Rule changes may spur speed bumps in Montgomery
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
October 20, 2009
More speed bumps are probably coming to Montgomery County.
The County Council is expected to pass new rules Tuesday that would allow speed bumps to be placed on streets with less traffic than currently required and require fewer neighbors to approve them.
County Executive Ike Leggett proposed the rules in February, saying he was concerned that some streets with speeding problems weren't eligible for speed bumps because they weren't used frequently enough. Currently, bumps are allowed on roads that carry 100 vehicles per hour.
Here, there, everywhereThe new rules would institute a sliding scale that takes speed and traffic volume into account, so that streets with as few as 50 vehicles an hour could have bumps if the average speed on the street was at least 17 miles an hour over the limit.» Montgomery County: 1,198 speed bumps for 2,400 miles of county road: one speed bump for every 2 miles of road
» The District: 868 speed bumps for 1,100 miles of city road: one speed bump for every 1.26 miles of road
» Arlington County: 260 speed bumps for 371 miles of county road: one speed bump for every 1.42 miles of road
The new rules also would limit the say of residents who live on side streets from where bumps have been proposed. The rule change is designed to prevent situations where a small number of people on side streets thwart the effort of the majority of residents on a street who want speed bumps installed.
That rule change has riled some residents, who have asked that entire neighborhoods be allowed to vote on proposed new bumps. Others have said the county already ignores the rules in place to exclude side street residents.
"I don't understand how in Maryland, the Free State, and in Montgomery County, which prides itself in its inclusiveness, we can so blithely exclude impacted local residents from a process, and disregard a democratic process, when it suits a pro-speed hump policy agency and those that are administering it," Bethesda resident Martin Stern wrote in a letter to the County Council criticizing the county's Department of Transportation.
Speed bumps have a contentious history in Montgomery County. Their use was approved 15 years ago, and bumps were quickly installed around the county. But their ubiquitous use caused a backlash, and a group called Save Our Streets gathered 10,000 signatures to ban the bumps. The County Council issued a temporary moratorium, then new rules in 1998 limiting where they could be placed.
