Speed Bumps to the Rescue!
- Oct. 28, 2014
What's black and white and gray all over?
Lake City Greenways volunteer Monica Sweet was impressed with the speed bumps she'd seen in other neighborhoods. She wanted slower, safer streets where she lived on NE 123rd in Lake City. With no sidewalks and drivers that seemed to rip through her neighborhood at high speeds, speed bumps seemed to offer a simple, inexpensive yet effective safety solution.
After a great deal of back and forth with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), whose staff tried to convince Monica to put in small traffic circles, Monica and her local greenways group prevailed and soon speed bumps will make another Seattle residential street safer for people who walk and bike.
In related news, SDOT just completed the before and after study of vehicle speed on nearby NE 130th Street where speed bumps were installed in the summer of 2014.
According to Brian Dougherty, SDOT Senior Transportation Planner:
"The study shows that the speed humps have had a big impact, reducing the number of drivers traveling above the speed limit. The biggest change is the reduction in the number of 'top end speeders' which as you know are the most dangerous for people walking and biking. We show a 90% reduction in these aggressive drivers traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit... Before and after speeds were measured for one full week using pneumatic tubes."
* P.S. You may hear the terms speed humps and speed bumps used interchangeably by traffic safety professionals. Speed "humps" are actually the official term but according to our friends in Portland traffic engineering, the signs that said "Humps Ahead" were frequently stolen by the public but "Bumps Ahead" were left to perform their traffic calming duty.