Industry Insights

SeaTac residents living on 51st Street are asking the City Council to address their concerns over increased street traffic volumes and speeding. The strained police force acknowledged that they do not have the staff available to write the necessary tickets and suggested speed bumps. The Deputy Mayor would like an alternative to “drastic” speed bumps because of the hazards they pose for emergency vehicles.

The Transportation Board for the town of Brookline, Massachusetts developed a plan to address traffic concerns on a primary roadway by installing eight raised crosswalks and two speed humps. Babcock Street connects many Brookline communities and serves as an initial fire department route more than a thousand times a year.

While speed humps have a litany of faults, most agree that their primary purpose is to protect the people outside of the moving automobiles: pedestrians, children and cyclists. Unfortunately, bicycles and speed humps don’t always go together. For cyclists, speed humps are jarring and potentially dangerous.

In Warrick County, Indiana, state police are concerned with the number of distracted drivers speeding along State Road 261. There are five schools in this area. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for the speeders to be distracted by their phone or some other diversion.

Radarsign driver feedback signs use a small FCC-approved radar to measure how fast cars are traveling, so it’s not uncommon for us to field questions like this: “Why does the speed being flashed by the sign not match the speedometer speed?” The issue is complicated by the fact that there are so many different devices that can be used to measure speed today.

Cars speeding through neighborhoods is, perhaps, the most common issue that residents bring to city officials and law enforcement. It is a natural concern. Speeding in residential areas endangers both lives and property.

The city of Brookhaven, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, is riddled with speed bumps. Drivers frequently use the quiet residential streets to bypass congested Atlanta thoroughfares. Residents, fed-up with the heavy cut-through traffic, are seeking additional traffic-calming solutions from the city.

Residents in Queens, NY have been waiting four years for a speed hump. The DOT told residents that the hump was close to being installed in 2014 until a resident complained about its proposed location. Decisions about relocation have been hampered “due to driveways and other factors.”

Could an optical illusion be the solution to all of our speeding traffic woes? Not likely.
India’s Transportation Minister just announced that they are going to try using 3D paintings as speed breakers in an attempt to slow drivers on some of the nation’s thoroughfares.

Aurora, Colorado residents are concerned that cars speeding around the sharp curve in their neighborhood are soon going kill an innocent bystander. Within a two-month period, two cars have slammed into two different homes when the drivers lost control of their speeding vehicle. Driver feedback signs could be the answer this community needs.

Speed bumps are the source of many complaints due to noise, wear on vehicles, delayed emergency response and because they cause pain for vehicle occupants.