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The streets are public. The emergency vehicles and the emissions from having to slow down seem to be the only compelling arguments for removing them. I'm not sure if they are in the majority or minority, but it's a vocal group.
In that case, I'm surprised the neighborhood is pursuing this. I doubt a petition to the city to remove them will be be successful.
In our old neighborhood we had them installed for that reason. I would advocate for keeping them because someone on our old road got hit by a car driving 60 in a 30 before we got them. It's not going to slow an ambulance that much - maybe 1 minute. Honestly an ambulance will just fly over them and not worry about it. We had several come by without any issues during our time in that neighborhood.
In our old neighborhood we had them installed for that reason. I would advocate for keeping them because someone on our old road got hit by a car driving 60 in a 30 before we got them. It's not going to slow an ambulance that much - maybe 1 minute. Honestly an ambulance will just fly over them and not worry about it. We had several come by without any issues during our time in that neighborhood.
If you ever have to do cpr on your husband you'll wish the ambulance was there 10 minutes ago. Just sayin'.....don't suggest a minute is hardly anything.
What they need to do is have spike strips put out for a day. Then have a small hump or bump put down. Thereafter people won't be speeding down that road.
There are tons of things that can slow down an emergency vehicle. Traffic, red lights, pedestrians, cyclists. I'm not sure that a few speed bumps really make a difference.
Speed bumps can definitely cause damage to fire trucks and they have to slow way down to cross them. Fire departments much prefer speed tables, humps or whatever they call them where the slope up is over a few feet, with a flat spot of like ten feet on top and then slope down.
People who speed are going to speed and will consider those speed tables as ramps, not really reducing fast speeds down to the desired speed in the neighborhood. As a parent, I have always taught my kids not to go into the street and to stay on sidewalks, use crosswalks, etc.
I dislike those things in neighborhoods.
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People who speed are going to speed and will consider those speed tables as ramps, not really reducing fast speeds down to the desired speed in the neighborhood. As a parent, I have always taught my kids not to go into the street and to stay on sidewalks, use crosswalks, etc.
I dislike those things in neighborhoods.
Exactly. Kids shouldn’t play on main streets in a neighborhood. I always laugh at the “drive like your kids live here” signs. How about teaching your kids to not play in a busy street that actually connects to major roads on both ends!
And bumps or tables do slow cars down, but often, people simply drive faster between them. Most traffic calming now relies on making streets more narrow or making them feel that way. Then people drive more slowly on their own.
In Raleigh, as far as I am aware they use speed humps/tables on narrow streets and curb extension/chicanes/medians on wider roads.
The emergency vehicle argument makes wonder about what kind of street the OP lives on. How much emergency vehicle traffic on single road warrants abandoning traffic calming? Are there enough of these vehicles, that the neighborhood would be okay with increased speeding? Are the neighbors all elderly and this weighs on their minds?
The question the OP has to determine for themselves, is whether the argument is legitimate for their street. I would be hard pressed to think that someone could conclusively link a speed bump as reason an emergency vehicle was significantly delayed. If one road had numerous speeds humps, I guess you could say so, but there are always delays as roads are never empty.
I've had to do CPR on my son so I am definitely sympathetic to the speed of the ambulances. However I also think that safety should be considered and a cost/benefit analysis needs to be done based on the speeding, number of pedestrians, etc. I'm not sure of all the factors but surely that's something the experts could figure out. The person who was hit on our old street was an adult and not a kid but we often worried one of the kids would be. It helped with the speeding issue.
Is it a cut through? That may be the bigger issue and the reason so many cars are flying.
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