NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Some West Nashville residents said they’re fed up with speed bumps in their neighborhood.
A Change.org petition that’s taken aim at speed bumps in West Nashville neighborhoods has gained hundreds of signatures within just one week. Longtime Nashville resident Bill Vandiver has led the charge on what he called a growing issue.
“You just wake up one day and you turn down a street that you’ve driven on every day for thirty years and all of sudden it’s got seventeen speed bumps on it,” Vandiver told News 2.
Vandiver claimed the speed bumps lead to car damage and slow down emergency vehicles.
Since the installation of the speed bumps, some have asked for action from the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT) — the agency responsible for area traffic calming measures.
The petition has called for more publicly announced community meetings, alternatives to speed bumps if changes are needed in an area and approval from 75% majority of the community when voting on a new change.
“NDOT needs to have a minimum amount of replies,” Vandiver added. “They should be held accountable to get a minimum amount of replies from people because if it’s the will of the neighborhood for them to have speed bumps…then that’s the will of the neighborhood. But if it’s not the will of the neighborhood and it’s only the will of a handful of people, I think that’s a problem.”
However, NDOT claimed their neighborhood traffic calming program already heavily involves the community in the decision making process and existing bumps have proven effective in slowing drivers down.
An NDOT spokesperson sent News 2 a statement in response to the petition:
“Our Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program is one of our most popular programs at NDOT and relies heavily on community engagement from Nashville residents. For each street’s project, a minimum of two community meetings are held, and residents are asked to vote through a balloting process where 66% of homeowner participants must approve the installation of the traffic calming devices. Speed cushions are a primary type of traffic calming intervention used here in Nashville and we are finding them to be very effective at lowering measured speeds on streets with a documented speeding problem. You can find out more about neighborhood traffic calming here: https://www.nashville.gov/departments/transportation/plans-and-programs/traffic-calming
Speed cushions are designed specifically not to damage motor vehicles when driven over at an appropriate speed. We have had no documented issues with speed humps slowing down emergency response times. The reason we leave gaps in speed cushions is to allow vehicles with wider track widths, over 72”, to pass through without having to slow. This allows vehicles such as fire engines and ambulances to pass through without slowing while even the largest pickups tracks are forced to navigate our neighborhood streets at safe speeds.”
For residents like Vandiver, the conversation is still far from over.
“I’ve had a lot of people come out and say, ‘We agree with you; something needs to be done,'” Vandiver said.
