Tuesday, December 1, 2009
A Bump in the Road
Posted by Mary Cashiola on Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 3:09 PM
The Memphis City Council wants the administration to consider letting affluent neighborhoods pay for their own traffic calming devices, if the street qualifies.
This morning, during the council's CIP budget committee, council members learned citizens have requested street humps for roughly 250 streets. The current policy does not let individual groups pay for them, even if they want to do so.
"We looked at it from a fairness [standpoint]," said Wain Gaskins, director of the city's engineering division. "There are some affluent areas that could pay for their traffic calming devices, but we have a lot of other areas that aren't as affluent but are just as deserving.
"We thought it would be appropriate not to let people buy their way into the program."
The policy is created by the administration, but traditionally changes have been approved by the council.
During the last budget cycle, the council approved $600,000 for street humps, but it's been more than five months since then. The administration is ready to install humps on five streets, but the rest still have to be studied to see if they meet the criteria the city requires for the devices.
"Are you frustrated that it takes almost five months to do five streets, basically," council member Harold Collins asked Gaskins. "Are you not concerned that people of the community are saying this is the problem with government?"
Collins, Shea Flinn, and Kemp Conrad suggested letting private citizens pay for their own street humps, if they wanted.
"I understand the fairness issue." Flinn said, "Wouldn't it make it more fair to everyone if less resources are used in communities that can do it for themselves? That creates more resources for the communities that can't. ... That seems like a win-win."
Though street humps have been requested for more than 250 streets, Gaskins said that generally only 15 to 20 percent of all streets meet the criteria. Even if private homeowners were allowed to pay for the street humps, the street would still have to meet the city's criteria.
Barbara Swearengen Ware suggested that traffic calming devices weren't the real solution.
"It's my opinion that a lot of streets that have them don't need them. They're trying to stop people from speeding, but the police should be doing that," she said. "A lot of neighborhoods get speed bumps and then they're not happy to have them.
"They thought it was the best thing since ice cream until they got them."
The council will discuss this in more detail in a month.
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Barbara Ware may be onto something there - speed humps made out of ice cream, mmmmm...or... I scream, you scream, we all scream for speed humps.
They are in my neighborhood, on Shady Grove between Perkins and Mendenhall. They work, I avoid the area as much as possible, but damn, I sure would hate to live on that street and drive over those @&^%#$%^& every time I left the house!
Speed humps generally divide neighbor against neighbor as a potential traffic calming solution. The radar speed sign is a more effective tool at behavior modification, more universally accepted, and does not slow the response times of emergency vehicles.
Barbara Swearengen idiot.
Remind me again WHO elected this imbicile to the council ?
Google rubberized deflating Dunlop speed humps tested in Britain.
Don't the pot holes already slow down traffic?
See stats on how driver feedback signs actaully work better, for emergencies and they are greener due to emmissions caused by starting and stopping with humps and bumps, www.driverfeedbacksigns.com
www.driverfeedbacksigns.com ,many statisticss on radar speed signs which are much more greem hen humps due to start stop emmissions and safer in emergencies.
Speed bumps violate the rights of the rest of the public to use their own publicly owned right of way to travel at the speed limit set by their representatives.
When I see them, I figure some affluent busybody with clout at City Hall got the damned things installed to discourage through traffic on their expensive street. What I DON'T ever see is kids playing on said street. Worst offender in my usual rounds is Avalon between Poplar and Overton Park. City government needs to start scraping these damned things UP.
speed bumps rule. but the trick is to hit them at full speed. If they aren't the real wide variety you won't even spill your coffee.
In 38103 the speed bumps are referred to as Bums.
38103: speaking of hitting them at speed, meet me on Avalon (sorry, Wintermute) for the first annual Memphis Speed Bump "Bullitt" Memorial Contest (in honor of the famous car chase scene). First one to catch air under all four tires wins.
Ms. Swearengen Holt Ware, the City of Memphis needs to hire more police officers for your wish but it's hard to find them in the city. Speed bumps are good I feel, better than laying a police officer or child in the street which costs way more!! People are going to ignore radar speed signs, they already ignore the speed limit ones!! I see bumps on affluent or non-affluent streets, it all depends on the citizens writing or calling in a request for a study so those who haven't are just more behind!
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