Montgomery County relies on civic groups to collect votes on proposed speed humps and asks the members to watch their fellow neighbors cast the votes, a process that one county resident is calling undemocratic.
Montgomery County has 1,198 speed humps:» 795 standard humps» 373 flat-topped humps» 30 raised crosswalks
Source: Tracy Wroe, Montgomery County
“What’s next? Loyalty oaths?” asks George Vary, who lives in the Springfield neighborhood of Bethesda that has two pending speed humps. “If you tried to do this with the Voting Rights Act, you’d have a federal suit against you.”
The county’s rules call for homeowners or civic associations to go to houses and stay while the residents vote on whether to allow the speed hump on their street. Residents who want to vote privately must contact the president of the association, who will see the final vote.
To Vary, such a process can cause intimidation or harassment on what typically is a touchy issue among neighbors.
The county says the process has evolved as a way to make sure the community has a say but doesn’t require the county to track down votes.
“They are the ones who want the speed humps,” said Montgomery County spokeswoman Esther Bowring. “It’s up to them to gather the signatu-res.”
Sending the ballots directly to residents could cause problems, she said, because residents may say they did not receive the ballots or the county may not receive them back.
Speed humps have been controversial since the county allowed them about 15 years ago. A group called Save Our Streets gathered some 10,000 signatures in a campaign to ban the humps. The County Council issued a temporary moratorium, then issued new rules for the humps in 1998 that limited where they could go.
Tracy Wroe, a county traffic engineer who runs the speed hump program, said the Springfield association leaders have gone to “extreme lengths” to present the proposal fairly.
But he acknowledges it is hard to create a fair voting system, balancing all the needs. “We don’t want to start any animosity in the community.”
He said he was open to other suggestions of how to collect neighbors’ votes, but said that the current system was “pretty well thought out.”
