June 24, 2009
Circles to curb speeding on Chimborazo
The Department of Public Works’ Transportation Engineering Division has installed temporary residential circles on Chimborazo Boulevard at M Street and East Clay Street.
The circles are intended to address speeding. The Transportation Engineering Division is looking for feedback with regard to the circles “as compared to all-way stop sign intersections” at (804)646-0442.
38 Responses to “Circles to curb speeding on Chimborazo”
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YAY Traffic Circles!
BOO 4-way Stops!
Second that, JES. Now can we get a circle at the messy intersection where Marshall meets 23rd?
YAY Traffic Circles!
BOO 4-way Stops!
Was speeding a big issue on Chimborazo? I’m through there all the time and never noticed it.
Great!! Still waiting for the traffic circle at the intersection of E. Clay/Jefferson/N. 22nd (right in front of the new BBQ place and Jefferson/E. Marshall.
At this intersection of Clay and Chimbo there have been some pretty serious accidents over the years. Why are they just temporary?
James – My guess is it’s probably a precursor to the actual building of the circle.
Oops! I forgot…
YAY Traffic Circles!
BOO 4-way Stops!
At least these are real circles instead the strange oblong “circle†on 25th.
yay, traffic circles…we need them on M Street!
@ Ramzi – You didn’t notice because you were doing 50 yourself. ;)
Speeding on Chimborazo and Marshall/Clay/Leigh Streets is bad because there aren’t a lot of stop signs. I see people hauling ass through them all the time.
Yes, speeding is a huge problem, even as far down as Chimbo and Marshall. Slow the hell down already!
Whatever needs to be done to address this problem, I’m all for it.
I think they should put a four-way stop at that intersection. Because people are parked right up to the corners on Chimborazo, when you’re on M, it is impossible to see if a car is coming until you’re halfway in the road. I go through this intersection everyday. The traffic circle is an improvement, but it’s still hard to see whether traffic is coming.
The City put two small circles on Overbrook Rd, they don’t work. People drive over them all the time and still has not slow anyone down. We had the police out there pulling folks for speeding.
Just to add to this thread, my dog was the victim of a hit-and-run on Chimborazo yesterday. (I had a feeling that it was going to be someone’s pet or child that would fall victim to the lawbreaking speeders)
Thankfully, with the help of the folks at the Emergency Vet Clinic in Carytown, she’s doing well and should be back up to speed in a few weeks or so.
In the meantime, may the spells of a thousand witches rain hell down upon the soulless individual who hit my poor dog and fled the scene.
Seriously, this is a life threatening problem. I wonder how many people’s beloved pets and kids being mowed down it’s going to take before action is taken? Is there anything I can do? Can I take down the license plate number of cars that are breaking the law? Would that even matter? It’s amazing that cops are all over the mid-to-upper twenties and Broad looking for people who don’t fully stop. How about enforcing speed limits in neighborhoods?
Jessica @ #14:
It’s simple. How about cops ticket speeders within our neighborhood? Less emphasis on the occasional off-leash dog well inside Chimbo Park and more time focused on issuing speeding and reckless driving tickets within the neighborhood!
CHDrew, I agree with both your posts (16 and 17), except I have not seen a lot of cops on Broad ticketing people. I just missed getting slammed by not one but two SUV’s at 26th and Broad the other morning, both blew through without even slowing down, guess they figured if they’re on Broad (and I’m on 26th trying to get on Broad) that they have the right of way even though the signs clearly state it’s a four way stop.
My other pet peeve for stop signs is 21st and East Cary Streets, it’s behind the flood wall and really demands that all cars come to full halt, but they don’t at all. I’d love to see cops really writing tickets for long enough to make a difference, like over a period of months. I read somewhere that traffic calming works best when that’s done, and that the people who are speeding are usually neighbors. Stop signs and traffic circles only work if they are enforced, otherwise people seem to ignore them.
Really sorry about your dog, hope she continues to make a good recovery.
Within the last week or so, I’ve seen the police sitting on side streets of Broad waiting to pop cars not stopping for the stop signs. I even saw them stop someone yesterday.
Thanks for the get-well wishes for Missie. She’s groggy but otherwise doling well. They really took good care of her at the Emergency Clinic.
Back on topic, why does E. Broad Street have stop signs every block but we can’t get more of them inside the neighborhood?
Traffic circles are not pedestrian friendly at all. I would much prefer stop signs.
CHDrew #20, it used to be that you had to get signatures of pretty much a majority of the blocks that would be affected to get a four-way stop sign. I know that to be the case for the one at 28th and East Grace, but that one went up years ago. I don’t know what the rules are now, and the ones on Broad were not put up that way. You might try calling city traffic engineering (sorry, I don’t have a phone number handy) and ask them how to go about it. Please post back once you’ve got your initiative underway, I’d be curious to see what happens. Oh, and you could also try calling Betty Squire, perhaps she’d help……
edg, I agree with you #21.
Stop signs and round a bouts are bandaides for the problem. We need to put the money we spend on these expensive endeavors into the police budgets so the police can stake out corners and streets and ticket the offenders. Maybe the sheriff’s department can be utilized for these activities when available. We the public can write down license numbers, color of vehicle, make and model and give this information to the police.
this is a great vehicle for venting but we should be calling the police station and our “great policical leaders” pun intended, and letting them know how serious the problem is and asking for more money to be put into the police budget which they cut time and time again. We do not want bandaides we want results, we want tickets written licenses taken away and jail sentences if that is what it takes to let people know we will not tolerate speeders.
Letting our police chief know we expect our police officers to keep our streets safe not only from drugs, and crime but also from speeders. We also need to be proactive and report crime. Last but not least THAT THE LAW WOULD APPLY TO ALL. all
I’ve lived at Chimborazo and Marshall for 3 years now, and have voiced Chimbo Blvd. speeding concerns to the City and to GRTC (they are, quite easily, some of the biggest offenders). There was a definite issue with vehicles racing down the cobblestones all hours day and night. I’ve noticed in the past week that the addition of the traffic circles has significantly reduced the speeding issue and levels of noise in our home (ahhhh!). I’ve also noticed less traffic, so my guess is that the circles are encouraging some drivers to choose alternate routes. Woo hoo! I’m frequently in my front garden, and I’ve enjoyed a week of relatively peaceful gardening. I think the circles are highly successful in their purpose, so I don’t see why stop signs would make a better alternative. They just give buses and others more opportunity for their famous “jack rabbit” starts. I’m sick of the noise and exhaust.
Caroline #23, I like your ideas. Don’t know if the sheriff’s dept. would go for it though…they’d probably want overtime pay. But I really do think people should raise a great deal of noise about the speeding issues up here – and it’ really the entire area, not just some streets. When I lived on Marshall Street, buses were also a big offender. And the traffic coming in on Main Street from the east end is going at least fifty mph, too.
This entire article starts with this:
“The Transportation Engineering Division is looking for feedback with regard to the circles “as compared to all-way stop sign intersections†at (804)646-0442.”
So we should all call that number and voice our concerns, in addition to posting here.
I called this morning and provided positive feedback on the traffic circles.
[...] assume that DPW is talking more about these temporary traffic circles seen in Church Hill and less about the proposed roundabout at Hermitage and [...]
I watched a GRTC bus plow right over the one on the corner of Chimbo and E Clay two days ago. Knocked the paver stones all out of whack on the east side of the circle.
On that note, one of the worst offenders of speeding and stop-sign cruising I’ve seen are the GRTC drivers. Being an avid cyclist and scooterist, I give them a very wide berth when I’m out on 2 wheels or 4.
Just encountered this NHTSA fun fact while doing my online driving school:
“Far fewer crashes occur at intersections with roundabouts than at intersections with signals or stop signs. A study conducted in Maine of 24 intersections before and after their conversion to roundabouts showed a 39% overall decrease in crashes and a 76% decrease in injury producing crashes. Collisions involving fatal or incapacitating injuries fell by almost 90%.”
I’ve heard from neighbors that the GRTC drivers had a bit of a speeding habit up and down Chimborazzo. They’ve logged several complaints. Guess they’ll need to learn to slow it down a few more notches to adjust to the circles.
Circular islands slow traffic on Chimborazo (RTD 7/5/09)
CHDrew#20, the process for getting stop signs on E Broad was that Delores McQuinn decided where she wanted stop signs and introduced a paper to have them installed. I’m sure she was responding to requests from the neighborhood, but she ignored the advice of City traffic engineers who did not agree with her recommendations. She did eliminate the stop sign from the intersection of Broad and 35th once she found out that’s not an intersection, just my front porch. As someone who lives on Broad, I think traffic is worse since the signs went up. If I lived on one of the N/S streets I might feel differently.
I also live in the 600 block of Chimborazo Blvd. The roundabouts have done little to slow traffic. Some people do slow down but many do not. They whip around the circles as fast as they can.
The roundabouts if done properly look at the new roundabouts in Chesterfield County where they were planned. They do slow traffic and look great.
What these roundabouts are doing to the residents on Chimborazo:
They are preventing residents from parking in front of or close to their home.
They are small at best and look out of place.
The problem is speeders. Lets deal with the problem. Give tickets to those who speed. This will make people more aware of the speed in the City (25 MPH) and especially on Chimborazo and will bring revenue into the City. Roundabouts are an expensive bandaide approach to what the real problem is. Oh I forgot its stimulus money they need to spend!!
I also disagree with you that Chimborazo is narrow. It is one of the widest streets in Church Hill. It was lined with trees when my husband and I move here 19 years ago. If you were standing on Broad looking down Chimborazo it was a beautiful site. That is one of the reasons we chose to live on Chimborazo Blvd. There are residents who do not want the traffic circles and I am one of them.
We have become a society where people are not held accountable for their actions. We need to get back to that accountability.
Does anyone know who Valerie Jarrett is, and what she does????
Those little circles they put in are already falling apart, it looks like they’re just brick on sand.
They need to remove some of those stop signs and circles on at least one avenue out of Church & Fulton Hills. It’s ridiculous that there is no quick way for me to get to the interstate in less than 20 minutes!
Garry, the whole point is to slow traffic in residential areas. I certainly would not want to live in a place where people are speeding through to the interstate as fast as they can!