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by Diana Day

The possibility of speed humps in the vicinity of Memorial Park engaged residents in a spirited debate at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Michael Amezcua, the father of a young child injured on Mariposa in a traffic accident in early April, requested the agenda item at the April 18 City Council meeting. [Read the article Amezcua submitted to inSierraMadre.com.]

Although it remains unclear whether speed over the limit was a factor in the Amezcua incident, the residents at the meeting said that speeding cars have been an on-going problem in the Memorial Park area – on streets like South Hermosa, West Bonita Avenue and Mariposa Avenue – as cars cut through to avoid busier streets.

Speed humps and stop signs, they say, will help slow traffic.

A South Hermosa resident said, “We will put the humps up in the middle of the night. … We’re tired of speeders on our street.”

City Council, after much input from the community – some of it passionate – decided to engage the services of a traffic professional who will conduct a study and then recommend a variety of solutions to address the problem.

“Let’s be as creative as possible … anything possible to mitigate this, including speed humps,” said Council Member Joe Mosca as he helped Council develop a directive for the traffic study. Additionally, he was in support of stepping up police enforcement in the area right away.

This was not the first time Council has heard complaints about speeding from residents around Memorial Park.

After a petition requesting speed humps from residents in June 2004, Council discussed the matter in September 2004. Council decided to increase traffic enforcement and then heard a follow-up report in November 2004. At that meeting, Council asked for traffic education and enforcement to continue.

“I do think that the police did a good job,” said a Hermosa resident. But after a couple of months, she claimed, the police presence was gone. “We need to come up with a permanent solution because a temporary solution is not what we’re looking for.”

Of the possible solutions that were discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, including stop signs, more frequent use of the traffic speed trailer and continued police presence, speed humps were clearly favored by park-area residents.

But according to the city staff’s report, “It is not likely that an installation of speed humps would have affected the outcome of this incident” because “the vehicle was traveling at the posted speed limit (25 m.p.h.), and that the child actually ran into the side of the vehicle.”

“All I know is what I saw,” Amezcua said. He said his son’s impact with the eastbound car left a dent in the left fender and sent his son flying. His son’s shoe flew off his foot in the process. Amezcua’s young son was leaving Memorial Park with his parents at the time of the accident.

Amezcua maintained that the driver was not as “alert as she could have been” and remained steadfast in his request for speed humps around the park.

“Children are [at the park] from morning till night,” Amezcua said.

According to the staff report, speed humps have mixed results, although they “are used widely throughout the U.S. in response to citizen requests for neighborhood controls on traffic speeds.”

The report indicated that speed humps “divert the problem drivers to another parallel street, not solving the problem, just moving it elsewhere.” Also, drivers sometimes slow down only at the hump itself and then speed up between humps to make up for a perceived loss of time.

A variety of people came to the podium to explain drawbacks of speed humps.

Chief of Police Marilyn Diaz said that speed bumps slow emergency response time for police. Steve Heydorff of the Sierra Madre Fire Department agreed.

“We’d avoid them. We’d just go in a different direction,” Heydorff said.

Former mayor George Maurer said that speed humps also present challenges for ambulance drivers, who, when going over speed humps, cannot prevent pain and discomfort to their ailing passengers.

Mayor John Buchanan said that the city needs “good data to know what the appropriate methods are.” During the data-gathering, “some stepped-up enforcement is appropriate,” he added.

Mayor Buchanan also expressed favor for Police Chief Diaz’s earlier suggestion that the police department train a volunteer to measure drivers’ speeds while sitting in an unmarked car.

Council Member Mosca pointed out that Amezcua’s son emerged from between two parked cars just before the accident and suggested that the traffic study consider whether cars should be allowed to park on streets adjacent to Memorial Park during the hours when children are likely to be present.