Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Planned locations for speed bump installation

Here's a document showing which streets are getting "Speeding Mitigation", which generally means speed bumps.  The list also includes the streets where speed bumps have been requested but for which the request was denied for one reason or another, which is the overwhelming majority of requests.

http://austintexas.gov/sites/default/fi … 4-2017.pdf

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

A discussion of speed bumps/traffic calming flared up (like a herpes sore - (so they say)) the other day on our Nextdoor.  The comments were not generally in favor of having any traffic calming because it might have unintended consequences (like slowing down the people writing the comments). 

Remember the old Maytag ads with the old repair guy sitting around bored with nothing to do?  That's how I picture the traffic calming device installation workers.  (yeah, I know they do other things too)

This is 'Merica!  We have the right to drive as fast as we want to.  Rights Trump Responsibilities!

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

I feel for ya.  Here in my Central Austin neighborhood the feeling about speed bumps is generally (though not exclusively) favorable.  Some people wring their hands about the impact on emergency vehicles, but I get the impression that they're just using that as an excuse to hide their *real* objection, which is that they don't want to be slowed down at all.

Anyway, regarding your neighborhood's comments, it seems you don't have to go very far to leave Austin and enter Texas.

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

Recently, the city installed speed cushions on St. Elmo between S. 1st and S. Congress.  Then, strangely, they installed -- blocking half of the bike lanes -- pylons that force cyclists away from the cushions and toward the curb.  Now we're getting piles of wet leaves to ride on next to the pylons.  (Street sweepers won't be able to clean that area between the pylons and the curb either.)

I can only surmise that the city got a complaint that motorists were using the bike lanes to avoid the speed cushions.  Rather than widening the cushions, the city decided to make the bike lane less usable.   Kudos, Austin.

Last edited by Jack (2017-11-16 12:07:36)

daveintex13

Member

Registered: 2010-01-07

Posts: 24

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

Thanks for the info. I’m not a great fan of speed humps. But they’re sometimes a necessary evil.

Recently, humps were installed on Georgian which also has bike lanes/parking lanes. So now all the people in cars swerve into the bike lane to avoid the humps. Sometimes a resident will park adjacent to the hump, in the bike lane, on purpose to stop the avoidance behavior. This blocks the bike lane so a person on a bike now has to go out into the lane to go around the parked car. Not ideal but probably better than the hump avoidance behavior.

There’s a hump in front of the house next door to ours on 38.5. Trucks with trailers make a huge crash noise when they hit that sucker even at moderate speeds. It’s a bit unsettling. I’m glad our bedroom is not at the front of our house because these guys zip up and down our street at all hours. Ah, city life. Makes one pine for a quiet cul de sac or at least understand those who do.

There are other ways to slow traffic: pinch points, curves, street trees, narrow streets, ENFORCEMENT, among many others. But none as cheap as humps. So we get humps.

~davew~

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

So if we have speed bumps, what's the solution here?  We could ask Bike Austin to work on it.  How about pylons or some other barrier separating the bike lane from the humps, which don't encroach into the bike lane, and with manual sweeping since the street-sweeping truck can't enter that narrow area?

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

So if we have speed bumps, what's the solution here?

If the problem is drivers avoiding the cushions, re-positioning the cushions so the bike lane doesn't allow a driver to go around them is the obvious one. 
I don't favor pylons in the roadway either encroaching into or alongside of a bike lane.  The pylons make the sweeping impracticable and are themselves a hazard for crashing into/brashing against and falling.  They are even worse when old, dirty, and broken

Regarding sweeping--in the past and I assume still, the city won't respond to a request to sweep for leaves, only other sorts of debris.

Last edited by Jack (2017-11-16 16:15:04)

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

If the problem is drivers avoiding the cushions, re-positioning the cushions so the bike lane doesn't allow a driver to go around them is the obvious [solution].

How exactly could that be done?

daveintex13

Member

Registered: 2010-01-07

Posts: 24

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

A colleague and fellow pedaler wrote the city about Georgian and got this response. Looks like Georgian will be getting “channelizers” like St Elmo:

“We have not yet completed the Georgian Drive project.  In order to discourage vehicles from entering the bike lanes, we will be installing channelizers (plastic curb) with delineators (vertical plastic posts) to physically prohibit vehicles from bypassing the cushions.  The configuration will look like the devices on St. Elmo Street Between S. 1st and Congress which has been very successful.  Unfortunately, our supply of devices ran out before we could install them on Georgian and I do apologize for the delay in completing the project.  Our markings crew is working on securing more devices so that we may complete the project.”

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

Neato.  Thanks bike program.  1) it makes the "bike lane" at the choke point about 1/2 the width--pretty narrow for, say, a trike or a trailer.  2) that 1/2 is the right-most, curbside 1/2. 3) that 1/2 will be filled with wet leaves in the winter months, and if it snows, we are talking instead of snow, slush, ice to ride through ( http://streetsmarts.bostonbiker.org/201 … advocates/ ) -- and it will be filled with other debris all the rest of the time, since it can't practicably be swept. 4)  it has a number of posts along the stripe, a low mounting device that juts out at and angle, and a post at the end of that device--strike the one post and you may fall; when the post is broken, you might not see the "channelizer" in the dark and the mounting device is a fall hazard.  compare:
http://janheine.wordpress.com/2015/06/1 … -cyclists/  5) I see no reason to prefer a channelizer of any kind over a wider cushion.  See, fro example, the wide cushions on Packsaddle Pass--they go from curb pan to curb pan and cause no trouble for a cyclist.

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

If the problem is drivers avoiding the cushions, re-positioning the cushions so the bike lane doesn't allow a driver to go around them is the obvious [solution].

How exactly could that be done?

Place the cushions so that they extend into the bike lane, leaving no space for a car to avoid them.  You might have noticed that on some streets without bike lanes, speed cushions extend almost curb to curb, some having narrow spaces for bikes to avoid bumping over them and some without -- either design works fine.  The pylons on St. Elmo are a (bad) "solution" to a problem created by doing the cushions poorly in the first pace.  Either leave room to go around them or don't.  Don't stick obstacles in the roadway.

Last edited by Jack (2017-11-17 18:20:45)

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

I dunno, seems like speed bumps in the bike lane are a recipe for disaster.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

Here's a speed bump that's gentle when a driver is going the speed limit, and stiffens up for speeders:

.

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: Planned locations for speed bump installation

I dunno, seems like speed bumps in the bike lane are a recipe for disaster.

Well, a "speed bump" can be pretty bad, while the "cushions" are pretty gentle on riders.  "Cushions" with a narrow pass for bikes are all the better.