ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — All residential streets are not the same when it comes to speed limits.

Robert MacLaren has lived in his St. Petersburg home for 30 years, and says he loves the neighborhood.

“I grew up on the other side of in Azalea on 13th Avenue and 74th Street,” he said.

Now, he is along 13th Avenue N. between 49th Street N. and 58th Avenue N. It’s a quiet street, just like the neighborhood streets to the north and south.

Recently, MacLaren had an incident which cause him to reach out with a question.

“I’ve got cameras, because my house is set back from my mom’s. So I put cameras up to watch her front of her house so I could keep an eye on her and who comes in and out,” he said.

It was on those cameras where he spotted a neighbor’s dog loose out on 13th Avenue N.

“I had to get him to make sure he didn’t cross the road,” he said. “I was actually going to grab him. But he didn’t want any parts of me.”

The dog was safely returned to his home, but the situation left MacLaren wondering about the speeds on his street.

“I just wanted to know why it was 30 (mph) here, and 25 (mph) everywhere else that’s similar to this, or even bigger like 17th Avenue, is actually a wider avenue, and it’s 25 (mph).”

Our Real Time Traffic Expert Chuck Henson did some driving around the area, and saw what MacLaren was referring to.

The speed limit at 13th Avenue N. is 25 mph east of 49th Street and west of 58th Street, but is marked as 30 mph between those two spots.

Chuck pulled up the speed map of St. Petersburg, and saw that the road is labeled as a "collector," which is why it is marked with the higher marked speed limit.

But that would also make 17th Avenue N. a collector — after all, it’s wider and doesn’t have speed humps or dips in the road.

Yet, it is marked as "residential" and carries the lower 25 mph limit.

For answers, Chuck reached out to Evan Mory, Director of Transportation for the city.

The reason 13th Avenue N. is classified as a collector road is because it extends farther than the surrounding roads, from 16th Street to 58th Street. Thus, the 30 mph speed limit.

That said, the city said it is willing to consider a 25 mph limit on this roadway, if the neighborhood, and specifically the residents on the street, would like to see the lowered speed limit.

This would involve a neighborhood petition which shows that the residents are in favor of the change. However, Chuck saw that with two speed humps and one dip as traffic control devices in the area, it’s not easy for traffic to reach the posted speed limit.