Speed humps make some happy, drive others crazy

Plenty of people are ecstatic about the speed humps that have appeared recently in the Huntington Forest community of Gastonia.

Then there are homeowners such as Jane Bloss, who doesn’t mince words when someone brings up the obstructions in her neighborhood.

“I detest them,” the Linsbury Court resident said from her kitchen table Wednesday. “It drives me nuts. Because they’re overkill.”

Compare that to the outlook of her neighbor around the corner, Bob Gray, who recently applauded the installation of a speed hump within view of his home on Hickory Hollow Road.

“Cars were flying by here all the time before they were put in,” he said with a shake of his head. “You can definitely tell they’ve made a difference with people speeding.”

Therein lies the evidence of speed humps being one of the most contentious subjects in existence among people who live in municipal subdivisions. To some, they are valuable assets that prevent foolhardy speed demons from racing down a street and clipping another vehicle or even a human being with a tragic result. To others, they are an unnecessary nuisance brought about by people who have too much time on their hands to worry about exaggerated threats.

“They’re probably one of the most controversial things we do,” said Gastonia Assistant City Engineer Gary Saine. “Every year when we put them in, I get at least 10 complaints. Either we put in too many, we didn’t put in enough, they’re too high, they’re too low, why did you put one in front of my house, why didn’t you put one in front of my house.

“People love or hate them.”

But Saine also said they work.

“We’ve done studies after installing them,” he said. “And they are effective at reducing speeding.”

Steady pattern

In Gastonia, the city installs an average of 12 to 15 speed humps per year on a street-by-street basis. That’s been the norm for the last seven years, when the city resumed its speed hump program after taking a break during the Great Recession.

Gastonia budgets $30,000 a year for the program, and installing a single hump costs anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000. The city typically exhausts its funding limit each year, and backlogs have emerged at times, though there is currently no waiting list of approved projects.

“We take them on a first-come, first-serve basis,” Saine said.

A street that is approved for the program might get one hump, two, or several, depending on how long it is, and other factors. But a qualifying street must first meet a long list of requirements.

First, a property owner along the street has to approach the city and ask for speed hump consideration. That street cannot be a state highway or major road, or be situated along a Gastonia Transit bus route. And speed humps cannot be installed on a street with a speed limit higher than 25 mph. So if a street has a 35 mph limit, at least 75 percent of the property owners along it must sign a petition for the speed limit to be reduced before humps can be put in.

Meeting the criteria

Once an inquiry on a qualifying street comes in, the city installs a temporary device in the road to monitor both vehicle traffic counts and vehicle speeds over a seven-day period. That’s always conducted when public schools are in session.

Streets must have between 500 and 3,000 vehicle trips per day, and there must be a clear trend of vehicles speeding down the route during the monitoring period, Saine said.

If those statistics check out, at least 75 percent of the property owners along a street must sign a petition in favor of receiving speed humps. If that’s achieved, the city hires a contractor to install the humps, with the residents or property owners paying no direct costs. Three to four speed humps can typically be installed in one day, and Gastonia is currently relying on a 4- to 4.5-inch-high design that allows vehicles to roll over the hump safely at about 20 mph, Saine said.

Even when a street is approved, picking locations for the humps takes some careful thought.

“We try to get them at least 250 feet away from an intersection, and then depending on the length of the street, we try to get them on every block or every other block,” said Saine. “But you can’t put them in front of a driveway, on top of a manhole or above a water valve, so there’s a lot we have to consider, piece by piece.”

The newest speed humps in Gastonia were installed on Hickory Hollow Drive a couple of weeks ago. Around the corner, residents of Creek Ridge Drive have also applied, and the city will begin considering that request soon, Saine said.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em

Curtis Vernon has lived on Huntington Drive — the longest street in Huntington Forest — for 25 years. He said speeding used to be a lot more of a problem in the neighborhood before a second access was built to Hudson Boulevard a number of years ago.

“My children are grown and have moved away, so I’m not as concerned about it anymore,” Vernon said of speeders.

But he acknowledged lead-footed drivers can still be a problem along Huntington Drive. And if someone asked him to sign a petition in favor of speed humps, he said he would probably support it.

Not far away, Carla McGilton lives with her husband and two children on Cross Ridge Drive. She said she understands putting speed humps on main subdivision roads, but doesn’t see as much sense in installing them on cross streets such as her own.

“If they were going to put in more than one on our street, it wouldn’t seem like a good idea,” she said.

Bob Gray said he has enjoyed seeing cars be forced to slow their roll past his home since the speed humps were installed there. He doesn’t see them as excessive in any way.

“They only put in two of them,” he said. “I’m happy to see them.”

But people like Jane Bloss, an 11-year resident of the neighborhood, will continue to protest the measures. She said she drives up and down Hickory Hollow Road multiple times a day to get home and back, and never sees children playing. She also feels the street is wide enough to safely handle 35-mph traffic.

“I’ve had lots of conversations trying to be nice about it, understanding that some streets may need this,” she said. “But not all streets need this.”

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or on Twitter @GazetteMike.