The speed humps on Summer Avenue, a long and busy street that carries traffic from the Belleville line to Bloomfield Avenue in Newark, start right after you cross Elwood Avenue in the city's North Ward.

Another one is just after Delevan Avenue, and yet another after Chester Avenue, all three installed last year to slow motorists driving like they were on the highway.

Some respect the hump. Most don't, however, particularly the young, reckless motorists. "They just go through it like it's not there,'' said Carmen Pagan, a resident.

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The scary part is that the cars' pace picks up again after the third hump, and residents at the next intersection - Summer and Arlington avenues - are pleading for a fourth.

"Every day, we live in fear,'' said Carmen Rodriguez, a resident who said she has collected 400 signatures on a petition. "It's crazy. We've gone to meetings. I'm fed up.''

Newark police set up a speed radar sign on Summer Avenue to remind motorists of how fast they are traveling.

It's the talk of the neighborhood, from the corner store to their front stoop. Tires screech and the noise disturbs residents, but worse is the menace as the cars hurtle through. A lady almost was hit this summer; a kid, too. Drivers have blown past the traffic light at times and driven around school buses picking up kids, even when the bus driver has parked the bus on angle to deter them.

"I carry my (4-year-old) daughter across the street,'' said Melissa Santiago. "It's too dangerous.''

Willie Cruz had to buy a new SUV this summer after a speeding motorists crashed into his Jeep Cherokee that was parked in front of his house on Summer Avenue, a few doors down from Arlington Avenue. When he came outside, the driver of the speeding car had fled and his vehicle was on the sidewalk. "That's something I didn't want to see,'' he said.

North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos knows it's a problem, noting that Summer Avenue is the only street in his ward that has three humps close together.

"It's such a long block, but they still manage to speed after the hump,'' Ramos said.

He has put in a request to the city's Department of Engineering to consider a fourth hump on that stretch of Summer Avenue.

Kimberly Singleton, manager for the Division of Traffic and Signals, said the Summer and Arlington avenue intersection will be evaluated by a traffic study to see if it's suitable for a hump. If it is, Singleton said, that site will be added to the list of neighborhoods it has identified in need of them.

Singleton said there are 150 requests for speed humps across the city, but her division will be able to install only 35. That work, which cost $10,000 to $15,000 per speed hump, should start next spring and be completed by the summer. The city does not know how many it has throughout the five wards.

State guidelines for speed humps say they are available only on residential streets with fewer than 2,500 vehicles per day. And they will be installed only if 100 percent of homeowners and 67 percent of renters who live near the speed hump sign a petition. If case residents want one, Singleton said a request should be made in writing to the Division of Traffic and Signals.

Two years ago, Newark started installing speed humps because the rumble strips it had been using were wearing out, Singleton said, and the hump proved to be more effective in slowing motorists.

Throughout the North Ward, where 15 were installed last year, Ramos has requests for 120 speed humps and he knows the need is growing in areas that were once industrial and are now residential.

"Whatever we have in the ward is not enough,'' he said. "We need more.''

Residents at Summer and Arlington avenues say the city has to do something for them now.

Gilbert Santiago, a Belleville resident, doesn't drive this way anymore.

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"They drive like they got their license out of the cereal box,'' Santiago said.

Capt. Derek Glenn said the traffic unit patrolled the area Friday, issuing 10 summonses for moving violations, but none related to speeding. He said they were aware of resident concerns from neighborhood meetings.

"We're more than willing to work with the community to do things necessary to improve the quality of life in the area,'' Glenn said.

After patrolling the neighborhood, the traffic unit left a radar speed sign at the intersection so motorists will know how fast they're traveling.

It's not a speed hump, but it's better than nothing.

Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or

nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL