How to stop speeders?

[Art Mulder]

The police won't agressively patrol. City councils are deaf. Any ideas -- legal ones -- to make 'em ease up on the gas pedal?

Kinda tough to do anything if the City Council isn't on board.

The best option I've ever come across for "traffic calming" was in Edmonton. They had a grid layout on streets in parts of the city, and they had constant problems where people would get off the main road, and be zooming along the side street which paralleled the main road.

The city hit on two options. One was to put these long/shallow speed bumps in the road. Not the 12" wide 4" tall bumps that you get in parking lots, but bumps that were about 4 FEET wide, and just a few inches high. At moderate speed you barely notice them, but if you hit them at any speed it feels like your car is about to fly off into the air. Very disconcerting. (or so I'm told.. )

The other option they had was to put LARGE planters along the side of the road. (see the diagram below) These would intrude a bit into the road and force you to wiggle your way around them. Again, they could be positioned so that at a reasonable 25-30mpg you could cruise around them, but at speed... forget it.

traffic-calming.jpg

Other than that, I'd suggest things like rumble strips, or a big fluorescent sign that warns of the hill, or maybe get a flashing amber light installed.


Of course the geek in me would rather that they install radar activated spike belts that emerge when it detects a car at 5-10mph over the speed limit...

[Lee Schierer]

I would be very cautious about doing anything privately. If your efforts cause an accident you could be in for major trouble.

I would suggest dropping letters or stopping to visit everyone along the road and have them sign a petition regarding more speed enforcement. Politicians will listen to the voters if there are enough of them. I would drop a copy of the petition off at the local police department as well. Call the local TV station(s) and appraise them of the situation, perhaps they will do a story that will stir up the city government or police to take action. Point out that the traffic citations could be a good revenue stream for their over spent budgets.....

[Harry Hagan]

1.Hold a special election and vote out the current city council members that aren’t responsive to the speeding problem.


2.Pass an ordinance requiring speed bumps


3.Install speed bumps.

[Pat Germain]

IMO, the absolute only real solution would be to put a road around your town to divert the traffic. Yes, it's expensive. And town merchants would probably complain because all their customers are driving around them. But that's the only real solution.

[Jason Roehl]

Not such a bad Idea.. There are some folks that still think those rubber hose traffic counters they stretch across the road are speed indicators. Lay a black rubber hose across the road and see what happens!

If there are two of those counters running parallel about 2' apart, they're counting AND measuring speed for average purposes, but not tying speed to particular vehicles. If it's a single rubber hose, they'd have to know the vehicle's wheelbase to measure speed--and the wheelbase is very different from vehicle to vehicle.

[Horton Brasses]

Someone near me went out and bought a sign that flashes the speed and hung it in their front yard. Worked wonders. I have no idea where they bought it or how much it cost. Locals caught on pretty quick; but if you moved it around every few days it would look more official.

[Brad Wood]

1.Hold a special election and vote out the current city council members that aren’t responsive to the speeding problem.


2.Pass an ordinance requiring speed bumps


3.Install speed bumps.

^^ this ^^

I don't know about #1, but if the whole community gets together you should be able to manage 2 and 3

[Mike McDonough]

Im thinking IEDs.

[Myk Rian]

You could stand there naked

And what, hold the pipe 3' off the ground?

[Brian Darold]

Im thinking IEDs.

Thank you Mike! I was taking a drink of water when I read your post and now I have a pile of soggy papers on my desk. Too funny!

Brian

[John Baranowski]

Get the city to install stop sign(s). That is what they do around here. People may still run the signs, but they at least slow for them.

[curtis rosche]

get a sign that says speed enforced by air (helicopter)

make your own speed bump,,,

rent a jack hammer, or buy some m80's and drill a hole in the pavement that is just deep enough to fit the whole thing in, set it off, the pot hole will slow them, and if you leave the peices of rock, that will also do it.

[Dana Decker]

get a sign that says speed enforced by air (helicopter)

make your own speed bump,,,

rent a jack hammer, or buy some m80's and drill a hole in the pavement that is just deep enough to fit the whole thing in, set it off, the pot hole will slow them, and if you leave the peices of rock, that will also do it.

[Bill Cunningham]

Well, as a last resort you could visit the local donut shop and offer to buy a round in exchange for some speed enforcement

[Michael Gibbons]

Like said earlier, speed bumps about 4" high, spread far enough apart that they can't get back up to speeding until they are out of the slow speed area-about every 200'.