A Second Appeal for Carney St. Speed Bumps, Mt. Adams

VoterCam Proposal:  Speed-Bumps on Mt. Adams.  Please leave comments below, and take a quick moment to fill out this survey so we can follow up with you.Click here to take survey

Rationale:  Cars are getting side swiped and residents, including children, are at risk of being hit as vehicles fly down the hill, especially on Carney Street which winds around the corner from Pavilion on a steep downward grade.

Recent Painpoint: This weeked our Honda Civic Hybrid, equiped with two child seats for our twins, was severly damaged by a reckless driver, presumably drunk, who side-swiped the car at 1:30 AM.  A witness saw the driver, a relatively young white woman driving a white four-door sedan, speed down Carney from the Mt. Adams bar district, hit our car, and then immediately flee the scene of the accident.   This is the third time one of our cars has been damaged by cars speeding down the hill.  Many other residents have expressed similar frustration.

Next Steps: 

• Letters will be sent to City Councilman David Crowley, Mayor Mark Mallory, and the Police Liason for Mt. Adams urging that speed bumps be put on Carney. 
• A petition will be shared among local residents to build support for speed bumps.
• The issue will be raised at the next Mt. Adam's Civic Association Meeting

Comments

[Adam Paulisick]

As a new resident to Mt. Adams I couldn't agree more. I love going out and enjoying the spirits of pavilion street and others. But after almost getting run down in the middle of the street a few times by red bull infected drivers I have to agree. I don't have kids but still appreciate my ability to walk and breath and other trivial things the like in my life. Weather has not been the best it has ever been and that only adds to the problem. I hope this happens quickly, I can't imagine the city council wouldn't put this through because of cost... I guess it’s all how you value ($) human life.

[Dave Knox]

Count my support. The speed bumps would be a huge help, especially around the Pavilion/Carney bend. It would also help if the police outside of the bars actually paid attention to who is leaving the bars on a Friday/Saturday nights with keys in hand while completely drunk. With a house on Pavilion, I have watched countless times as our police just watched drunk drivers get in their cars right and drive away.

[Dave Knox]

Count my support. The speed bumps would be a huge help, especially around the Pavilion/Carney bend. It would also help if the police outside of the bars actually paid attention to who is leaving the bars on a Friday/Saturday nights with keys in hand while completely drunk. With a house on Pavilion, I have watched countless times as our police just watched drunk drivers get in their cars right and drive away.

[Rob Seal]

Amen! I don't have kids yet, but I worry about the ones on my street every day. One false step out into the street from between our tightly packed cars and... I hate to think of it.

Visibility down Carney is poor; the hill is very steep, one of the steepest in Mt. Adams; drunk drivers invariably drive home from the bars down Carney; and, worst of all, even good drivers have trouble navigating the slalom created by the haphazard parking and angles.

Enough is enough. Reasonable people can disagree on many things, but it's clear that slower speeds down Carney, "encouraged and suggested" by some speed bumps, would add to the general welfare of neighbors and drivers alike. Let's allocate a few of our dollars, soon, to getting this wrapped up.

[Zand Walters]

I'm happy to support installing Speed bumps on Carney (and Belvedere) for the safety of the children and adults in Mt. Adams. After 18 years of seeing day and night, drivers and taxis who fly down the streets, putting pedestrians at risk and all the other drivers who don't respect the fact that this is a residential neighborhood first, be told by the City of Cincinnati that this is not an acceptable way to live in the City. Speed bumps send a clear message to slow down and that the City believes in the safety of its residents. Why else are our taxes so high (yes, you can tell, mine have quadrupled since I moved to the City but I love Mt. Adams and would like to see the City step in and protect the residents, particularly the children, by installing speed bumps in 2007). Wouldn't it be great to see the City get such positive press as responding to a need to protect children in a high traffic, high risk City neighborhood to make it a more liveable place to raise families? I look forward to seeing the City respond positively to this.

[Amy Hatton]

As a fellow Mt. Adams resident, I can relate to the random, anonymous, late-nigght collisions - as one of my household vehicles has now been hit 7 times in about 5 years (totally about $15k worth of damage) - nearly all in the wee early-morning weekend hours, and none of the perpetrators has ever left identification or contact information. So far, this has resulted in only property damage to vehicles, but with the growing number of casual visitors to the hill on weekend nights, it's likely only a matter of time until the damage becomes far greater than that which can be reasonably easily resolved via an insurance claim and a few days "in the shop". Please take steps to protect Mt. Adam's residents, like other Cincinnati neighborhood residents, and implement speed bumps - for the safetly of the community, our residents and our property.

[Megan Milar]

As a mother of two children (as of late this week) under the age of 20 months I fully agree with the safety issue. We have resided on Ida St. for over 5 years and are also without a garage. Ida Street is probably the longest straight stretch in Mt. Adams and cars easily pass our house at 40+ MPH. It's a huge hazard when you're trying to load kids into the car! You have our full support for improving the safety of our neighborhood! Just please include other streets in your quest for safety!

[Judy Finn]

We fully support this initiative. Our children are 3 years old and 2 years old and they love to walk around the neighborhood. Speed on Carney Street is a problem all times of the day. Many daytime delivery trucks come flying down the hill. I can't imagine why City Council would not be in favor of something that makes our neighborhood safer.

[Bob Schneider]

I am a Mt. Adams homeowner (8 years), have experienced two incidents of auto damage to a car parked on the street, and care for two grandsons, 4 and 1 y/o, 10 hours per day, 5 days per week. Unlike the other posts, my wife and I live on a cul de sac and have one off-street parking spot.
Nevertheless, while I have a great sympathy for the situation we all encounter, I do not support either the reality or the theory behind speed bumps. There are several reasons for this:
1) it is passive policing and in this case affects both conscientious and careless drivers equally--punishes everyone. The remedy is the manpower and the commitment by the city and the police department to patrol and enforce the area. With police presence (yes, maybe our taxes would rise) we could protect our kids and cars, but also rollup drunk drivers as well;
2) I question whether or not the reality of speed bumps matches the expectations. I have occasion to travel Edwards Rd in Hyde Park and see people proceeding at excessive rates of speed, despite the bumps. Some almost seem to be hill hopping for the pleasure of it. I doubt that a drunk driver will be any more cautious than folks in Hyde Park at 11:30 in the morning.
3) It is discriminatory and elitist, unless the city is willing to install and maintain bumps in all trouble spots where children reside or where car damage is rampant. That includes Madisonville, Over-the-Rhine, the west end, etc. All parents should be entitled to equal municipal protection for their children. I suspect that is an impossibe expectation for the city to meet.
I believe that it is fundamentally a policing issue. The bar owners are unlikely to be able to identiy and confront all those who should not drive; I'm not sure that's their responsibility, and I think that the shops and nightlife on the hill help create the atmosphere that drew us to live here.
Therefore, I can possibly support alternative solutions for our problem, but not speed bumps.

[Shelly Hyslop]

Thank you, Pete and Erika, for spearheading such an important issue. As a Mt Adams resident and parent, I share their concern for the safety of all Mt Adams residents and guests -- particularly the children. I reside on Belvedere with my husband and son and we too experience speeding drivers -- particularly taxis -- disrupting the wonderful living environment that Mt Adams has come to represent for my family. If I feel unsafe with a few taxis speeding, I can't imagine how the residents of Carney feel as they endure not only speeding cars but repeated damage to their vehicles. How easily could that have been a child instead of a car sideswiped? Will the City not act until tragedy strikes? I urge the City representatives to take action NOW to help ensure the safety of Mt Adams residents, families, and guests.

[Kevin Dugan]

Glad to read no one was in the car any of those three times, but I can tell you that I lived on a street with speed humps and it did not stop the problem, but it definitely helped.

[Rob]

Street Calming =
http://cincinnati-oh.gov/transeng/pages/-7166-/

Q: What can be done to slow traffic on my street?
A: Traffic Engineering will investigate the need for additional speed limit signs or a change in the speed limit. If our investigation indicates excessive speeding is prevalent then a referral can be sent to the police district for enforcement. The traffic calming or speed hump program is suspended at this time. Traffic Engineering will take requests for future consideration and forward them to our manager of the street calming program in the Transportation Planning Section of DOT&E. Contact Jon Childress at 352-3729 or at 352-6229 of the Division of Traffic Engineering to initiate this process.