City speed hump study will begin this spring at recreation locations

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City's experiment with speed humps won't begin until spring at the earliest.

The city plans to erect temporary speed humps at the Ga. Highway 74 South soccer complex and at Kedron Fieldhouse. But those areas won't be busy again until the weather gets warmer, noted City Engineer Troy Besseche.

At both sites, the traffic flow will be studied to determine if the humps could become an effective traffic-slowing tool for residential streets.

Besseche said the results of the study would be brought before the city council so it could determine whether or not the speed humps are feasible.

"We're planning to evaluate the effects of the temporary speed humps and go back to council," Besseche said.

Speed humps run from 14 feet to 22 feet in length and are used to slow down traffic, Besseche said. The devices would be limited to residential roads and would not be used on collector roads, the engineer added.

"A speed hump is significantly longer than a speed bump," Besseche said.

Longer speed humps are less jarring to vehicles, according to information from the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Some successful hump designs are between three and four inches off the ground and 22 feet in length.

That length includes six-foot ramps on either side, giving enough room to hold the entire wheelbase of most passenger cars, according to the ITE.

Those humps also tend to be the most effective as judged by the ITE.

Standard-size humps are generally 12 feet in length and have a parabolic construction.

The test speed humps the city is considering using would be constructed of recycled plastic and rubber, Besseche said. Actual speed humps, however, are made out of asphalt.

Gwinnett County is successfully using speed humps in approximately 100 neighborhoods. They were limited to subdivision streets instead of primary response routes for emergency vehicles.

The catch with the speed humps as a solution to slow down motorists comes from a funding angle. The Georgia Department of Transportation has indicated it may not approve street repair funds from the Local Assistance Road Program on streets that have humps.

In September, the City Council passed a traffic complaint resolution program where many traffic complaints from residents must be addressed by the city engineer. So far, Besseche has worked on three different citizen traffic complaints about speed and volume on roads in The Marks, Kedron Hills and Ardenlee subdivisions.

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