Does anyone know of any streets in the City of Toledo (not private property) that has recently, say within the last 8-10 months, had speed humps/bumps installed or replaced?
The question is simple. The reason for asking it is a bit longer. If you wish to know, read on.
After years of dealing with terrible speeders on our road and getting no help whatsoever from the city, we found out that if you take out a petition and a certain percentage of households on the street sign it, you then can have speed humps installed.
We went through the process, my wife doing all the footwork of going door to door gathering the signatures. The percentage of those wanting them was I believe around 85%. So, after all was said and done, the speed humps did end up getting installed and the problem of speeders and cut thu traffic was drastically improved and all was well. Actually, all was better than had ever been.
Advance a little over a year later to last fall. The city decided to re-pave our road as a "preventitive" measure. It did not need repaving at all, especially with so many other city streets in dire need of repair. Prior to the repaving they cut out all the existing speed humps. After repaving was done, they came back and replaced the speed humps, even adding an additional one where several had aked for because it was a long stretch where they did not originally place one.
NOW, here's the problem. When they replaced them, they replaced them with new ones that are so low and wide they might as well not even be there. Vehicles float right over them at any speed with little to no effect that they are even driving over a speed hump. The result of course is back to major volume of cut thru traffic and high speed drivers.
I pretty much went thru the roof when this was done. I contacted everyone I could think of pointing out how stupid this was and pretty much demanded answers. I was told several different things, the primary two being that
1- They had gotten several complaints
2- The original humps were installed incorrectly and at an incorrect height according to city code. By the way, most of my answers came from a Mr. Gary Stookey, an engineer for the city.
Well, after a long delay, I did finally get an answer to my request to know and see the complaints. I was told there were no written complaints, only verbal and that there was no record of who made them.
I also have reason to believe that new humps the city have installed after this are much more normal and higher than what we now have. I've also learned thru the grapevine that somone on our street who apparently has clout with someone in the city was the primary person who complained about them and was able to get them put in much lower. It's a classic case of being "who you know".
Yes, I can contact the city to find out the anser to my question but god knows how long it would take and the hoops I would have to jump thru not to mention the frustration I'll be enduring. I believe I know one street in Ottawa Hills that had them recently installed but I'm not sure if the City of Toledo would have done that or the City of O.H.
I have also twice requested that they do the traffic study again, knowing that will PROVE what I am saying. You know, where they put those counter cables across the road? Those gather a lot of detailed information. I've been told both times there is not enough money/manpower to get this done. I offered to do it for them, setting it up and was told there that would raise the ire of the union. They have a freaking answer for everything.
Anyway, any answers, suggestions, etc. would be most appreciated.
Thanks.
What they did was wrong and I'm trying to decide just how much sweat I want to put into fighting it and getting it corrected.
created by angryconsumer on Jul 19, 2009 at 07:53:23 am
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