />