Drivers in downtown Morgan Hill noticed more than just a little
bump in the road on Monterey and Third street this week with the
addition of new speed cushions designed to make drivers slow down
to the speed limit of 25 miles per hour.
Drivers in downtown Morgan Hill noticed more than just a little bump in the road on Monterey and Third street this week with the addition of new speed cushions designed to make drivers slow down to the speed limit of 25 miles per hour.
So far the cushions have had the desired effect of slowing traffic in downtown with little complaint from motorists, according to city officials.
The “traffic calming” devices were installed Monday in both lanes of Monterey Road as part of a concerted effort to slow drivers and increase safety for pedestrians in the downtown area.
“The whole purpose is to get people to slow down and pay attention to their surroundings,” Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Dave Myers said Tuesday.
While the speed cushions will be noticed by most drivers, they will not impede emergency vehicles and buses with wider wheel bases.
The cushions are made of rubber and are removable. They were a part of a $125,000 traffic taming budget which includes narrowing lane widths downtown from 12-feet to 10.5-feet, trees in the Fourth Street median and bright, white stripes in the First and Third street crosswalks.
Jim Ashcraft, director of public works, said his office initially asked the Morgan Hill City Council to install the cushions at First and Third streets, but only received approval for Third Street through a unanimous vote.
Ashcraft said cushions at First Street could still happen, but the council is at least six months away from even considering it.
Mayor Dennis Kennedy said he would like to see the project expanded to slow traffic down from Dunne to Main avenues. He tried to set aside an additional $100,000 during Wednesday’s council meeting, but failed to get the necessary support from other councilmen.
“We need to do more and quickly so downtown businesses can feel the relief,” Kennedy said. “I would like this to be more pedestrian friendly sooner rather than later.”
Councilman Greg Sellers said while the bumps are a good thing, he wanted to wait and see their long-term effect before adding more.
“It would be irresponsible of us with the budget as tight as it is now to do more,” Sellers said. “Ultimately, what will slow traffic the most is more traffic. I would like to see us increase our efforts to that capacity.”
The Third Street project was budgeted for $25,000 from Redevelopment Agency funds which included putting up signs, buying the cushions, installing them and painting the crosswalks. Ashcraft said the exact dollar amount will not be known until all the bills arrive.
Morgan Hill Police in April launched a six-week campaign targeting speeders in downtown, ticketing 109 drivers for doing at least 15 miles over the speed limit.The speeding campaign arose from traffic studies downtown that found drivers were traveling nearly five miles over the speed limit on average. Out of four intersections studied in December, three had at least two-thirds of drivers exceeding the speed limit. The fourth had less than 30 percent driving faster than 25 mph.
The initial reaction from a few drivers to the new speed cushions has been mixed.
Morgan Hill resident Rhonee Lueero thought the cushions are a good tactic to reduce the amount of accidents downtown.
“I would slow down when I saw a person walking across the street, but there would still be someone who would zoom by me,” Lueero said. “Hopefully this will make things more uniform and people will slow down.”
Driver Gretchen Goslin said she liked the idea, especially since she already got a ticket for speeding through downtown.
“I think this gives drivers an incentive to slow down,” Goslin said.
But not everybody thinks cushions were the way to go for downtown. Former Mayor John Sorci said speed bumps were a bad idea and there are better ways to slow downtown.
“They could have had parking done so there is only one lane and people would have to slow down,” Sorci said. “People have got to be educated in our community.”
Ashcraft did say his office has received two complaints. The first came from someone claiming their alignment was messed up as a result of driving over the cushions. The other said he almost rear-ended a car that stopped hard in front of the bump.
Cheeto Barrera is an intern at the Morgan Hill Times. He can be reached at cb******@mo*************.com.
