For Windsor Terrace Residents, Speed Humps Still Cause For Contention

Tempers were still high at a second Community Board 7 Transportation Committee meeting discussing the possible installation of up to 15 speed humps throughout Windsor Terrace in order to slow traffic through the neighborhood on Tuesday night.

The locations under review, which include Windsor Place, Terrace Place, Sherman Street, Seeley Street, Vanderbilt Street, Prospect Avenue, 18th Street, 19th Street and Kermit Place, were first identified by those who attended the NYC Department of Transportation presentation organized by Councilmember Brad Lander‘s office at PS 130 in January.

The meeting, which was held at Holy Name Church on Prospect Avenue, started off with the good news that the DOT has conducted a study on the intersection of Windsor Place and 8th Avenue and decided to install a traffic signal.

Over the course of the two hour meeting the CB7 Transportation Committee, the DOT representative, and community members worked through a list of individual feasible locations for speed humps in the area.

Several residents continued to express concern about possible noise problems associated with speed humps, as well as the potential for structural damage due to the vibrations the humps would cause. The DOT representative assured the group that they’ve never heard from structural engineers that speed humps cause any significant damage to infrastructure.

Others wondered why the DOT wanted to install speed humps in the area rather than stop signs and traffic signals, which many thought would be a better approach. The DOT explained that there are a specific set of guidelines from the State that have to be met in order to put in a traffic light or stop sign. And that many of the intersections mentioned had been studied but did not meet the requirements.

However, the DOT did note that amount of traffic on Prospect Park Southwest might have been affected by the closing of the park to car traffic this summer and would consider restudying intersections along the thoroughfare.

The only potential speed hump locations that were roundly supported by the group were along Seeley Street. The DOT noted that the 85th percentile speed, meaning the speed 85 percent of drivers were driving at or under, for street was 31mph, 6mph over the citywide speed limit.

Many felt speeding was a big problem along Seeley and also wondered why the street needed to be two-way. “People fly down Seeley Street!” exclaimed one resident.

Another resident, who brought her young son along, said, “Speed humps will make the 15 percent that are speeding down the street to slow down and keep my son from getting hurt.”

There were mixed reactions from residents to most of the other potential speed hump locations, so the Community Board planned to continue discussion regarding those locations at another meeting.

The DOT said that the primary season for installing speed humps has passed, so any humps determined necessary by the Community Board would probably not be installed until 2016. Community Board 7 president Daniel Murphy said the community board would meet as many times as necessary to make sure they heard discussion on all of the potential sites before making any decisions.

If you are unable to attend upcoming meetings regarding the speed hump locations, you can weigh in via email at bk07@cb.nyc.gov. You can also track all the requests made to DOT for Windsor Terrace and Kensington through Councilmember Lander’s office here.