City makes it faster for residents to seek speed bumps

Houston is making the process of requesting speed bumps for their streets a lot faster and more efficient. Houston is making the process of requesting speed bumps for their streets a lot faster and more efficient. Photo: Hill Street Studios, Getty Images Photo: Hill Street Studios, Getty Images Image 1 of / 42 Caption Close City makes it faster for residents to seek speed bumps 1 / 42 Back to Gallery

Houston City Council accelerated the process of slowing traffic on residential streets Wednesday, voting to streamline a program that gives neighborhoods speed bumps and other "traffic calming devices."

At the heart of the changes is the elimination of a requirement that a traffic and speed study be conducted to prove the speed bumps were justified.

"We believe all local neighborhood streets should automatically qualify for speed control if they want it," Public Works Deputy Director Jeff Weatherford said in presenting the changes recently.

He cited evidence that pedestrians and cyclists are safer with lower residential street speeds.

In the past, neighbors upset at a cumbersome city process were left dissatisfied, especially when the analysis found they didn't have a speeding issue. Even if the study produced a favorable result, it could take nine months to get the speed bumps, assuming there were dollars available to fund them.

Public Works officials estimate the changes will shorten the timeline for each installation project to less than two months in many cases.

Public Works staff will evaluate each request in the future and deliver a recommendation to the district council member on the best tools for the area. Plans are devised for entire neighborhoods, often a 10- to 20-square block area between two major streets.

As part of Wednesday's approval of the $2.3 billion operating budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, council members also gave each of the 11 district members $500,000 from Metro funds meant for roadway improvements.

Mayor Sylvester Turner said those dollars could serve as a key source of funding to ramp up the number of traffic calming projects that get done in city neighborhoods in the coming months.

Installing a speed hump - usually a rubberized bump or smoothed mound of pavement - typically costs about $5,000. The devices in numerous studies have been shown to dramatically reduce speeding in residential areas and are designed not to impact emergency vehicles.