I am writing to respond to Mr. Bragg's letter (May 3, 2006) regarding his assessment that speed limit enforcement on Admiral Way is both unfair and personally inconvenient.

As a resident living in a neighborhood alongside Admiral Way, I applaud any effort by the Seattle Police Department to enforce the limits. I am not alone. As a neighborhood we think enforcement is desperately needed and find it too infrequently applied.

In the few years I have lived here I have seen a motorcycle death, two vehicle collisions, a neighbor seriously injured at a legal crossing point, and significant property damage when a car left the roadway. Additionally, I have seen drivers speed by one after the next as our neighbors, some of them elderly, try to cross at the corners between the 'designated' crosswalks at the viewpoint and Metropolitan Market. These pedestrians are often stranded in the middle of the road for long stretches of time as drivers are both speeding and inattentive.

Rather than complain about enforcement and a fine, I invite Mr. Bragg to join the dozen-or-so of us who drive the limit up the hill - even when the limit drops to 30- and then to the suggested 25 m.p.h. We've become accustomed to being honked at, tailgated, flipped off and sped around. Until the city acts upon our many requests for revision to regulate Admiral Way traffic, our efforts and occasional enforcement by Seattle Police Department are all we have to try to limit further injury, damage and death.

A $132.50 fine and 10 minutes on the roadside with the police is a small inconvenience compared to an accident, injury or the death of another neighbor, friend or family member.

Meredith K. Hailey

Admiral