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Old 09-25-2007, 04:04 PM
 
443 posts, read 1,536,988 times
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How did you get the city to add these measures to your street?

What did they do, and did you find it to be effective?
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Old 09-25-2007, 04:19 PM
 
Location: Hutto, Tx
9,249 posts, read 26,579,993 times
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I'd be very interested in knowing about this as well.
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Old 09-25-2007, 04:37 PM
 
34 posts, read 155,339 times
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There are a series of speed bumps on the street by us that I have been told were some of the first to be installed in Austin so they are the older style. Most people have figured out if you maintain your speed, or actually speed up a little, they are less of a problem. Every service truck with things in the bed bounce over them and cause a great deal of noise, enough to wake up everyone in the house during the night. Then you have the speed bump protesters who honk every time they go over one. That one really gets fun at night. The bump by me is on the downhill side of a slight hill, so when there is a heavy rain it acts like a dam and diverts a rush of water from the street through my yard. This year has been bad. I get to replace my mulch on a regular basis.

I know there are other options, but I was told by someone with COA that if people demand traffic calming, the city decides how much and what kind. So be careful about what you ask for...the fix may be worse than the problem.

BTW, people who live in neighborhoods away from calming devices (thus not having to deal with negative consequences and not seeing the minimal positive impact) seem to like the idea of traffic calming devices. So if you get one installed that turns out to be more trouble than it is worth, it will be next to impossible to get rid of it. I will never live by another one again.

Here is a link to a site that protests traffic calming for more about their antics: Traffic Calming and Americans Against Traffic Calming
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Old 09-25-2007, 05:54 PM
 
Location: Hutto, Tx
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I'm more tired of the drag racers going down my residential street than I would be tired of some sort of traffic calming device. I'd even be for more stop signs.
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Old 09-25-2007, 06:09 PM
Status: "Back home again." (set 4 days ago)
 
Location: Suburban Dallas
52,570 posts, read 47,690,485 times
Reputation: 33644
A few neighborhoods in North Texas have them. Unfortunately, you do have to slow down quite hard to avoid, say, getting an AC hose busted. That's what happened to me driving through the Savannah area near Frisco, and I forgot one speed bump and I went too fast. That's not to say I'm against the idea, and I'm definitely all for it if it stops speeders. Not all new developments that I've seen are doing that.
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Old 09-25-2007, 07:49 PM
 
Location: Dallas, Texas
3,589 posts, read 4,116,834 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by case44 View Post
A few neighborhoods in North Texas have them. Unfortunately, you do have to slow down quite hard to avoid, say, getting an AC hose busted. That's what happened to me driving through the Savannah area near Frisco, and I forgot one speed bump and I went too fast. That's not to say I'm against the idea, and I'm definitely all for it if it stops speeders. Not all new developments that I've seen are doing that.
They have them all over north Dallas and they're obnoxious. A better way to slow traffic down is to build curvy roads or for the cops to come down periodically and hand out tickets. I'd prefer that anyway.
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Old 09-26-2007, 01:55 AM
 
10,130 posts, read 19,782,236 times
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I'd never heard of the road hump protesters who honk their horn.. wow, that is pretty lame. I can definitely see how it is a problem here in Austin -- there are so many "shortcuts" used by people (including, unfortunately myself) because the highways can be so bad north-south, and nonexistent east-west.

I remember when the COA installed these islands that jutted out of the sides of Shoal Creek blvd as a calming measure... they would basically eliminate the shoulder/bike lane for a 4 foot area, and the islands had crepe myrtles planted. I guess the idea was that having a little island coming up right next to your car on the right would make you slow down. It was horrible for bicyclists, though, making the bike lane hard to use. Didn't slow the cars down at all. It was gone in 1 year, I think.
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Old 09-26-2007, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Driftwood TX
389 posts, read 1,565,823 times
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While I think 99% of all traffic enforcement is actually just for revenue, this is one area where I genuinely think safety is at the root of peoples concerns, speeding on residential streets... BUT traffic calming I dont think is the solution, causes more safety and noise concerns than the speeders and slows down emergency vehicles IMHO..

Does anyone know what the cost is weighed up against traffic cameras? A couple speeding tickets in the mail would quickly slow down a street... methinks
Cheers
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Old 09-26-2007, 08:18 AM
 
Location: Hutto, Tx
9,249 posts, read 26,579,993 times
Reputation: 2851
Actually, that sounds like a great idea!
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Old 09-26-2007, 09:03 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
15,232 posts, read 35,410,327 times
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Floral Park is the road that I think of when you mention speed humps. Traffic calming...the is kind of funny...all that overly excited traffic or cars with too much sugar. Anyway, those humps seem fairly effective. Shoal Creek was a dismal failure, glad they took them out.

I had a co-worker some years ago that was trying to get them installed. The city had to make sure that there were alternate routes for emergency vehicles and did a survery of the traffic to see if speed was really an issue. Then they needed to get some huge number of people (on the street? In the neighborhood? Don't remember) to agree that they wanted speed control on a road. In the best case scenario, getting anything done was ~2 years.
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