Speed Control in Our Neighborhood
In
the early summer months of 2005, a number of the neighbors in Stonebridge were
talking about cars speeding through the subdivision. The consensus was that the
streets where the worst of the speeding was taking place were Bridgestone,
Mockingbird, Frances and Bernard. These streets are used by people taking a
shortcut from Amity Road to or from Highway 64 East (Oak Street). As a result I
was asked to contact the mayor's office to find out what could be done. There is
actually a process by which any subdivision can request the city to take action
to control speed, and these controls are called "traffic calming devices."
A traffic calming device can take several different forms. The most common that
are being used are speed humps (less drastic than speed bumps) and roundabouts.
A roundabout forces traffic to around a circle in a narrow lane, which mandates
slower speeds.
The
first step in the process is to form a committee of three or more people from
the subdivision and request installation of traffic calming devices.
We
sent a letter on July 16, 2005, in which we requested that
a traffic study be done in Stonebridge. This study was
done sometime during November. You may have noticed the small black rubber tubes
placed across the roads on Bridgestone Drive and Mockingbird Drive. If the study
shows that a certain amount of traffic traveled on those roads and that a
certain amount was more than 5mph over the speed limit, then the issue will move
to the city council. (The amount of traffic is vague because this is the
information that the city gives us.)
If
the city council decides that traffic calming devices a warranted, then we will
have to decide which type of control that we want. I will let you know more as
more information becomes available to me.
February 18, 2006
This week I was informed by the city that Bridgestone Drive and Mockingbird Lane had qualified for speed control measures. At the same time the city now wants to do a study of Bernard Drive and Camilla Lane. Our original letter to the city asked for a study of Bridgestone, Mockingbird, Bernard and Frances. I will be making some more calls to them this coming week to make sure the study is done properly.
Regardless of the outcome of the study on subsequent streets, Bridgestone and Mockingbird qualify for speed control measures. By waiting until the other studies are finished, we can get the appropriate speed controls in place. This will probably be in the form of speed humps. The number and placement of the humps will be contingent on the other studies.
May 24, 2006
Yesterday the city council approved three (3) speed humps for our subdivision. According to the Log Cabin Democrat¹ the council approved the action by a vote of 7-0, with alderman David Grimes being absent from the meeting.
¹Log Cabin Democrat; May 25, 2006; "Historic land buy for Conway;" page 6A.
June 9, 2006
I talked to the people at the Conway Street department today about when and where we might see our speed humps installed. There are several things that affect these issues. First of all, the city contracts with companies who install asphalt, and during the summer months these companies are extremely busy. So it will probably be late summer or early fall before we can expect to see the installation. Secondly, the location of the speed humps have not been chosen at this point. They will be determined by two factors, the volume of traffic on the roads during the test period, and the average speed that the vehicles were traveling during that same period. Every street had a test done on it prior to the decision by the city council to install the speed humps.
With patience we will see the fruits of our labor later this year!