Berkeley found a new way to torment motorists: speed tables.

The city that has graced scores of blocks with flower pot barricades, traffic circles, roundabouts, bulb-outs, median barriers and speed bumps now has a new way to discourage people from driving. Or at least driving fast.

The city council aproved $39,000 last week to install three 22-foot-wide mega speed bumps called speed tables, intended to slow cars but allow emergency vehicles and wheelchairs to pass unhindered.

If the speed tables work, drivers can soon expect to see them throughout town.

"There is a loud cry in Berkeley for traffic calming," said city councilwoman Susan Wengraf. "The problem is endemic. It's in every neighborhood."

The problem is that Berkeley, like many older Bay Area cities, has narrow streets, winding streets, large swaths with no sidewalks and an army of bicyclists, wheelchair users and pedestrians vying for road space with cars.

The result is that speeding, or even driving the residential speed limit of 25 mph, can cause big problems. And speed they do: on some blocks, such as Rose Street at Ordway, motorists cruise an average of nearly 30 percent higher than the posted speed limit, according to a study by the city's transportation office.

The city has already adorned dozens of residential intersections with traffic-slowing features like roundabouts, traffic circles and concrete barricades - most of which double as flower pots - that have been frustrating motorists since the 1970s.

Speed tables are intended to slow traffic midway through the block, where cars tend to move the fastest. They're 3-inches high, and include 6-foot ramps on either side. They're so big that a car and most trucks can fit comfortably on top, which eases the ride for fast-moving emergency vehicles.

It also provides a smoother ride for wheelchair users, who've complained that speed bumps can be painful for people with arthritis or other joint disorders.

The speed tables will be installed on Rose near Ordway, Forest Avenue near Claremont Avenue and Josephine Street near Vine Street.

This isn't the end of traffic-slowing measures, however. The next step is lowering speed limits, officials said.

"I know I'm an old man, but my God, people get up to 30, 35 mph," said City Councilman Laurie Capitelli. "Frankly, I'd really like to see the speed limits lowered and see people drive slower."

All the uproar about speeding leaves some to wonder: If everyone in Berkeley is against speeding, then who's doing it? Officials say it's mostly motorists looking for shortcuts across town. Berkeley's freeways are on the outer reaches of the city, forcing thousands of cars onto surface streets.

But if driving on residential streets becomes nightmarishly prohibitive, then won't traffic just increase on the main thoroughfares and cause gridlock? Yes, but that's where most of the traffic should be: on the major avenues, not in quiet residential neighborhoods, officials said.

"It's the 'you can't get there from here' phenomenon," said Karl Reeh, head of the Le Conte Neighborhood Association, which boasts 10 traffic circles. "The speeders are the only ones who get frustrated by all the barricades and traffic circles. For most everyone else, it works very well."