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BONITA SPRINGS — Bonita Springs City Council has pulled the switcheroo on East Terry Street speed limits.

A Wednesday council decision to lower speed limits in the area is pleasing residents. Council dropped the 40-mph and 45-mph speed limits that had been in place on the road from Imperial Parkway to where the road ends at Bonita Grand Drive. Now, the 40-mph limit has been moved to start at Kent Road, where the YMCA is. From there back to Old 41 Road, the limit will be 35 mph.

“I think that’s a good idea,” said Becky Holt, who lives on nearby Maiden Lane, of the lower speeds. “That street is like a race track.”

The thought that led to the speed limit’s lowering actually began on a point of confusion. Councilwoman Janet Martin said she heard from those living in the area that the road’s speed limit signs didn’t make any sense. East of Imperial Parkway, the posted limit was 40 mph in one direction and 35 mph in the other direction.

The motion before the council was intended to address the confusion and set, for the first time since the road was widened a year ago, an official, posted speed limit.

But before the motion was approved, Martin suggested going beyond the recommendations of the Lee County Department of Transportation to ensure the new 35-mph zone extended beyond the Interstate 75 flyover. Martin said the intersections before and after the flyover received a lot of traffic and were dangerous.

“The overpass makes it blind, so I’d like to see people travel at a lower rate of speed,” Martin said.

As such, the 35-mph zone was changed to end at Kent Road before the motion was approved unanimously.

Sgt. Brian Przespolewski of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said the area has been patrolled frequently for speeders. A deputy happened to be stationed at the intersection of Southern Pines Drive and East Terry Street late Wednesday afternoon.

“We got some complaints a couple weeks ago about people speeding from Old 41 to Imperial,” Przespolewski said. “We did a few operations in there for speeding.”

Przespolewski said no one has complained about the inconsistencies and he had not heard of it coming up in court.

During the past three months, Sheriff’s Office records show 190 vehicles have been stopped on East Terry Street and nearby on its connecting roads for traffic violations, among them speeding. On West Terry Street and nearby on its connecting roads, the traffic violation pullovers during the same period numbered 113.

Przespolewski said the Sheriff’s Office will be stepping up enforcement on both sides of Old 41 Road.

“We wanted to beef up there,” Przespolewski said of East Terry Street. “We’re also going to beef up on West Terry with school back in session.”

Bonita Springs Middle School is located on West Terry Street, where the speed limit is 30 mph except when school is starting or ending.

Gustavo Cardona, 22, who lives near the intersection of Morton Avenue and East Terry Street, said the stepped up enforcement and reduced, consistent speed limits are a benefit to residents’ safety.

“People were exceeding the limit and there had been a couple of accidents,” Cardona said. “It would be nice if they had a speed limit tracking device for people that exceeded the limit.”