ISLANDS, BUMP-OUTS TAME A SPEEDWAY

August 10, 2016, by Markeshia Ricks- "Instead of zooming by as usual, drivers approached with caution a new square island in the middle of the street just a few feet away from the intersection of Chapel Street at Alden Avenue. That new driving pattern is just what the city's engineer, traffic chief and nearby neighbors had in mind. Instead of a straight shot from the traffic light from Central Avenue all the way to Forest Road, drivers suddenly had to slow down this week to maneuver their cars closer to the sidewalk, to get around the islands. They then had to drive back through a newly narrowed intersection at Alden Avenue and Chapel Street. Once they cleared the intersection, they had to do the same thing to make their way to Forest Road. Giovanni Zinn and Doug Hausladen stood at the corner of the now narrower intersection of those two streets Tuesday explaining how the two brand new man-made islands in the street and sidewalk and the nearly 10-foot extension of the sidewalks into the street known as “bump-outs” came to be slowing drivers down. Zinn said that the high rate of traffic and speed on Chapel Street heading toward Forest Road, particularly in the area around Alden Avenue, had been a nuisance for nearby neighbors for some time. The city put in a radar speed alert sign, which in addition to telling drivers when they exceeded the 25 miles per hour speed limit, collects data for the city. Hausladen said city officials learned for sure that drivers had a habit of routinely speeding through the area, just as neighbors had anecdotally reported." Click HERE to comment and read full article

Click HERE to read the full article and to comment.