Houston officials are speeding up the process of slowing down residential street traffic.

A laborious process to improve traffic and safety by installing traffic calming devices such as speed humps is radically streamlined in a new method by the city's public works department, unveiled Monday at a City Council committee meeting. Council members applauded the change.

"I am doing the happy dance here," said District K Councilman Larry Green, whose southwest Houston area has some of the neighborhoods that have waited the longest for relief from speeding cars.

In the future, with demand for speed humps high in many areas, public works will no longer require traffic and speed analyses, Public Works Deputy Director Jeff Weatherford said.

"We believe all local neighborhood streets should automatically qualify for speed control if they want it," Weatherford said, citing overwhelming evidence that pedestrians and bicyclists are safer with lower residential street speeds.

The change would only apply to residential streets, where speed humps are practical, and not thoroughfares that carry far higher volumes of traffic.

Council district members have contributed their own funds for area improvements to expand the installation of speed humps and other traffic-slowing measures.

Green, chairman of council's transportation, technology and infrastructure committee, said the roughly $6 million set aside for traffic calming can now build more projects faster by eliminating the cost for the studies and getting work on the street faster.

During the presentation, District C Councilwoman Ellen Cohen stressed any cost savings should not benefit public works.

"I expect it to come back to my district service fund," she said.

In the past, neighbors upset at a cumbersome city process left dissatisfied, especially when the analysis found they didn't have a speeding issue. Residents would then frequently ask public works to assess the traffic volume, which would start the process over again.

When requests from residents come to public works in the future, staff will analyze the neighborhood and then deliver their recommendations to the district council member for the area.

Pending approval from the council member, public works will then coordinate construction of the speed humps. Plans are devised for entire neighborhoods, often a 10- to 20-square block area between two major streets.

Public works will normally consider streets best suited for traffic calming, then locate humps, medians and other features where appropriate to control speed.

District D Councilman Dwight Boykins noted the city successfully dealt with fast-moving vehicles crashing in a curve in a residential area by placing the humps not at the curve, but leading to it.

Residents cheer move

Under the old way, however, that process often took nine months to complete. The new method that reduces studies decreases it to six to eight weeks, but it also puts a lot more responsibility in the hands of council members, Cohen said.

Those who have languished in the slower public works process cheered the move.

"We see you all as a better coordinator," MacGregor Park resident Tamara Bell told council members.

Bell is leading a Super Neighborhood Alliance committee on health and public safety.

Council members, at their discretion, could still ask public works for a traffic and speed analysis or host a public meeting. In some cases, that need for community feedback could lengthen the process, when needed, officials said.

"It is nice to have an expedited process ... but it is important to get that word out," at-large councilman David Robinson said.

Each costs $5,000

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 management.

Streamlining installation of speed humps is the latest effort to make public works pick up the pace.

In January, Mayor Sylvester Turner - hours after taking office - announced a 24-hour turnaround for citizen-reported potholes. In less than three months, nearly 2,400 potholes have been filled after residents reported them, out of roughly 14,600 filled since Jan. 4.

Other issues, however, continue to complicate Houston streets. Bell noted the neighborhood improvements have helped slow traffic in MacGregor Park, for example, but safety along Scott remains a priority.

Pending construction on Texas 288 - where the Texas Department of Transportation has agreed to let a private firm build a tollway in the median - could send traffic streaming onto local streets.

"That is going to have a huge impact on our neighborhood," she said.

Robinson, citing the 288 project as one example, said ongoing construction on roads and to develop properties is leading to some of the traffic on residential streets.