Winston-Salem City Council member Dan Besse proposes proposes a ban on neighborhood requests for speed bumps to control speeders:
Besse told members of the city’s public works committee on Tuesday that speed bumps are bad policy and shouldn’t be an alternative when people complain about speeders on their public residential streets.
“There are better means for dealing with problem drivers that do not slow down our emergency-response vehicles,” Besse said, outlining his objection.
What’s more, he said, when one neighborhood gets speed bumps, the folks who live on other nearby streets start asking for them.“It spreads and creates a nightmare for everyday drivers who live in the neighborhood and, more critically, for emergency response vehicles who have to negotiate that maze responding to a fire call, a police call or emergency medical condition,” Besse said.
There are other options, fellow council member Derwin Montgomery noted—curb extensions, creating a center island and putting in a four-way stop at intersections. Mind you I was bracing for it, but it didn’t come up—one of JLF’s all-time favorites (insert sarcasm)—- the traffic circle.
