Residents convince council to install speed humps

Councilman John Perry (Dist. 2) voted against the speed humps.

‘‘If we are going to have the city engineers do the analysis, either we should listen to them or not even do [the analysis],” Perry said.

The city conducted the study after 37 residents from the block of 51st Place filed a petition in August 2007, indicating the desire to have a speed hump installed. City engineers conducted a two-day traffic study in November 2007 and found the neighborhood did not meet the conditions to warrant the installation of the speed deterrent. There was one drunk-driving incident that occurred during the study, Halpern said.

‘‘Speeding was not identified as being a problem,” Halpern said in his analysis memo to City Manager Joe Nagro.

The study found that a daily average of 139 vehicles travel through the block. An average of at least 500 vehicles is needed to warrant a speed hump, Halpern said.

The study found only 6.5 percent of the vehicles exceeded the residential speed limit of 25 mph by more than 5 mph. At least 15 percent of traffic needs to be exceeding the speed limit to warrant a speed hump.

Residents at a special public hearing on March 11 urged the council to go against the study and rule in favor of the speed hump.

Resident Diana Maria said she witnesses speeding vehicles daily.

‘‘We don’t want a [speed hump], we need it,” she said citing the need to prevent speeding cars from hitting children in the neighborhood.

Councilman Patrick Wojahn (Dist. 1), who represents the 51st Place residents, said he was swayed to go against the study recommendations and approve the speed humps because his constituents presented ‘‘compelling testimony about their personal safety.”

Resident Barbara Wall sent an e-mail to convince the council to support the speed humps.

‘‘There are many children and elderly in the neighborhood and I hear speeders all day and all night,” Wall said in the e-mail.

City Finance Director Stephen Groh said the humps are approximately $2,000 each.

Halpern said he is placing the work order for the installation of the speed hump today and they should be in place by June 30.