The City of Navasota is taking some steps to prevent the use of Engine Brakes in the city limits.
During the latest city council meeting, the first reading of a new ordinance, prohibiting them, was presented by Police Chief and Assistant City Manager Shawn Myatt. He said it all really began in 2018, after a complaint form a citizen who lives on Spur 515. They held a workshop, and performed a traffic study, but no wheels really got moving from it.
He says the numbers from then really have not changed since then, but it is something worth a look.
“We felt like, just cover the whole city. We had first thought about [the ordinance] covering just Spur 515, the business park, things like that…but, most cities I talked to, it just covers the whole city,” said Myatt.
Now, the signs would be on TXDOT right of way, so Myatt did note that it will cost the city money to replace the signs with TXDOT. He said that would have to be something they add for next year’s 2022 budget, with an estimated of a couple thousand dollars being the cost.
Officers, of course, cannot continuously patrol and look for violations like that. And Myatt says, they really do not have to.
“Most of the cities I talked to, very little enforcement and action on their part. They felt like just having the ordinance, and having the signs out, was enough to deter the use of engine brakes within their city limits,” Myatt said.
Council approved the first reading of the ordinance to prevent the use of engine brakes in the city limits.
For more information, contact the city at 936-825-6475.