DOVER, DE— Dover City Council is looking to enhance street safety as it prepares to consider two new ordinances: one to strictly enforce speed limits in residential neighborhoods and another to restrict people from standing on medians except when legally crossing the street.
At the upcoming Nov. 10 meeting, council members will review the ordinances designed to improve safety for drivers and pedestrians. One measure would strictly enforce residential speed limits and ensure proper signage is posted, while the other would prohibit pedestrians from lingering on medians or approaching moving vehicles except when crossing legally.
Dover Councilman David Anderson said pedestrians standing in medians across the city have become an increasing safety concern.
"We're very concerned about people who are out in the medians and interfering at intersections with traffic flow because it's becoming a real safety hazard. We've had people hit, we've had people get injured—it's a real problem."
Anderson said the ordinance restricting median standing is meant to protect both drivers and pedestrians and to prevent people from putting themselves in harm’s way.
"We're not targeting anyone. We're targeting the activity. We're basically adding to and clarifying existing laws so that they can be enforced and people will have reasonable expectations for behavior."
While state law already classifies lingering on medians as disorderly conduct, city leaders say a local ordinance is needed to address a broader concern.
Dover Councilman Roy Sudler said the measure is about more than enforcing the law; it is also intended to help some of the city's most vulnerable residents.
"We are seeing them at nighttime on the median, in wheelchairs on the median — and to me that's a sign of 'I need help,' maybe more than just a few dollars if you're putting your life in jeopardy at that capacity."
Sudler added that the city's goal is not just to remove people from medians but to connect them with services that address the circumstances that put them there.
"Once we assist them off the median, we want to also have some type of services available to them, for those who may be going through some challenges, for them to have some type of our treatment or recovery services so that they can reach their full potential as productive citizens," Sudler said.
The speeding ordinance targets residential streets, which Anderson said would enforce current speed limits and ensure drivers are properly informed through signage.
"We're only looking at neighborhoods, and that's because we've gotten several complaints from people about people going 35, 40 miles an hour right down residential streets that are supposed to be 25."
City leaders said both ordinances are scheduled for a first reading on November 10. Afterward, the measures will return to the committee before Thanksgiving for further review.