Speed Bump question (Fort Worth, North Richland Hills, Bedford: HOA, house, neighborhood)

[Nepenthe]

The residents of my north Fort Worth neighborhood want to add speed bumps to our residential streets. They say that people cut through our subdivision to avoid the lengthy lights at the intersection. They say it interferes with the ability of their children to play outside around the street.

The question is, is it legal for residents to pay to have speed bumps put in if the city won't do it? Or for residents to Quik-Rete the bumps themselves? Is it frowned upon but generally accepted?

Thanks!

[Squirl]

You'd really have to check with your city concerning the legality about residents putting in speed bumps. Where I live you could only do that if it was a private street and then the HOA would have to be involved.

[SafetyGuy]

It's a city street, so the city has to do it. I'm not sure most cities do them anymore because of the cost of install and maintenance. definitely check with your city

[ChristineF]

We actually offered to do something similar (pay for speed bump installation) where I used to live in MN. From my discussions with our city councilman, not only is there the maintenance cost but then there is a liability issue for the city since it's a city street.

[hypocore]

This link might be helpful if it is up to date. I couldn't find a date on it. It has the procedure to follow regarding street safety: http://www.fortworthgov.org/uploaded...ic_Control.pdf

[loves2read]

If there is really an issue with speeding through the neighborhood--just tell your local police station--
there is enough thirst for extra revenue in the city coffers that I am sure if you take some cell phone photos of people speeding on the streets that you might get them to station a police presence there maybe one day a week--

that is the best deterrent to speeding because it is quicker than having speed bumps put in
when people know there is a police presence that could give you a ticket on any given day, they will slow down...
most people in my area know that the Cheek Sparger road is patrolled fairly regularly by Colleyville police and less often by Bedford--
they drive the 30 MPH
the people I see speeding are likely not that familiar with the area and are using it as cut-through from 121 to 26 or into Keller--and I police cars parked in the neighborhing streets pretty often watching for speeders...

[Stickfigure]

Originally Posted by loves2read

If there is really an issue with speeding through the neighborhood--just tell your local police station--
there is enough thirst for extra revenue in the city coffers that I am sure if you take some cell phone photos of people speeding on the streets that you might get them to station a police presence there maybe one day a week--

that is the best deterrent to speeding because it is quicker than having speed bumps put in
when people know there is a police presence that could give you a ticket on any given day, they will slow down...
most people in my area know that the Cheek Sparger road is patrolled fairly regularly by Colleyville police and less often by Bedford--
they drive the 30 MPH
the people I see speeding are likely not that familiar with the area and are using it as cut-through from 121 to 26 or into Keller--and I police cars parked in the neighborhing streets pretty often watching for speeders...

The original post is more concerning volume of traffic as it being a shortcut or bypass of a congested area. Police can't stop people going through a neighborhood but speed bumps make it less worth the effort.

But speed bumps do have to be maintained and the city might not want to spend that money even if the community is willing to pay to have them installed.

To the original poster - Is there not a good park in the area that families can spend time at rather than the streets in front of the house? It's also a great option for community building.

[Nepenthe]

Thanks for all the replies!

I did find out some information. First, Fort Worth is no longer engaging in the creation of speed bumps. Primarily they're just a victim of budget cuts. I talked to three different folks and couldn't get a final answer on the legality of residents installing or building their own speed bumps. A woman with the TPW department did mention that the fire department has final say on all speed bumps.

However, the police department did agree to post an officer at the intersection for one hour two days in a row (during the early evening commute) and also mentioned they would patrol the neighborhood more frequently.

My personal feeling is that I find speed bumps annoying and would rather find other solutions, but I understand the concerns of my fellow residents. I mentioned I would support speed mounds or speed hills, or large bumps IF they had indentations to allow two-wheeled vehicles to pass. My primary vehicle is a motorcycle which cannot clear the large/steep bumps at the parking garage at work (but I can go around them) and my car has to slow down to stroller speed to make it over them. Nevertheless, I spearheaded the discussions with our council member, the TPW dept, and the police dept and got some good information.

The purpose of the bumps would essentially be to reduce the volume of traffic, and thereby reduce the perceived danger of the speeders, by making it inefficient and annoying to cut through the neighborhood.

As far as families hanging out in the streets, there are a couple of parks, but venturing out after 4:30 or so (after you've made it home) means waiting in huge 1-2 mile bumper to bumper stopsign traffic. I think the residents don't want the hassle and feel it's their right to utilize the residential roads and yards for recreation. As I live in the "phase 2" area of the neighborhood which is tucked away in the back and gets almost no traffic, and I have no kids, I can't relate, but I want to understand their concerns.

Thank you!

[loves2read]

I understood why the OP wanted speed bumps but practically it is much easier/faster to have the police make a presence known in that area--
that is great tool and lets the residents see the police are taking their concerns seriously--which creates positive rapport (in my book)
now if some of the people caught speeding are residents of the neighborhood then they might not look on police presence so favorably---but that is their bad luck for speeding..

one thing you can petition the city to do is to lower the speed limits within your neighborhood if there are lots of kids and especially if there are no sidewalks and they do ride bikes and might be walking in the streets or using skateboards there vs on sidewalks--

lowering the speed limit to 20 mph vs 35 would make it much easier for police to ticket speeders and for tickets to be more expensive to violators
that might work to keep cut-through drivers from using your neighborhood if speed bumps aren't an option

[Nepenthe]

Well, the police have come and gone and reaction seems to be mildly positive. But they still want speed bumps.

The thing is, I haven't quite told everyone what the council and TPW said (no speed bumps). I'm afraid as soon as I do that, the more vocal/inflamed residents will enact their plan to build their own speed bumps. I still don't know the legality of that and I don't want to see what kind of bumps the residents would come up with on their own.

Honestly I'd rather not see bumps. 20 mph speed limits sound perfect, if they're observed -- and that's where the police come in.

I'm going to go back to my city contacts to inquire about posting speed limit signs and having an additional round of police presence.

The house I grew up in was on a corner in North Richland Hills, and my mother, who had a little bit of local sway being the PTA president and head of a couple other organizations, got our intersection turned from a 2-way stop/passthrough to a 4-way stop, which was much safer.

Thanks!