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Q&A
Council member discusses pedestrian safety and speed bump improvements
1:19:10
·
3 min
Council Member Mercedes Narcisse raises concerns about pedestrian safety, referencing a recent fatality. She suggests implementing steady speed bumps at large corners without traffic lights to improve safety.
- DOT officials explain current turn calming treatments and their design considerations
- Discussion on maintenance challenges and potential improvements for these devices
- Council member offers to share pictures of effective solutions from other locations
Mercedes Narcisse
1:19:10
Thank you, chair, and thank you for being here.
1:19:14
You know you're one of my favorite agencies because I have a lot of work.
1:19:19
So, talking about speed bump I want to start with this.
1:19:23
I have a senior that died recently, January 10th, and her name is Esther Seeley.
1:19:30
So, she was crossing the street, just crossing the street, and the car just hit her and she passed.
1:19:38
It is unfortunate that we have, and and let me be honest, by looking at the video I don't think that person was really speeding, but it's unfortunate situation that happened, but how we can reimagine those large corner when people turning, which I was taught to my, my chair by that.
1:20:04
We have the the little bump that we put at the corner, some of the corners, some of them this shift, and that's steady.
Margaret Forgione
1:20:11
A left turn treatment.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:20:12
Left turn.
1:20:13
So can we actually invest in more steady speed bump at the corner, which I think I'm going to push for that chair, I think we have to work on that, seriously, because I have visited some other country, which I have seen it, and where you have a large corner like this, we don't have a light, maybe we can consider to have that steady speed bump.
1:20:38
Not those little flimsy things that can turn.
1:20:40
I'm sorry to say that.
1:20:42
But I have seen them moving all over.
1:20:44
So when we have people crossing the path, are we considering that?
Margaret Forgione
1:20:49
Yes.
1:20:49
And, commissioner Beeton will elaborate a little bit.
1:20:53
But so those are our turn calming treatments.
1:20:56
And, council member, they're designed not to function as a speed hump.
1:20:59
We want cars to go around them rather than over them.
1:21:03
And we always have to weigh when we install these things.
1:21:06
We have to put in devices that won't introduce a new hazard.
1:21:10
So if it was really jarring and if it was directly in the path of a vehicle, they could actually an injury could take place because of that.
1:21:17
So the the devices we have down are designed to have a car avoid them and go around them.
1:21:24
If they shift, that's not what we want.
1:21:25
We have to go out and repair them.
1:21:27
In snow season, especially with snow plows, that can sometimes happen.
1:21:30
So maybe we need to look at, like, different devices or, how we're maintaining them, but that is the concept of them.
1:21:38
So, Eric, would you like to add a little bit to that?
Eric Beaton
1:21:41
I would just like, we share that goal.
1:21:43
We we do a tremendous amount of maintenance on these, and as we put more and more out, like, that is a big part of the work we do is having to go out and maintain them.
1:21:51
So we we do look around and look for better materials.
1:21:54
If you've seen things, please share them with us, and we'll look into them.
1:21:58
The the thing that's most often a restriction is that we can't attach them to the sidewalk in a way that will block drainage.
1:22:05
So a lot of the things that we may might see elsewhere, don't work with the the way drainage is handled at many of our corners.
1:22:13
So but if there's better things out there, we're always
Mercedes Narcisse
1:22:15
I I have some pictures for you.
1:22:17
I can show you because whenever I visited any place and I see something working, I wanna bring it back to my city because we have to be the best city in the world.
1:22:24
Right?
UNKNOWN
1:22:24
Absolutely.