Sylvania city officials to replace speed humps on Maple

8/21/2012
BY KELLY McLENDON
BLADE STAFF WRITER

When a few homeowners who live on Sylvania’s Maple Drive expressed concerns tonight to Sylvania City Council about fast drivers on their street, city officials had a proposed solution — the reinstallation of speed humps.

Maple Drive resident Dan Oberly addressed council at the meeting, saying he is distressed by the behavior of some drivers.

“We can handle the volume,” he said, about the amount of traffic that travels the road, “it’s the speed that is actually the problem. It’s the people that are going down that street at 50 to 60 miles per hour. Those are the people that are putting our children in danger.”

“We got a couple people that were drag racing down our street. It puts those kids in danger. We had a Toledo Edison person that was hit by a car a couple weeks ago,” he said, adding it is also difficult for residents to leave their driveways when speeders are on the roadway. It was unclear whether the Edison worker was injured.

But Kevin Aller, director of public service for the city, addressed the concerns with a presentation about a petition to install speed humps on the street, a less aggressive version of speed bumps in that they are more gradual. Both are used to slow down traffic, but speed humps are typically applied to residential areas.

The street previously had the speed humps, but they were eliminated during a repaving, Mr. Aller said.

Many studies have been performed on Maple Drive, to see how much traffic passes through the street and at what speeds the drivers were going.

“The first study period was during the St. Joe’s Festival,” he said. “You can see the traffic is quite excessive. The second study period was while school was in session. The vehicle count is at almost 15,000 vehicles per day,” Mr. Aller said.

However, he said using the data, the road was shown not to have a speeding problem, by definition.

“85 percent of the vehicles that are traveling that street are driving slower than 35 miles per hour,” he said. “The traffic volume does indicate that the street’s being used as a cut-through. It still shows that it doesn’t have a speeding problem as established by the criteria.”

The city sent out survey cards to homeowners, asking them how they felt about reinstalling the devices. He said 81 percent returned the cards with a positive response.

“A strong majority of the current owners are in favor of having the speed humps replaced,” Mr. Aller said, adding that the department also recommends re-installing the devices.

Mayor Craig Stough endorsed the director’s recommendation, and said an ordinance to pass the installation should be drafted by the Sept. 4 meeting. He pressed Mr. Aller for when the speed humps could be installed.

“The preliminary layout that we put together this time is for three speed humps and our staff will be prepared to move as soon as legislation is passed,” Mr. Aller said.

Contact Kelly McLendon at: kmclendon@theblade.com or 419-206-0356 or on Twitter at @MyTownSylvania.