Salt Lake speed bumps may end up as roadkill

It could be the end of an era in Salt Lake City this month — the speed-bump era.

As the City Council weighs its budget options and looks for places to cut in a tight year, one proposal on the table would kill the city's much-debated traffic-calming program.

The council could save $100,000 in ongoing cuts by cutting the program and recapture another $206,000 by reclaiming unspent traffic-calming allocations. The move would also make way for a developing council plan to create residential speed zones throughout the city — a plan that would get drivers to slow down but would be less intrusive than speed bumps, council members say.

"In the four or five years it's been in existence, (traffic calming) has caused more problems than solutions," Council Chairwoman Jill Remington Love said.

In those residential speed zones, fines would increase similar to ticket hikes that motorists receive when caught speeding in school zones.

But while cutting traffic calming would gain more than $300,000 for the city's cash-strapped coffers, in the process it would crush the hopes of the 100 neighborhood groups on the city's waiting list for traffic-calming measures.

While those measures can include traffic-slowing devices other than speed bumps — such as medians or corner buildouts — most of the people on that list want speed bumps on their neighborhood streets.

Love and councilman Dave Buhler probably have more traffic-calming devices in their council districts than anywhere in the city. For instance, on 1500 East between 900 South and 1300 South there are seven speed bumps or raised crosswalks.

The bumps cause headaches for drivers and force cars off residential streets with speed bumps and onto residential streets without them, Buhler says.

The two council members persuaded the council to pass a temporary traffic-calming moratorium last year, and now they are looking to end the program altogether. Still, Love notes the council maintains the option of resurrecting the program later.

The pair has often complained the city's traffic-calming division isn't creative enough in its efforts to get people to slow down. Instead of always turning to invasive speed bumps, they say, the division should consider less-intrusive measures such as stop signs, "slow" signs and more electronic speed boards.

Councilwoman Nancy Saxton agrees.

"They've been less than creative in what to do about traffic calming," she said. "So, in a tight budget year, if something's not working, it gets cut."

In the meantime, council staffers are developing Love and Buhler's plan to create residential speed zones throughout Salt Lake City.

"What we are trying to do is not to penalize everyone but encourage them to slow down," Buhler said. "It's the alternative to having more speed bumps on all our residential streets, which seemed to be the direction we were moving in."

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