45th District Candidates: Are the Speed Limits on Our Gravel Roads Too Fast?

Ted Golden and Joanna VanRaaphorst, both Democratic candidates for the 45th District House seat, debated local issues at a candidate forum. 

In a series this week, we'll bring you excerpts of that forum, organized by the League of Women Voters. The forum can be watched in its entirety on the Rochester Hills website. 

VanRaaphorst, of Oakland Township, has a background in sales and marketing and is an active volunteer in several community organizations. This is her first campaign. Read about . Golden is a dermatologist and activist. He first ran for this seat in 2008. Read about .

Douglas Wilson is also on the ballot as a Democrat in the primary; according to debate coordinators, Wilson did not respond to the League's invitation to the debate.  

The winner of the August primary will face Republican Tom McMillin, the incumbent, in November.

McMillin was not able to attend the forum because the House was in session in Lansing, voting, that night. The House session adjourned at 7:40 p.m.

Here's a look at candidates' answers to a question at the forum.

Question: House Bill 4037 would re-establish the speed limits on unmarked gravel roads. How do you feel about this issue? How would you vote for the bill?

Ted Golden: The controversy there is that currently gravel roads that are unmarked have a certain speed limit and a lot of people feel that's way too fast. When I travel on gravel roads lots of them are rutted and so on, so I don't go anywhere close to 50 mph. So, local conditions should prevail as far as the speed that one chooses.

If you live on a gravel road you would not like people traveling that excessive speed. I think the issue is people don't want to be limited by restricted speed limits.

Wisdom has to prevail so I would go along with the way it currently is.

There is a statute that dictates what speed limits should be and when there's too much local control the local communities, to make money, impose low speed limits and they catch the unweary driver in their speed traps and they fill their coffers. One of the items on my political agenda is to have more uniform speed limits and prevent local communities from doing that.

Joanna Vanraaphorst: I respectfully disagree because I live off evil Dutton Road and I mountain bike and I've driven my kids there and seen buses stop there. But the real issue is local control. What we want is to control our own cities. I went to the meeting here with all the people who do live off Dutton Road and it is a very, very dangerous road and they do know better than the state.

We need less control in Lansing and more control here. I would propose that the limits be much lower. 

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For complete coverage of the Primary Election, visit our Election 2012 page on Patch.