Slow the heck down in Tumon! The tourists are coming back in droves!

Guam’s tourism chief wants Vince Arriola, the director of public works, to do what is in his power to help stop increasing incidences of motorists speeding through Pale San Vitores Road. Carl Gutierrez, the Guam Visitors Bureau chief who also is the former governor responsible for the modernization of Tumon infrastructure, wrote in a letter to Mr. Arriola last week that Arriola can start with “the addition of highly visible speed limit signs of 15 or 25 mph, pedestrian signs, flashing lights, and bright crosswalks.”

The speed limit along San Vitores is 25 mph, with speed limit along some of the secondary roads feeding into and out of San Vitores at 15 mph.

“Based on our observations, there has been an increase in speeding vehicles along Pale San Vitores,” Mr. Gutierrez wrote. His letter was prompted by a driver who passed him along San Vitores on his way to work at the GVB office in front of Governor Joseph Flores Memorial Park.

The need for better traffic control in Tumon isn’t just about tourists, Mr. Gutierrez wrote in his letter.

“The close proximity of Tumon’s hotels, shops, beaches, parks, and attractions make it an ideal and seemingly safe place for many people to walk and bike,” he said. “For this reason, Tumon is comparable to a school zone, where speeding and subsequent accidents and fatalities are simply unaffordable. We have witnessed so many accidents in Tumon already and feel a dire need for collective action.”

Students from John F. Kennedy High School just up the road from Pale San Vitores also walk along Tumon’s main thoroughfare, as do parishioners of the Blessed Diego church in the heart of Tumon.