East Washington residents split on speed humps
East Washington Borough Police Chief David Bradley speaks to a motorist about the new speed humps on South Wade Avenue in East Washington Monday.
East Washington Borough Police Chief David Bradley has heard both positive and negative comments about about the new speed humps on several borough streets where speeding has been a problem.
A motorist drives slowly over a speed hump on South Wade Avenue in East Washington. The borough recently installed speed humps on several heavily traveled streets to address speeding.
Every day has become hump day in parts of East Washington.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback. A lot of it has been good, and a lot of it has been bad,” police Chief David Bradley said of speed humps, which the borough installed July 10 on South Wade, Wilmont and Christman avenues, and Thayer and Harrison streets.
The reason for the raised surfaces, the chief explained, is simple: “We wanted to slow down traffic in those areas. We’ve gotten numerous reports of people not coming to a complete stop and driving over the speed limit. We were limited in the options we had.”
So the municipality turned to the appropriately named speed humps, which are affixed to roadways that a growing number of towns have deployed to thwart overzealous motorists. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, in its online Traffic Calming Handbook, says “speed humps are by far the most popular traffic calming measure in the United States.”
Although it is too early to properly gauge their effect in his borough, Bradley is impressed early on.
“It seems to have limited the traffic on South Wade and has reduced speed – at least on South Wade, Harrison and Christman,” he said.
In East Washington, they are made of hard plastic, rise 2 3/8 inches above the road surface and span the width of these five streets. These humps are shorter than those installed in some municipalities. “There is a 4-inch maximum and the recommended height is 3 to 4 inches,” said Jay Ofsanik, safety press officer at PernnDOT District 12 in Uniontown.
Yet a shorter hump should still serve as a deterrent in East Washington. A driver cruising toward one without properly decelerating risks loosening a molar.
Bradley said the cost of this project wasn’t prohibitive, estimating it at about $9.000. The humps themselves, he added, “were less than $4,000.”
Although the devices have been in place for only eight days, that has been long enough to polarize segments of residents and motorists alike.
“I understand the borough trying to curb speeding because most streets are residential. But putting in humps that are intended for parking lots is like having a broken leg and having the cast put on the arm,” said Patrick McGill, a Wilmont resident.
He said a driver has to come to a complete stop at a hump. McGill, in particular, is wary that the smaller car he drives will be damaged.
Two more serious traffic concerns in the borough, he said, are a three-way stop sign near his home that “people blow through any time of the day. That should be enforced better.” He also said the pavement and asphalt on a stretch of his street are in severe need of repair.
Gina Augustine, who lives on Christman, is not opposed to the humps themselves. Her objection is, “They’re too far apart.”
“If they were closer together, (drivers) would have to slow down. Now they hit one. they’re agitated and they speed up, and the next (hump) is down the road.”
Augustine said the addition of stop signs might have alleviated the speed issue. Her house sits on the corner of Thayer, where there is not a stop sign.
Around that corner, on Thayer, Sally Hay praised the raised surfaces. “I didn’t know they were coming, but they’re a good thing,” she said while sitting on her porch, a few doors from the municipal building.
She said until a few months ago, Thayer was a brick street on which motorists drove more slowly. “Then they put blacktop down and a lot of people are now speeding through.”
Plans to do this were hatched about two years ago, Bradley said, when he became chief. The borough worked with Widmer Engineering, of Washington, on where humps would best be located. Then last week, signs went up, lines were painted on approaches to the raised surfaces and the borough’s public works department installed the humps.
Bradley, a 17-year member of the borough police force, said speeding has been a longtime issue on several borough streets.
“That has always been a concern on South Wade and Wilmont,” he said. “We had talked about making Christman and South Wade one way, but that would cause more of an issue to local travelers than putting something on the roadway to reduce speed. South Wade was not made to handle the volume of traffic that is there.”
More speed humps may be ahead. “North Wade is my next top priority,” Bradley said – followed by Chestnut Street leading to North Avenue, and Central Avenue leading to North.